Why Millennials are Leaving the Church:

If you are brave enough to say goodbye life will reward you with a new hello.

Paulo Coelho

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.

Ephesians 4:17-18 NRSV

The rise of the ‘nones’

Society is such a dynamic and complex unit. It is made up of a number of subgroups, like millennials, therefore, conflict is inevitable. There are a lot of factors that come into play in maintaining harmony inside of a group. There’s the age, gender, belief system, and affiliations, among others.

The church, being part of the entire landscape of society isn’t spared of conflicts that arise within one. As a matter of fact, we could take this discussion into different subject areas. However, we will put focus on the dynamics of today’s dominant generation—the millennials.

The nones are composed of those who identify themselves as atheists, agnostics, or those who literally have nothing as a response when asked about their religious affiliations.

In recent years, there has been an undeniable decrease in the number of actively participating youths in the church. According to Robert Jones, Daniel Cox, Betsy Cooper, and Rachel Linesch (2016), the trend of the ‘unaffiliated’ began to rise in the early 1990s. These unaffiliated, are also referred to as the nones. The nones are composed of those who identify themselves as atheists, agnostics, or those who literally have nothing as a response when asked about their religious affiliations.

The rate of the religious change accelerated further during the late 2000s and early 2010s, reaching 20% by 2012. Today, one-quarter (25%) of Americans claim no formal religious identity. This group this single largest “religious group” in the U.S. (Jones, et al., 2016)

Comparing survey results done by the General Social Survey in 1986, 1996, and 2006, and the PRRI/RNS in 2016, it is very evident that we are currently at an all-time high with the number of nones over the past decades.

In addition to that, perhaps due to the influence of social media, millennials tend to be easily swayed by what the ‘majority’ is thinking. Bandwagon mentality is very present in the millennial group. What others think becomes part of their decision-making process.

Reasons to detach

From the previous chapter, we’ve learned that the millennial generation is groomed differently as compared to its predecessors. They have a strong sense of entitlement. With the onset of technology, information is readily available to them which then gives them a sense of ‘freedom’ to absorb and act upon what they strongly believe to be the best for them.

Studies revealed numerous reasons why today’s generation seems like they are leaving the religion in the flock. While politics is considered to be one of these factors, there are more underlying social factors that contribute to the detachment.

Read this blog: Church Faux Paus Millennials Hate

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