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As for my church, every way you mentioned. Sermons are posted to Vimeo and linked to our website and they also live stream on Facebook. This is done to accommodate our infirm members, those too sick to attend. We started with one screen and then later added two more above the choir loft. No rock and roll stage, a piano on one side and an organ on the other. I think it a great mistake for believers to trade the bible in a book format for one in electronic format. It's hard to grow intimate with the pages when you have none, with the leather when all you have is glass and plastic dependent on electricity. Don't remove the ancient landmarks!

Websites (or at least a Facebook page) are a requirement nowadays, I think. If I'm searching for a church to visit, I won't even consider any that I can't first look up their statement of faith and peruse their website. But the website needs to look like it was updated within the last 15 years!

The article is excellent and the testimony by Miss Daisy breaks my heart.

That’s exactly what happened to my old church. I’d left the area for about 15 years when I returned my old church was replaced by black curtains so it was dark as night in there. Rock concert music, fog machines and singers in mini skirts rocking out with a pastor with punk hair and ripped jeans. I still attended because they had a great youth pastor, who was in his forties and my daughter loved going to all the activities. Then the pastor decided the youth pastor wasnt as hip and cool as he wanted the new image of the church to be and fired him. That caused a split from the older core members from the young crowd. We and a lot of the older crowd left. Discouraged by church politics I didn’t go for a few years until I went to my church now. The church I left has been plagued with infidelity rumors about new pastors and singing directors and the young girls singing on stage. But it remains the same rock concert appealing to the flesh and lust of lost sheep.

Unfortunately that is what happens when parents do not take the education of their children seriously. When our children are turned over to the state for indoctrination what else do we expect? I went to public school. I didn't get saved until I was an adult. Evolution was ingrained in my mind as a fact. Even though I didn't really understand it I just accepted it as true. After I got saved the first time I heard a pastor preach about young earth creationism I was looking around the auditorium wondering if anyone else was as confused and shocked as I was. It took a lot of time for the Word to sink in and break down those strongholds.

My seven grandchildren are all millennials. None of them go to church. Their reason is they all grew up in public school and are evolutionists. They were not taught the Word in school. They believe in the science they were taught. After 12-16 years of school their "truth" is based on this science. I keep trying, but it is hard to overcome this situation.

I have thought about if/how I should respond to this post. I have decided that I will. I have to respectfully disagree with what you have said here Pastor Markle. While what you say is true it is not exclusive to the Millennial generation. Christian's of all ages groups act this way, senior citizens to children. Although I hate to admit it but depending on what source you consult I am often found belonging to the Millennial generation. I was born in 1984. My answer is my opinion so you can take it or leave it but this is what I believe... This generation is one of the first generations to have access to almost unlimited information at the drop of a hat. Any question they have or any issue they want to research can be done so at anytime. With that being said when they ask a question a canned, surface level response often times will not suffice for them. When they press the issue and try to get a more thorough response they are accused of questioning authority. So they get shut down, mad, and offended. What often times began as sincere questioning turns into anger and frustration and a belief that their elders and church leadership don't know what they are talking about. I believe easy believism has played a big role in this because many of our churches are full of these types of people that don't have a real relationship with Jesus Christ, they are followers of men. Followers of men can't answer spiritual questions. Those people don't study the Scriptures and don't know how to study the Scriptures and sadly many of our churches don't teach people how to study the Scriptures. Many sermons preached are a verse or a part of a verse taken out of context and then 3-5 ideas the preacher came up with to support their removed from context launching point. That is shallow amateurism at best and fraudulent and deceptive at worst. I have heard this type of thing defended and justified many times. When the goal of the door to door "soulwinner" is the same as a Kirby vaccum salesman we have a serious problem. They only thing they are after is getting someone to repeat the sinner's prayer. Then declare the person saved to the church. If it is then questioned why that person never comes to church and doesn't want follow up visits the normal response is "well they were just after fire insurance". There is no such thing as fire insurance. When a person is born again they receive the gift of eternal life by grace through faith, the indwelling of the Spirit of God, and a new heart, all of which results in a drastically changed life. When these things don't happen and repeated excuses are made to down play it people will take note and question it, then the cycle from above repeats. To sum it all up I believe many Millennials want to see genuine people and be able to ask genuine questions and get genuine answers. I believe that often times we fail to be able to do that. It is easy to point the finger at Millennials and say they are the problem and all they are interested in is deifying themselves. It is much harder to look in the mirror and say I have failed to share the message of Christ in a genuine way and make myself available to those that need Christ and need to grow in His grace. The deification of man has been happening for thousands of years, it is not something new...

Proverbs 1:7 -- "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." In my opinion, they are leaving because they lack the foundational motivation of heart to stay. They are more concerned about what pleases them than they are about what pleases God. They do not possess the fear and love of the Lord in their hearts. Rather, they possess the love of self and the world in their hearts. They are dull of hearing toward the teaching and preaching of God's Word because they do not possess a foundational fellowship with the God of the Word. They have entangled themselves with the riches, pleasures, and social connections of this life and world; and those things are choking out their desire for the Lord their God and His Holy Word. It is ALL about the priority of their hearts.

We have a Facebook page that I post on a few times a week. Most of our members do not have Facebook pages, so it's hard to get followers. It is growing slowly, though. We don't have a website yet, but the tech guy in the church that founded ours has volunteered to create one for us. That's about it. I did start a Twitter account but don't use it. I know I should, though.

Thanks Sawthdiver. I have found that may times this verse is at the heart of the problem of people leaving our churches. I have found comfort in this very verse when things of this nature happen.

This is why they and everyone else leaves: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” - 1 John 2:19

I understand, the reason why the question was asked is because I visited about a hundred of churches last few years and this is the topic about millennial's that always seems to come up in our Baptist churches. Just discussing what seems like a majority of churches are asking.

I am of the opinion that it is a combination of both positions that is the truth. I think there is a lot of shallowness and hardness in IFB that is driving people away, but I also acknowledge that there is a lot of worldly temptations that is also drawing them away. I do not think we have an either or situation here, but rather a "these are both problems" scenario.

Brother AdamL, I am glad that you chose to present your response. It is well presented; however, it appears to have one underlying assumption that is wrong in relation to my own response above. I myself would NOT limit my response above just unto the present generation. I would have given the same answer for any generation. In fact, I believe that it is the same problem that is reported throughout Scripture for multiple different generations of Israel in the Old Testament and for various believers in the New Testament. (Note: If you will take notice, you will find in my above response various allusions to the very teaching of God's Holy Word on the matter.) On the other hand, I would agree that the scenario which you present above represents a way of falsehood within the Independent Baptist movement. Certainly this way of falsehood should be rejected. I myself have rejected it and find it spiritually offensive. However, in my own ministry experience the "Millenials" (and, for that matter, older generations as well) that have fallen away from faithfulness have done so because they are instead pursuing video games, social media, money accumulation, personal recreation, and other things of the world, not because they could not acquire Biblical answers to their questions. (Note: Since you do not know me personally, I really cannot prove whether I am a "shallow" or a sound teacher and leader. I can only refer you to that which I have posted here on Online Baptist. I suppose that is the only evidence that I can provide to you for whether I am able to give genuine Biblical answers to genuine questions.)

My thoughts exactly. It's so sad/gross to see this happen so much.