Preaching to a Millennial Audience

From The Forum Magazine, Spring 2015 - view the full issue here

Over spring break at the college where I work, one of my students posted a short video every day of the wilderness adventure trip he was leading for fellow students. Each video was about a minute and a half long, and some were set to music, some had running commentary, and some were just a series of quick, playful images. All were entertaining.

When I saw him back on campus, I complimented him on the videos. “No big deal,” he shrugged. “It was fun. I did it all on my phone.”

This student isn’t a film studies major, he’s not been trained in directing or editing, he has just come of age when fluency in the digital arts is a given.

The college students (a generation sometimes called “millennials”) to whom we preach generally have a knowledge of and expertise in technology that far surpasses that of most of their preachers. The challenge—and the problem—comes when we preachers (Boomers and Gen Xers) think we have to keep up. It is tempting to think that if we don’t have the pop and sizzle in our sermons that most people can find on their Facebook pages, then they are going to tune out. So we try for snazzy presentational technology, we shoot a video, we hunt the web to find just the right image for each point in the sermon—and the result is that we spend a lot more time trying to be impressive than in actually being present.

Here’s the truth: millennials can get pop and sizzle anywhere. What they need from their preachers is the Gospel. Our sermons don’t have to be high-tech. They need to be high-presence.

We need to demonstrate by our preaching that we are present: present with the text, present to their lives, and present in the preaching itself.

Present with the Text

Fewer and fewer of our listeners know the Bible. I am preaching to more and more students who came to Christ in high school or who have a varied ecclesiastical heritage or whose parents are not believers. These students love Jesus, but they do not know the Word. To be present with the text means that I may need to explain what a gospel is, and how many gospels there are, and what has happened in the story up to this point. I want to be present with the text in such a way that everyone is invited into the story.

Our listeners will take our cues on how to handle Scripture from what they see us do in our sermons. If we only use the passage as a jumping-off point for what we want to say, our hearers will think that is a legitimate way to approach Scripture. If we wander through many different texts as a way to prove what we want to say, they will do so as well.

Instead, being present with the text means that we show our listeners what it means to humble ourselves before a text. If it has hard spots, we say that. If it has been misinterpreted at times, we say that. Millennials (just like everyone else) love honest engagement with the text. Show them that you have read commentaries this week, name the scholars you lean on, or put the titles of the books you used in the bulletin or online. Remind them that we read and study Scripture in community with the church. This is a desperately needed corrective to the “what does this passage mean to you?” vibe that is too present in young adult small groups. Show them what it looks like to open a passage, go deeply into it with the help of others, and love the God who shows up there.

Remind them that we are present together before the text because we fully believe that the God whose story this is will reveal more of himself through our study of it.

Present to Their Lives

This generation has big questions about hell, sexuality, other religions, the meaning of marriage, racism, and what kind of life they should be striving for. One student wonders if the Muslim friends she met on her semester abroad are really going to hell. Another is gay and loves the church but is terrified of how he would be treated if he came out. Others go to a worship service in which no mention is made of a painful racial incident and they wonder if the Christian church has the courage to wade into hard conversations.

Millennials are hungry for doctrine—what do we believe and why? How do I approach my agnostic roommate? Why aren’t we universalist? Is the Bible worthy of our trust? Is God? If our sermons do not name their deep questions and wrestle with them in a way that is honest and engaging, they will think that the church (or God or their preacher) has nothing to say to the things that really matter. And this generation wants to live lives that matter! They are very aware that the material goods available to their parents may not be available to them. They are very aware that their earning potential may never match that of the generation before them. If their lives will not be measured by the normal measures of North American success, how will their lives be measured?

They are eager for preachers who call them to live boldly for Jesus. They are eager for preachers who live boldly themselves. They are eager to live lives that can be measured by the things that matter to God.

Do you see how our digital expertise or lack thereof is practically meaningless in the face of these questions?

Being present to their lives means listening to their questions and their pain and their hopes, and bringing those things into our preaching.

Present in the Preaching Itself

So much of the communication we receive is professional and polished. The ESPN guys have smart suits, the CNN anchors have snowy teeth, the politicians read off their teleprompters, and everything goes exactly as planned.

Most millennials can see through this. They have edited enough videos and filtered enough photos to know that anyone can make anything look good. What they are really hungry for is something that looks real. In preaching, this means they are looking for someone who loves them and loves Jesus and loves the Gospel and is going to do his or her best to preach a sermon that demonstrates those things.

Most of us who preach came of age when sermons were fully written manuscripts that were delivered from a pulpit. The preacher usually stayed in one spot. The emphasis was on word choice and sentence structure. We had to remember to make eye contact.

To be present in the preaching itself is to risk preaching without polish. To think about preaching without notes, even if that means that the perfectly turned sentence never gets uttered. To think about preaching without a pulpit even if that means we aren’t sure what to do with our hands. To think about using a prop, even though people from older generations may find it gimmicky. To be present in the preaching itself is to think less about getting the words perfect and more about getting the Word across.

Can’t put together a good PowerPoint? Don’t know how to shoot a video? Haven’t tweeted in your life? No problem. You’re not a teacher, a film director, or a politician. You’re a preacher: preach. Preach the Gospel. Love them, love Jesus, love the church. And leave the fancy video-making to them.