Well Informed- Religion 3.0

Well Informed- Religion 3.0

It has been speculated that the Millennials haven’t taken to religion like previous generations. An article in the Huffington Post has said that “Millennials are much less interested in organized religion — and also less interested in spirituality in general.” The article goes on to say that the decline has been seen more in women than in men. An article from NPR suggests that the percentage of adults who are affiliated with a religion has gone down 8 percentage point, dropping to 77 percent.

A correlation can be made here. As time goes on, technology has brought us access to more information, and that information has brought men and women alike to a find their own opinions about religions and their histories, claims, and cultures. Another point could be that people are shifting from devoting their time to finding love for a divine entity or finding truth in another person, to devoting their time to finding themselves.

An article in the Washington Post claims that “cooler bands, hipper worship, and edgier programming" in churches has backfired, causing people to leave those churches. The article goes on to claim that terms such as “market share” and “re-branding strategies” can be found in church staff meetings, making the whole thing seem like a business instead of a place to go and find peace and serenity. They also talk about a study that says that 67 percent of millennials prefer the "classic church" vibe over a "trendy" church vibe. These findings are parallel to how people are reacting to companies that are putting their ads in Snapchat stories or in the middle of viral videos.

When a place of worship is viewed as a business, people consider places of worship as inauthentic. People can be entertained wherever they please via phones or tablets, and many don’t think a church is about entertainment, but rather a place for truth and deep contemplation. Whether church houses are businesses or not, what they are selling or what they are preaching needs to be authentic and time-tested. It is the same reason why so many people flipped their lid when Coke changed their formula. Authentic continuity is a thing that people need. Old formula Coke.

People feel broken at one time or another in their lives. There are certain places they go or certain things they do to cope with being broken. Finding a place to turn inward is still something many people need in their lives, and as generations are being brought up, people are starting to realize that it does not have to be in a church house. Forums have been well rooted in these types of conversations, and blogs formed, and even Facebook can set the tone for this sort of mindset of inward reflection. (Though not everyone agrees with this point.)

People are now realizing that the production value of a church sermon is not the key here, and neither is streamlined worship on an app. Authenticity, self-evaluation, self forgiveness, and self esteem are being discovered, and preached in a sense, by people who do not affiliate themselves with a religious sect. The truth we are looking for is coming from sources other than holy books and sermons.

Amen