"The Missing Generation"
A few years ago, when I was working at a church, I began to notice something about the demographics of our church - nothing terribly scientific, but more as an observer. When I went to church on Sundays, taught in Sunday school, went to the main service, I noticed that people my age weren’t there.  We went to a large church that had 6 weekend services, so I figured that people my age were probably just attending a different service; maybe a "hipper" service that had younger speakers, louder music, and didn't care about tattoos.  Standing in the middle of a Sunday morning service, I remember joking with my wife that "We’re the youngest ones here!†We laughed it off. But, it turns out this was happening at a lot of churches.  As the trend continues, it has become clear that churches are having a hard time reaching millennials.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Behind the scenes, we had a database with the names of everyone who signed the “friendship pad†that was passed down the pew each Sunday. From that, the church collected names, ages, etc. to get a big view of who was attending and various reports would be used based on those numbers.

One Monday, I decided to talk with my supervisor about this. “Is there a way we can calculate what the average age of our church is?†I asked. He went to work and a few hours later came back and said, “43!â€

"Forty-three isn’t bad, right?" I said.

“No, it’s pretty good - I found out that the average age of members at Willow Creek is over 50.†he said.
The Aging Church
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having a “mature†church - and we would all probably agree that the wisdom that comes with age is indispensable. Rather, the immediate concern surrounds the question, “Where are all the young people?â€

After talking with some friends who attended the church, friends of friends, and anyone under the age of 40 that had time to chat the consensus was that many young people loved the idea of going to a small group or Sunday School but said that they "didn’t get anything out of big churchâ€. Meaning, the sermons preached on Sundays weren't particularly helpful - at least not enough to make a special trip. What the younger people in our church liked were the smaller groups with teaching that was deeper than what was being offered at big church.

They also really liked the fact that they could ask questions of the teacher - something, I feel, is missing from most churches today. Previously, I’ve written that I think the order of church service should be a lot like the order of service in the 1st century temple. You go to the service because of the wisdom of the teacher who is there. You listen to what the teacher says and then you can ask questions of the Rabbi.
What Millennials Want From Church
Analysis of these trends could go in a thousand directions. If I might be so bold, the way I would sum it up is: Millennials don’t want their parent’s church.  We are simply at a time where the assumption that church should look a certain way is being questioned. It became too big and is now failing.

How would you define what the Millennials want from church?