Real Millennial Pastors of Churches for Millennials

Articles abound about engaging the next generation known as Millennials (loosely defined as people born between 1980 and 2000, that’s 14-34 years old) in the marketplace and workplace as well as in religion and faith; pundits and experts have published many ideas and theories and trends about their behaviors and preferences.

But where are the churches actually effective in contextualizing faith for the Millennials? If finding a list of churches for millennials was hard for me, it’s too hard. If it’s not on the Internet, does it exist? 🙂

The closest thing I’ve found that goes beyond tips and ideas is the 20schurch.tumblr.com blog that chronicled the Summer 2014 road trip of a trio of church connoisseurs. The churches they visited became the initial source for my building this list of millennial churches::

And every church would need to have a lead pastor or pastoral team (or some kind of a group that serves the pastoral functions) and hearing from millennial pastors would beget the best learnings. All that to say, someone who isn’t a Millennial (because s/he is older than 34) versus someone who is a Millennial, may both be capable of leading Millennials, but there’s an innately profound difference. Perhaps this short list could serve as a starting point of conversations with real Millennial pastors:

• Rev. Erik Parker is The Millennial Pastor @ millennialpastor.net
• Chris Martin blogs @ millennialevangelical.com
• Jeremy Steele is Next Generation Minister at Christ UMC (Mobile, AL) + blogs @ http://jeremywords.com
• Sam Rainer is senior pastor at Stevens Street Baptist Church (Cookeville, TN) + blogs @ samrainer.com
• Matthew G Scott @ matthewgscott.com

Know of any others out there? Please add a comment and freely share as you’ve freely received.

Plus: PBS video segment: Millennials and Religion (Religion & Ethics Newsweekly @ November 7, 2014) ~ has an interview with Erwin McManus of Mosaic LA

Aside: you might have seen those articles circulating with like “Why Millennials Are Leaving the Church,” “5 Reasons Millennials Stay Connected to Church,” “7 Patterns Churches need to Change to Increase Millennial Generosity,” “5 Reasons Why Millennials Do Not Want to Be Pastors or Staff in Established Churches,” “5 Things Millennial Pastors Despise about Church Administration,” “5 key millennial research findings churches should know,” “7 Ways to Better Reach the Millennial Family,” “The Myth of the Perfect Millennial Church,” “3 Ways to Keep Millennials at Your Church” “4 Ways Millennials Want to Be Led” “5 Things Millennials Wish the Church Would Be” “4 Keys to Connecting with Millennials” “Top 4 Ways Millennials are Integrating Technology and Faith” “The Crisis of Millennial Mentorship: what young leaders desperately need to hear” “4 sermon series to connect with millennials,” “5 Churchy Phrases That Are Scaring Off Millennials,” “What to Expect if You’re a Church’s First Millennial Pastor.”

Also found millennialmatrix.com = the Seventh-Day Adventist’s effort at reaching young adults tribe, and The INITIATIVE = a missional millennial network in Dallas, Texas, and Millennial is an online journal for young Catholics .. [photo credit]