Preaching to the Younger Generation

Dan Garland over at LifeWay recently compiled some material in an article on the importance of preaching. You can read the full article here. He included an excerpt from my book, Essential Church, which I’ve posted below.

Is preaching still important? Yes! Even in today’s hyper-techno-driven conversational-wiki-culture, preaching is of the utmost importance. Of the several church-related or pastor-related issues noted by dropouts, preaching came up several times as a critical issue in retaining college students and young adults.

While most think that students are turning off the sermon, tuning into something different, and dropping out of the church, nothing is further from the truth. Students in the church, both high school and college, view the pastor’s sermon with a level of importance. They have their eyes on him and what he is saying to them (or not saying to them, for that matter).

It shouldn’t surprise you that biblical truth must be conveyed to all age groups, especially through to sermon. But shockingly, students desire for the pastor to preach to them! The problem is not a willingness on their part to listen. Rather, the problem is the fact that the pastor is not engaging them where they are. The charts below reveal how two separate age groups view the importance of their pastor’s sermons.

Not only are the pastor’s sermons critical to the assimilation of those under 18 (above), they gain a level of importance with those between the ages of 18 and 22 (below). In other words, the older teens become, the more important it is for the pastor to relate to them through the weekly sermons.

As seen in these two charts, the spread between dropouts and those who stay increases with the age of the student. This spread is driven by how well the pastor’s sermons relate and engage each of these specific age groups.

Particularly with those over 18, how well a pastor engages and relates to this age group correlates directly with how long they will stay in the church. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these teens will “grow into” the message you preach. Our research proves the opposite – the older the teen, the more critical it is to reach them at their stage in life. Rather than creating sermons for the 45 and above crowd, gear sermons or segments of sermons specifically for the teens in your church. The pastor’s sermon still remains one of the lynchpins in keeping students in the church. As a result, the buck still stops in the pulpit with this generation.

Stalled Megachurches

An article in USA Today suggests that megachurches may be taking micro dips in attendance. While the number of megachurches has grown (from 600 in 2000 to more than 1,250 in 2005), recent data indicate attendance growth rates are slowing or have stalled. You can read the full article here.

Ed Stetzer, head of LifeWay Research, points to the lack of transformation as one of the possible catalysts for the decline:

You can create a church that’s big, but is still not transforming people. Without transformation, the Christian message is not advanced.

I don’t think megachurches will vanish any time soon. Nor do I believe they should. But one of the weaknesses of these larger churches is the tendency to drift towards a transactional environment – a feel good show and message in exchange for bodies in the seats

I agree with Dr. Stetzer – all churches (large and small) should be places of transformation, not transaction. The body of believers should exemplify how God can transform people. When churches simply transact for attendees, growth will ultimately stall.

What do you think? Is the megachurch trend slowing? Will they take on different forms, such as multi-sites? What will the future hold for these larger congregations?

Women Quitting Church

The Wall Street Journal reported on some unique research by Julia Duin, compiled in her book Quitting Church. One excerpt from the article caught my attention:

Women in particular leave evangelical churches, Ms. Duin says, because they are asked to do too little by their churches. Ms. Duin, who has a seminary degree, writes: “I have been one of those unwanted women for years.” In fact, Ms. Duin’s interest in her subject is partly autobiographical: She left a church in 2001 and didn’t find a new one until 2007. She has lived through the process of church-quitting, and she has interviewed a lot of people with the same experience.

The surprise in her findings is not that men or women leave the church because they cannot find a place to contribute. Previous research validates that low expectations correlate to low assimilation. What alarms me is the specific exodus of women. Given that, in most churches, the majority of attendees and worshipers are women, her findings should make us all think how to disciple and empower women better in the church.

Church Attendance and Student Achievement

The Sociological Quarterly published a notable research report on student achievement and church attendance.The bottom line of the report: students who attend church weekly have higher GPAs. Additionally, they are less likely to drop out of school and connect better with other students in school. The entire journal article can be read here.

LiveScience.com also reported on the research:

Students who attend religious services weekly average a GPA .144 higher than those who never attend services…The study does not suggest God is smiling on the students, per se. Rather, it identifies several reasons the students do better:

- They have regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models.
- Their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends’ parents.
- They develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values.
- They’re more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

What I find most fascinating about this secular research is the importance of attending church. In order to raise student achievement, the student must be attending a church regularly. An emphasis on religion was not enough to boost student achievement – they must be involved in a local church.

This empirical tidbit from the Sociological Quarterly presents a catch-22. As revealed in the research in my book, Essential Church, 70% of those that drop out of the church will do so between the ages of 18 and 22. Now even secular research is demonstrating the need for churches to connect better with the younger generation. And it’s distressing that the church is losing these students at the same time that it could be providing them the most guidance.

The Managerial Hurdles to Church Work

Much debate exists in the academic world on the difference between managers and leaders. Some say the leader position and the manager position are mutually exclusive – managers are concerned with how things are accomplished; leaders are concerned with what is accomplished. Others see overlap between the two roles. Regardless of the technicalities of the debate, much church work must be managed. And this work can become a hurdle for the church leader without proper management.

In doing some reading for my PhD, I came across a great selection on the nature of managerial work in organizations. When I read Gary Yukl’s chapter on this subject in Leadership in Organizations, it resonated with me regarding the church. So I’ve adapted his section for leaders within the church. Listed below are several managerial hurdles for the church leader. This list is not comprehensive, but it shows how the management of work itself can become a hurdle for leadership. Perhaps it will connect with you as it did with me.

The pace of requests is frenzied and unpredictable. Pastors and church leaders receive a ceaseless amount of requests for information and guidance. These requests range from the vitally important to the mundane. They come in the form of authorizations for critical ministry decisions or non-essential matters of church facility operations. The difficulty arises when the leader becomes so inundated with requests, that he or she can no longer discern what is primary, secondary, tertiary, or totally imprudent. In this scenario the leader ends up fixing the squeakiest wheel.

The substance of work is disjointed. The sheer variety of tasks involved in ministry can become daunting. Church leaders will go from counseling someone on serious personal issues to calling the air conditioner repairman. The disjointed nature of ministry work can make the leader lose sight of the true vision of the church.

The work can become reactive. Sometimes pastors and church leaders can feel more like firemen than gospel workers. They react to “fires” in the church because of the gravitational pull of immediate needs. Clearly, some situations require leaders to put a hold on everything. The problem, however, surfaces when this reactive management mode overtakes and detracts from the proactive planning necessary for leading God’s church.

Decision-making and planning can become too incremental. Rarely are decisions in the church made cleanly and distinctly within a specific timeframe. Rather, decisions evolve over time and across many segments of the church. Autocratic leadership seldom benefits the church, but prolonged decision processes can become an emotional drag on a leader. As a result, the leader spends an inordinate amount of time managing and assuaging the emotions of others.

Leading and ministering within the church is a privilege. And the ever-changing culture makes for exciting ministry opportunities. It is my hope and prayer that I lead through the challenges rather than simply managing the work.