Millennials: Recapturing the Generation that Checked out of Church – The Young Adult Harvest that We Dare Not Miss, is a recent book by P. Douglas Small. The book provides a broad overview of the social-theological issues that seem to have captured the Millennials, and the issues that divide them from previous generations. It seeks to measure the generational differences and addresses the critical recalibration needs of the church to seriously attempt to reach the Millennial generation. The second part of the book explores the ideological context in which the Millennials were raised – postmodernism and how we respond.

Forty-percent of the Millennial generation is either irreligious, disconnect, or indifferent. Only 15 percent are committed. Thirty percent are selective adherents, picking and choosing faith elements, constructing their own faith with Christian-biblical components. Fifteen percent are ‘open.’ This portends an even greater crisis for their children, Generation Z, born in 2000 and forward.

We are at a crisis point, with an aging church that desperately needs to learn to be missional, or we may lose the nation altogether. There are hot potato issues that have distanced Millennials, using on the social spectrum. Most are hungry for faith – but authentic faith. They are hungry for missional engagement. They are loaded with questions. They struggle with the church more than with Christ.

Reaching them will require a new wineskin, and in the discovery of that wineskin and its shape, we may find our way into the future and the creation of a transformed, missional church.