The Millennials – A Brief Review

July 5th, 2011 by Stevie B

I am really happy to have a Kindle and use it extensively, and as a side effect or consequence, I’m unable to buy all the books I want to read since the pace I read them at. So as a result, I have taken advantage of opportunities I find online to find deals on books or free public domain ones, and that’s how I came across The Millennials. I got it for free one week, but then quickly found the next week it was back up to $11.99 on Amazon. I’m glad I got it though, because once I started it, I couldn’t put it down.

In fact, the readers of Fire Press and my personal blog should anticipate a piece I’m currently writing about the Word of God and changing technologies, very similar to a previous post Dave Edwards wrote recently, only I’ve got a different spin as well. Nothing new or heretical, don’t worry!

From the back cover of the book:

At more than 78 million strong, the Millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—have surpassed the Boomers as the larger and more influential generation in America. Now, as its members begin to reach adulthood, where the traits of a generation really take shape, best-selling research author Thom Rainer (Simple Church) and his son Jess (a Millennial born in 1985) present the first major investigative work on Millennials from a Christian worldview perspective.

As a Millennial (is that what the old people are calling us these days?) myself, I was fascinated and said “hmmm!” to myself very often as I read things in this book, and started to understand myself a little better in the regard that I’m learning I’m not weird, but it’s just that many in my generation are just like me in regard to my passion for authenticity, but yet are tired of church as usual and business as usual, when it comes to things surveyed in the book. Among their findings:

Here is our dilemma. If most religions, particularly Christianity, are identified by their service to others, and if most Millennials desire to serve others, why is not the vast majority of this generation serving actively in a local church? Less than one-fourth of all the respondents indicated that they are in a religious service each week. Indeed the great numbers of Millennials have some spiritual identity, but they are avoiding organized religions like local churches in great numbers as well. From our earlier research, we found that this generation is likely the most “unchurched” generation…

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