Millennials: We’re not just the #blessed generation.

Picture your quintessential Millennial – iPhone 6 in one hand double tapping a photo on Instagram, while in the other – scrolling through their Twitter timeline on their iPad. All this of course, while walking to the local Starbucks on the corner of X St. and Y Ave. before getting on the Metro to get to their downtown office building.

This is my generation. We are obsessed with current events, what’s going on in the fashion industry, who is holding peace talks in the Middle East, and yes – even how mom & dad are doing.

I live and work in arguably the most powerful city on Earth (not to mention – most aesthetically pleasing). I run into men and women, who are professional story tellers, consultants, bankers, and lawmakers. I am surrounded by not only power, but intellect, and opposing views. I am daily tried and tested in not only my rationale, but also in my ethics, my faith, and my self-actualization. I’m faced with the challenge to refine and select the information I chose to learn and adhere to. I look into facts, read articles, get informed, learn public policy, and dig deeper into my faith every day.
I am a Millennial.

I chose to submerse myself in knowledge, and I chose to not adhere to your stereotypical mold of conceitedness and apathy. I’m open minded, but have a firm foundation. I find identity in not where I am in life, but who I am inside, and what I believe. I am open to discussion and other views, and understand that we all have our own choices to make.

I am but a part of the generation of innovators, theologians, lovers, doctors, scientists, and politicians that will shape the world to come.

This is my generation and we’re doing big things.

Millennial Jesus? Are we cultivating a culture within the Christian community that allows for discourse, disagreement, and conversation? Within our own faith, and cohort of ages, we see that millennials are the most educated generation this nation has ever seen; but, with that, we are also the least-religious. Why is that? Why is it that we have the world at our fingertips, yet refuse to broadly see that there might just be something bigger than our immediate spheres of influence?

NPR is currently examining how the ‘New Boom‘ of young people mainly between the ages of 18–34 are transforming not only our country, but our culture, and how we view our world. According to their research, there are more than 80 million millennials here in the United States. 80 million people in the melting pot that is America. 80 million people who are trying to find their niche in our society, claim their voice, and leave a remnants of their legacy. America is changing, and we need to move forward with the shift of culture. No longer can we use old ways of spreading the Word. We must adapt, and see that with the advancement of technology, and the advancement of media, a fire is stirring within the generation that wants to feel needed and content.

The Washington based news agency claims that “43% of millennials are nonwhite” – this gives the western church a little hurdle to overcome. “Because millennials look different en masse than generations past, the future is going to look different too.” We are already starting to see a shift in the way we ‘do church.’ We are no longer clinging to the past, but moving forward using technology, media, and grassroots. We are still rooted in a firm foundation, but our messaging is changing – and it’s beautiful.

Tim Keller, head pastor at New York City’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, said at the Q Commons event, that “Every person, religious or not, is worshiping something to get their worth.” Is the church taking that to heart? I say yes. Yes, we are. The predicament we face now is how do we meet a generation where they are at? This is the question that believers face every day. To what extent can we meet our generation without compromising our foundation? Such is the thin line we walk on.

This a trying, and humbling, season the church is facing, and I, for one, am excited to see where it takes us. We’re moving through the city streets, and the country roads. We’re moving through the online cloud, and taking it to the ends of the world.

Whether we like it or not, as uncomfortable as it may be, culture is changing and with that our means of messaging needs to as well. We aren’t called to be comfortable, we’re called to be in this world and not of it. Start living life, and making Him known. Stop planning, and start living.