The New Loyalty

In almost every church I visit, people ask me this question:

“Mike, why aren’t young people committed to the church anymore? They seem to have forgotten about loyalty!”

Why don’t Millennials stick around at the churches they grew up in? Why aren’t they coming back to their ‘home church?'“

Many people that have been a part of a church for 20, 30 or 40 years aren’t sure how much they should change because they aren’t sure how committed a newer young person is going to be to their church.

Although I totally get that, I think it’s important to understand that even though it may not look like it or feel like it, Millennials and Gen Zer’s are fiercely loyal generations, they just might not be loyal to the same things previous generations were loyal too.

Loyalty looks a little different today.

The Institution - The Workplace

Back in the ’50s and ’60s, it was possible for you to start and end your career in one or two places.  Employees would stay on for long periods of time because most companies would gain their loyalty through monetary incentives, clear pathways to promotions, extra vacation weeks and competitive pension packages. Workers in this generation were loyal to these companies because they provided stability, a path toward advancement and place to root a large part of their identity. With long-term, loyal employees, companies were often slow to lay people off or cut departments - even when profits began to dip.

Today, the average young person entering the workforce will have over 11 different jobs between the ages of 18 and 50. The increase of women in the workforce (compared to the mid 1900’s) along with increasing automation and globalization have all impacted the workplace. Today it looks very different than it did 50 years ago - or even 10 years ago!

Loyalty between employees and employers has decreased significantly over the past decades resulting in more layoffs, fewer raises, and fewer opportunities for promotion. Personally, I’ve worked for two major retailers whos managers admitted to me that they would rather see more turnover, because it means more people working at minimum wage.

The technology sector might see even less loyalty among workers. Many hard-workers in the tech sector work themselves out of a job when their company is acquired. We live in a world now where working hard could result in a new job search every few years. Weird right?

So what does all this mean?

Millennials live in a world where most institutions aren’t loyal to them, and the institution expects the same treatment in return. 

In some cases, this is the corporate strategy!  As I said before, regular turnover keeps the cost of hourly wages down, so the hope is that people only stay for a short period of time.  We’re living in a world where people aren’t loyal to institutions, and they aren’t loyal to people.

How does this impact the church?  In a huge way! 

If our hope is to reach people that aren’t interacting with faith, and those same people haven’t experienced any institutional loyalty, then our churches are all stuck in a very unfortunate middle ground.

You view your church as the body of Christ, here to grow in faith and come alongside those in need. But many view it as just another institution with all the positive and negative feelings that go along with it. You’re stuck in the middle, and you didn’t even know it. So what can you do?

Here’s a question you can ask: Do you think that the average person believes your church has their best interest at heart?

The Brand

We’ve all got a story about brand loyalty.  For me in Grade 8 it was Adidas Tear-Away pants.  My parents promised to pay for half, and I wore those babies every day that I could.  It might be the only time in my life I wore anything that was considered “in”.  For my wife, it was a GAP sweater, for my grandmother it’s Ford Cars and Trucks. Everyone has the story of something they just ‘had to have.’  But times are changing, and Brand Loyalty isn’t what it used to be.  Look at this quote from this 2018 Forbes Article Titled “Are Millennials Killing Name Brands?”

“Today’s shoppers are better-informed and more inclined to care about substance or quality than branding. This is especially true of Millennials. According to a study by Cadent Consulting Group, fully 51% of Millennials have “no real preference” between private-label and national brands.”

Millennials are changing the retail market by going for substance and quality over a long-lasting name.  How does this affect churches?  You really need to know.

In Christianity today, Karl Vaters writes “Loyalty to a worship style, a building, a denomination or a pastor is a poor substitute for being committed to Jesus. But, too often, one has been mistaken for the other.  We need to stop asking people to commit to things they don’t care about (and probably shouldn’t care about) and give them something and someone they want to care about”

Millennials want to get behind something that is worth getting behind, and just because their parents or grandparents grew up at a Presbyterian, Pentecostal or Evangelical Church doesn’t mean that they’re going to do it.  This is especially true in churches with an ‘older’ population that outwardly shows that they aren’t interested in any new ideas or ways of doing things.  If your church isn’t making a difference or being impactful, Millennials will simply find one that is. 

We aren’t afraid to change brands to find the thing that’s working the best.

“But Mike, isn’t that a consumerist mindset?  Why should we change just so young people like us?”

Someone was thinking that. If you are, you’re missing the point. 

I’m not talking about more lights, new technology or speakers in sneakers, I’m talking about something that you should be doing anyway.

Selling out in the name of Jesus and making an impact in our world in His name.

Brand Loyalty changed because instead of focusing on the rest of the product, companies focused on the logo, and once people realized the logo didn’t bring them any value they moved on to something that did. The same could be said about some churches. Gone are the days that you can just depend on the title “Anglican” or “Baptist” to pull in more people. Today, you need to think a lot more about Jesus, which is how it should have been anyways.

Here’s a question you can ask:  Is my church more concerned about following Jesus or being true to our ‘brand’.

So what are Millennials Loyal to?

This is going to seem too simple, that you might be frustrated that you read all this way just to find it out. 

Millennials are loyal to People, not Institutions.

Millennials are loyal to Value, not Labels (in the churches case, denominations).

Millennials are loyal to function, not nostalgia.

So what’s the next step?  Here are three things you can do to get started.

1)     Share these ideas with someone and then talk about it. What do you agree/disagree with? What impacted you the most?

2)    Ask yourself: Is my church more concerned about following Jesus, or being true to our ‘brand’?

3)   Critically think about your own church. How did you draw people into attending 40 years ago, and what’s different now?

As always, I’d love to hear what you think. Start a conversation wherever you saw this post, I’d love to hear your stories!