5 Ways to Bring Millennials Back to Church
4. BE TRANSPARENT
When he spoke to various students about their faith, Shane Pruitt, director of Missions for the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, discovered the importance of transparency.
"The more transparent and vulnerable a communicator is, the more students connect. There was a time when speakers/teachers were told not to use themselves in personal illustrations; however, this generation wants to hear those personal stories," he stressed. "As adults, if we act as those who have it all figured out and not in desperate need of God's grace daily, we'll lose their attention because they won't believe that we're 'being real' and that our faith is unattainable for them."
In addition to church leaders, members of the church should also be transparent with one another as it encourages people to open up more, Sheard noted. She gave an example of a fictional member of a church whose life experiences could help others.
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"I think in this church we have to be transparent. We have to be open because at the end of the day we're still questioning mothers on the front row who have five kids from five different men [but] we're not going to ask them [about it]," she said. "We're discussing it amongst ourselves [saying], 'well, she knows about the nasty. She knows what I'm struggling with because she's been with five different men, but she's the mother of the church.'"
When this type of person isn't transparent about their issues, Sheard believes younger people in the church start to question, "how come we can't talk to her about this?"
Sheard doesn't believe transparency means that people have to share every detail of their personal life, but help others learn through their experiences.
"Transparency and being open and honest is not [about] saying all of your business, but how God saw you through this," she explained.
