Churches reach millennials with 'modern' religious messages
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Amnysti Klacman closes her eyes and listens to the music of Unhindered's Free to Run on Sunday night at Faith Family's Epic service.
Young Adult Ministries
Revolution
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Parkway Church, 4802 John Stockbauer Drive
The meeting starts in the café with refreshments and relationship.
For more information: Call 361-572-8340 or visit parkwayvictoria. com.
Epic
When: ...
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Young Adult Ministries
Revolution
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Parkway Church, 4802 John Stockbauer Drive
The meeting starts in the café with refreshments and relationship.
For more information: Call 361-572-8340 or visit parkwayvictoria. com.
Epic
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Faith Family, 539 Waco Circle, Victoria
For more information: Call Pastor Josh Joins 361-573-2484 or visit www. faithfamilyvictoira. com.
The inside of the Faith Family airport campus looks more like a lounge than a space for a church service.
Members trickle in early and mingle by the flicker of candlelight and dimmed lighting.
A member of the group's leadership team inputs names, addresses and contact information on a touch-screen like someone would place an order at McDonald's.
Nope, nothing churchy about this place.
Reaching an age group that is considerably less religious than older Americans takes a little creativity.
On the stage, a praise and worship band blasts out tunes under red and yellow lighting.
"It's more like a concert feel during the praise and worship," said Laramie Gildon, a 26-year-old who attends Epic, a group targeted at young adults ages 18-29 known as milliennials.
According to a recent study by the Pew Forum, millennials are significantly more unaffiliated with religion than Generation Xers or Baby Boomers were at their age. Fewer than half say they pray every day and fewer than half say religion is very important in their lives.
But with the church losing ground in this age group, congregations have stepped up to address the unique needs of millennials.
Epic, the Faith Family program, began about two years ago to do just that.
"The whole fellowship we have here, it's kind of like the mayonnaise to the sandwich," said Richard Garcia, a 28-year-old who attends the group. "You don't want to drag somebody here and leave them hanging to dry. We're a family."
Many other churches have similar solutions for reaching millennials, who have a set of unique needs.
"They're wired up for relationships and wired up for community in a way that's different from previous generations," said Rev. Mike Hurt, pastor of Parkway Church.
Many young adults are often facing what Hurt calls a "quarter-life crisis" in ways that their predecessors did not.
"You're out of school, you're in your first job or second job and all you've got is debt and frustration and you're at the bottom of the ladder, so to speak. And you wonder is if this is all there really is," Hurt said.
Hurt recently organized Revolution, a group targeted at millennial young professionals and students.
Christ the Victor Lutheran Church in Victoria began a non-traditional service about four years ago where a guitar and piano are used in the place of the organ and liturgy is more modern, to attract younger audiences.
Mt. Nebo Baptist Church has an occasional Wednesday night service with upbeat praise and worship targeted at young adults, and Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church also offers a young adult ministry for the same purpose.
But do the targeted ministries work at bringing more young adults to the altar?
Parkway's Revolution might suggest so.
Most of the people who attend the group had never attended Parkway before, and although it's proven the age group is less religious Hurt finds encouragement.
"They're less religious, but that doesn't mean that they're any less spiritual," he said. "So that means they're open to community and open to discussion of faith."
At the Faith Family airport campus, Pastor Josh Joines takes the stage after the band and gives a Biblical message supplemented by funny videos.
Interactivity is important in this group, too.
The group often uses technology like Facebook, Twitter and text messages to interact with each other and stay connected outside of church, something they believe is crucial.
"We have fun, we go out, we do things," said Amanda Hempel, 21, who helps welcome in new members. "It's just kind of like an experience you have to go through."
Relationships are key.
"Young adults are looking for relationships and people that they can connect," said Joines, who oversees the group.
To Hempel, the group offers the same thing a traditional church service offers, just in a more hip, modern way.
"It's more of a modern thing," she said. "When you go to your grandma's house, she has a million pictures and lace and whatever, but you go to a 20-year-old's house, we don't have as much clutter. It's just a more modern feel to it."
But no matter what the service looks like, participants will tell you the messages, which often focus on topics like relationships, finances and finding a personal purpose, are solid.
"What Pastor Josh preaches out here, it's really scripturally driven, it's very informational," Gildon said. "It's all based on scripture."
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