The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation, by Thom S. Rainer and Jess W.

Rainer. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2011. 288 pages. Reviewed by Jason M. Fletcher.

This book was chosen as it is the most recent work published by Thom Rainer who is a

leading thinker and writer in the field of church growth. It was also chosen as it is one of the

first major works dedicated to understanding what has been called the millennial generation.

Thom S. Rainer holds a Ph.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where he was the

founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth. He

currently serves as President and C.E.O. of LifeWay Christian Resources. He has written more

than twenty books on church growth and revitalization. Thom co-authored this book with his

son, Jess Rainer. Jess is a self-described millennial who is completing a Masters degree from

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently serving as the Administration and

Outreach Pastor of Grace Life Church led by Ed Stetzer in Hendersonville, TN.

In this book Thom and Jess Rainer describe the millennial generation. They define the

millennials as those born in the United States between 1980 and 2000 (2). For the purpose of

this study, they narrowed their focus to the older millennials, those born between 1980 and 1991

(4). In order to write this book the authors surveyed twelve hundred millennials through the

work of LifeWay Research (x).

The bulk of the book is dedicated to describing the results of this survey and how they

measured the millennials opinions on work, family, diversity, and finances, to name a few. The

most important chapters related to the area of missions, evangelism, and church growth would be

the final two. Chapter ten discusses the millennials and their faith. Chapter eleven gives

application to how the church can respond to the millennial generation.

The chapter looking at the faith of the millennial generation was quite disturbing. The

authors admit that there is no common belief system among this generation (230).

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The importance of spiritual matters ranked as only the 6th most important factor in their lives

after family (61 percent), friends (25 percent), education (17 percent), career (16 percent), and

spouse (13 percent) (229). When asked their spiritual preference, sixy-five percent identified

with Christianity (231). When given the definition of a born-again Christian who had made a

personal commitment to Jesus Christ as their Savior, the number dropped to twenty percent

(231). When the parameters were narrowed even further to identify those who would be born-

again evangelical Christians who held to some basic theological beliefs the number fell to only

six percent (232). In concluding this section, the authors chose to estimate a number between six

and twenty percent who would be “true Christians” (233). They settled on the number of fifteen

percent “for consistency.” I would question why they would choose such a high number. Two

of the questions that had to be answered in order to be considered a born-again evangelical

Christian related to salvation being by grace alone and that Jesus did not commit any sins while

on earth (232). In my personal opinion if you have asked Jesus to be your Savior, but you also

believe that Jesus sinned while he was on earth, your faith is in another Jesus. Likewise, if one

believes that their salvation must be earned, they are following another gospel. In my opinion,

the authors may have overstated in the wrong direction the number of true Christians among the

millennials.

In surveying what millennials actually believe, the authors make several conclusions.

First, religion is less important for millennials than previous generations (243). Second,

millennials lack of excitement about religion can be evidenced by their lack of belief about the

authority of the Bible (244). Third, the millennials are anti-institutional church in their attitude

(244). The authors make the statement that seventy percent of millennials agree that “American

churches are irrelevant today” (244). They summarize this section by stating that the church’s
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challenge is going to be less about overcoming an “adversarial attitude” toward Christianity, and

more about overcoming an apathetic attitude (244). This is a striking statement that the church

in the United States is going to have to overcome. How, then, should the church seek to be

relevant to this generation without sacrificing historical biblical convictions and principles? The

hope is that the next chapter will help answer that question.

Of all the negatives surrounding the study of the faith of millennials, the one bright spot

encountered by the authors is the relationship between the faith of the millennials and their

parents. As millennials valued family above every other category in their life, they showed a

preference for following their parents in their faith choices (245). They also state that the

millennials not only followed in their parents faith, but took their commitment level to a higher

level (246). The implication according to the authors is those that do choose Christianity are not

going to be lukewarm in their faith (246). While I would have hoped to have seen more specific

statistical evidence for the claims made in this section, the prior evidence shown concerning the

importance of the family is consistent with this segment.

Chapter eleven seeks to make some practical applications for churches hoping to reach

the millennial generation. The authors divide their advice into how to connect with those

millennials who are Christians and how to reach those millennials who are not yet Christians. To

connect with millennial Christians the authors suggest becoming “radically committed to the

community” (259). Instead of being inward focused, churches are encouraged to serve the

community by being both missional and incarnational (260). This is also similar to their

recommendation to reach non-Christian millenials by “demonstrating a concern for others”

(274). Second, churches should “go deep in biblical teaching” (261). This also is related to their

application toward non-Christian millennials by stating churches should “demonstrate the deep
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meaning of following Christ” (273). The common denominator is the emphasis on not shying

away from teaching theology. If the authors are correct here, the millennial generation is not

going to be satisfied with surface-level teaching that the seeker-sensitive movement of the

1990’s was characterized by. The authors do not mention these examples, but I would posit that

the growth and reach of Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and David Platt at the

Church at Brook Hills in Alabama are two examples of churches that are following this principle

and are being successful in connecting and growing millennial Christians.

Churches who would make an impact with millennials are also encouraged to “love the

nations” (264). This means not just giving to missions, but in directly participating in reaching

the nations for Christ (265). Related to this emphasis on missions it the need for churches to

“direct revenue outwardly” (266). The authors state that millennials are examining where

churches are spending their tithes and offerings and are more interested in their financial gifts

going out to reach their community and nation, as opposed to staying inside the church (267).

This particular section relates directly with the current movement within the Southern Baptist

Convention called the Great Commission Resurgence. Millennials who are becoming

missionaries, church planters, and pastors within the SBC are asking the same questions, not just

of their churches, but where the mission dollars from their churches are going. In my opinion,

the future of the relationship of the local church with the association, state convention, and SBC

will be directly related to the commitment of the various entities toward channeling money

toward impacting a lost North American culture and reaching the nations with the gospel.

The common denominator for churches hoping to connect and reach millennials was the

emphasis on churches and their leaders demonstrating “transparency, humility, and integrity”

(268, 275). The authors admit that they did not do a word search to see how many times
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“humility” came up in their conversations with millennials, though I wish they had (268). They

conjectured that if they had it would probably have been the most desired trait millennials had of

leadership (268). Again, I do not disagree with the authors conclusions, but I had hoped they

would have better supported their statements as opposed to making guesses.

The authors make the most unique application toward reaching non-Christian millennials

by making a link for non-Christians to have a family or parental influence. The authors point out

that eighty-six percent of millennials agreed that parents were a regular and key source of advice

and guidance (272). Because of that staggering statistic, the Rainers suggest connecting

“Boomer parents with Millennial children” (272). The authors barely scratch the surface of this

suggestion. While they point out a missional link, they do not give any examples or strategies as

to how to make this happen within the local church.

One of this book’s strengths is the level of research that went into its composition.

Completing and synthesizing the information gleened from twelve-hundred respondents is not an

easy task. It does, however, lead one to believe that this work would be able to provide an

accurate and comprehensive look at an emerging generation within America that will be the first

generation that will be larger than the baby-boomer generation (2).

Another strength is that though statistics are used throughout, this book was written for

the layperson. The non-technical writing style used makes for a work that is accessible to a wide

range of readers. Though the conclusions that are made deal specifically with the local church,

and the Rainers come from an explicitly evangelical Christian perspective, a majority of the

research would be beneficial for anyone working with this generation, in sacred or secular fields.

Really, it is a great read for anyone looking to learn more about the emerging millennial

generation.
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My greatest disappointment and the greatest weakness to this book is that it is light on

application. Though its subtitle states, “Connecting to America’s Largest Generation,” the book

is short on practical steps on how to connect. It does, however, serve as an excellent resource on

how to understand America’s largest generation. In light of this shortcoming, I would still give

my whole-hearted recommendation to this book, especially for pastors and ministry leaders who

are ministering to the millennial generation now, and will need to respond to the growing size

and influence of this generation as they become the dominant generational force in the United

States.