3 Tips You Need to Attract More Millennials to Your Church

Millenials are one of the most talked about generations we’ve had in quite some time. You’ve heard the rumors of how they are lazy, self-absorbed, over-protected, and want to graduate college and make a 10-year salary without putting in their dues. Each of these stereotypes has a bit of truth in there for segments of the generation, but I believe the majority of churches are completely missing the boat on reaching the millennial generation for Jesus. Read on for our 3 tips you need to attract more millennials to your church.

Spend the time and money to make a great website

Thom Rainer of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote on his blog the 7 deadly sins of a church website that “most church websites are terrible” and “most church leaders don’t grasp the value of a website to get guests to their churches to hear the gospel.”

While the truth hurts a bit, it’s never been more evident in how the current millennial generation engages with our churches. This generation has grown up at the same time as the tech revolution has swept the world and they have high expectations for everything they do online. A great website helps you attract millennials in your community and serves as the first impression many people ever have of your church. I created a short 4-minute clip that digs more into the issue of what happens when you don’t keep your church website up to date.

Barna has completed study after study suggesting a large decline in church attendance in this generation, yet among the millennials that do commit to churches — an unrelenting passion for Jesus that hasn’t been around for years. This speaks to the importance of this generation and the reason why we need to give special attention to how our churches are reaching them.

Empower millennials to take risks

Millenials love to take risk and be challenged, but your church is probably giving the impression of a soft, feel good environment. While it’s great to establish a safe and comfortable place for guests to encounter Jesus, the Gospel is full of polarizing verses and hard faith challenges. This generation absolutely loves a challenge so don’t sell them short.

Using your website, email, SMS, etc. you can easily engage this generation in a variety of ways. Let them come up with ideas and run with them, give them the reigns to lead community service project, or help them launch a new ministry that impacts the world. Our churches are super inward focused when it comes to finances, but a church that will invest financials resources in millennials and their ideas and dreams is a church that deeply cares and believes in this group.

Challenge millennials to read and share Scripture on a daily basis

One of the best ways we believe you can engage your audience is to get theme excited about reading and sharing Scripture every day. In my own life as a millennial I’ve seen how this completely reshaped my journey with Jesus. Previously I would read the Bible on Sundays and maybe a few times during the week if I remembered. Now, I engage with God’s Word daily because sharing verses with my wife and friends as I read as helped me apply it much deeper to my daily life.

Scripture tells us that any Word from the Lord that goes out into the world will not come back void. So get your church focused on spreading God’s love through reading, texting, messaging, instagramming, tweeting, snapchatting, and so much more. All the ways to reach people are green lights to spread the Good News.

These are just a few tips on how to attract more millennials to your church. There are millions more, but the summary of this is: don’t give up on a generation that needs Jesus and is willing to follow Him fervently with the right environment, challenges, risk opportunities, and dedication to God’s Word.