5 Ways to Bring Millennials Back to Church
3. FIND THE RIGHT BAIT
In Matthew 4:19, Jesus tells Peter and Andrew that he will make them "fishers of men." Sheard's father, Bishop John Drew Sheard, who leads the Greater Emmanuel Institutional COGIC in Detroit, Michigan, told the singer about using the right bait to hook people to the faith.
When it comes to millennials, Sheard couldn't agree more.
"We have to study the strategy of being fishers of men. My father teaches us that you have to have bait," she told CP. "It has to be something that the fish like. They're not going to like the hook, but they will like the bait."
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While that bait may seem unconventional to some, Sheard said those with a true relationship with God will not be offended by the bait used outside of traditional church culture.
"The bait is what will get them on the hook," she said. "Unfortunately, our bait may be offensive to religious people. But people who actually have a relationship, they'll understand it."
As the daughter of Bishop T.D. Jakes, Sarah Jakes Roberts has grown up deeply embedded in church. Still, she understands how people can feel excluded from some places of worship that only cater to a certain type of people.
"I went to a church a couple of weeks ago as I was working out of town. I walked away feeling the service was wonderful, the message was powerful, but you have to have understood church to be there," Jakes Roberts told CP. "I think there are churches where unfortunately they don't do an incredible job of reaching people who just walk in off of the street. You don't understand their customs, if you don't understand their wardrobe protocol, this or that then you feel like 'man, I don't really fit there.'"
Instead of giving up on church all together, Jakes Roberts believes that people who haven't had the best church experience can still find a place of worship that suits them.
"There's all different types of ways to do church," she said. "Don't let one experience at one church or two churches keep you from trying out different churches until you get a fit."
