A Generation Hungering For Righteousness

Both culture and the church continue to misunderstand millennials - and we are denying them the kingdom of God in the process.

Today I talk with Andrew Grissom and William Merriman from Memphis Tennessee - hosts of The Wandering Years podcast. They are millennials who minister to millennials. Their generation - they say - has a hunger for righteousness. Unfortunately - they have not found that in the church.

Join us next week when I conclude my conversation with Andrew and William - when we discuss concrete ways the church can reach out to both millennials - and their arguably more fiery cousins - Gen Z.

Reuel Sample:
You are both pastoring in a church or serving in a church, and you are working with young adults your age a little bit, maybe a little bit younger, a little bit older. I am convinced that the modern day church has missed the boat on your age group. We don't understand you. We just don't. And so we we think we know what you're facing. We think we know what you want. I don't think we do. So what are people in your age groups facing? What are the issues that are on their minds?

William Merriman:
Well, I can. I can start. I can start this morning. We well, I mean, the stereotype of millennials and even even Gen Zs is that we're a people of a revolution that we want, that we care, you know, heartily about, about big issues. And you know, while that's a stereotype, it really it really communicates something true that we are a generation hungering after righteousness and after justice, and we have this spirit of of really hungering after new creation. And it's a good thing. But like all fire, when it's outside of, you know, the fireplace, it can catch and burn and spread really, really far and wide. And ultimately, Andrew and I both believe that the the place for that zeal to really find its home is is in the church. But the issues that we're facing are there's I mean, there's a lot, but I think one of them is just this kind of wider cultural spirit of distrust, of a distrust of institutions and then are real. Just spirit of suspicion of all of all truth and evidence of this is just this kind of process of deconstruction that you've heard Christians, young Christians specifically just kind of latch latch hold of. And so how does that apply to the church? Well, millennials and young adults, Gen Z, especially, they're hungering after really places of order because the world is so amorphous and they're hungering after truth, because you look out and there's so many, there's just so much distrust. And the thing that's I think most damaging part of trying to find a church home is when they see people in churches preaching the gospel but not doing the gospel. So they might have orthodoxy right from a sense of right teaching, but not living out, you know, gospel culture. And the reason why I think a lot of millennials aren't coming to church is because they look at the church and they say, you know, I don't think that you actually believe what you're saying because we don't see that spirit of love. We don't see that spirit of adoption. We don't see that spirit of of justice here.