It’s no secret that millennials are often viewed as the “lazy” generation. They are said to have no hope, no purpose, no respect and no direction.
Older generations are quick to criticize the activities, drive, passions and work ethic of millennials. They often shake their heads and point their fingers at this “new-age” generation that appears to be the greatest group of failures to ever walk the earth.
What older generations fail to understand is that millennials are the product of those before them. The years between 1980 and 2000 weren’t just full of water that birthed lazy, irresponsible, hopeless people who rejected God.
They were, however, full of Christian parents who preached the gospel but didn’t live out their faith in a way that provoked the next generation to love and follow Jesus.
Fifty-nine percent of millennials raised in the church, have dropped out, and only 4 percent of millennials claim to be Bible-based believers. This means that 96 percent of millennials don’t live out the teachings of the Bible, value the morals of Christianity and are likely to be found anywhere BUT a church.
The statistics are staggering, and two authors of a new book claim that the breakdown of the family is the single-most universal explanation as to why people have ditched their faith.
Alex McFarland and Jason Jimenez are the authors of Abandoned Faith: Why Millennials Are Walking Away and How You Can Lead Them Home.
It’s a pressing topic this day in 2017, because while millennials are more lost and broken than ever before, they’re relying on God less than ever before.
“I’ve got to say this as a pastor, as a researcher, as an educator, as just a Christian who cares: The single greatest contributor to the attrition rate [of the Christian faith] has been the breakdown of the family,” Alex McFarland told The Christian Post.
Jason Jimenez says that while writing the book, he dug deeper and had conversations with millennials about the factors that led them to leave their faith. He writes about the stories in Abandoned Faith, where many people described difficult childhoods, in homes where the Christian parents “trusted God,” but failed to live out their faith.