Millennials and Gen Z

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OnAJourney

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I’ve had the time to really think about the future and my generation. I was born toward the end of millennial generation and I’ve often thought about my generation’s lack of interest in Church. What exactly do you think would bring young people into the Church on Sunday and get them involved in things going on at the parish level?

I personally think that there needs to be more of an emphasis on tradition. I really really dislike modernism or when parishes attempt to go down the whole hip modern appeal. I think more people in my position feel like the Church has slackened on tradition and formality

Edit: For context I’m in the process of converting and going through RCIA
 
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I think there is a tendency to assume that whatever piece is missing for us is the same piece everyone is missing. As a teen I remember really being irked by my faith-environment and thinking I could speak on behalf of young people saying what we craved was authenticity. In reality, there isn’t one particular thing that will attract the youth when it comes to matters of faith because everyone’s journey and interior life is so different.
 
The reason I bring up tradition is because I’ve looked at some polling data across the board. Perhaps not for all, but for most millennials I thin there is a strong desire for going back to tradition. I definitely fit that to a tee because I want something that isn’t plastic. And it seems like a lot of Churches have become plastic in an effort to try and appeal to my generation
 
All I can say is that the allure of tradition is what drew me in. I was pretty ignorant of the issues that were going on in the Church when I was baptized/confirmed last Easter. I typically split my time between a TLM parish and a reverent NO parish, but this past weekend I wound up going to some completely different parish which was rife with modernism. I never knew things were this bad in my own diocese even. I can say that whatever is going on in modernist parishes is NOT going to draw the younger generation in.
 
OnAJourney said:
. What exactly do you think would bring young people into the Church on Sunday and get them involved in things going on at the parish level?
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I have just put these on another thread , but they are equally applicable to your question .
 
Why do you think the modernist approach is lacking in appeal?
 
The secular world is very modernist as well. Why go to Church for a modern service when you can just go to a concert or gathering?
 
OnAJourney said:
What exactly do you think would bring young people into the Church on Sunday and get them involved in things going on at the parish level?
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Do you realize that this is the exact same question that was being asked 40 or more years ago, before most of the contemporary changes?
 
OnAJourney said:
What exactly do you think would bring young people into the Church on Sunday and get them involved in things going on at the parish level?
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Ok I’ll come back to this question. Every soul desires God in that it desires Truth and it desires Love. Those are the things that will bring people of all ages in. Encounters with them could look like a silent moment before the Blessed Sacrament, gazing upon Truth Itself. It could look like a person who reaches out to someone in the depths of their loneliness and shows them Christ’s Love. It really is going to depend on the person and what some parishes lack, others make up for. I prefer the beauty of a traditional liturgy, but I find myself at a parish that doesn’t fit that description and they continue to blow me away with their fruits.
 
I’m aware that Vatican II asked the same questions. I however think that some of the things that we have now as a result of Vatican II have not increased the attendance or people being active in the parish. Some of the contemporary changes have made things better but I think in other areas contemporary attitudes about things have made things worse.

I think what Bonaventurian is getting at is that certain aspects of the Mass and other things have become very much watered down to try and appeal to wider cross sections of people. Which in turn leads to people feeling like things are very artificial
 
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I think there are certainly some parishes that become the exception but not the rule. I guess my issue with the whole modernism vs traditionalism dynamic is that I think if a parish goes too far down the path of modernism things start losing their meaning. At my parish I think that they do a good job of not jumping on the wagon of full modernism, but our masses aren’t EF either. However I think that’s got a lot to do with the community where the parish is located and the really good clergy we have on hand
 
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OnAJourney said:
I guess my issue with the whole modernism vs traditionalism dynamic
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My issue with it is that there shouldn’t be a such a “vs.” The beauty of Catholic tradition and the beauty of a more traditional liturgy speaks for itself. All we need is exposure to it to appreciate it and desire it. Unfortunately, there are those that don’t let it speak for itself. They are eager to tell someone who hasn’t seen a more traditional mass how terrible everything about a more modern mass is and in doing so insult the only faith they have ever known.

So what to do? Invite people to visit other masses. Let them fall in love with it and take that love with them wherever they go.
 
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OnAJourney said:
I’m aware that Vatican II asked the same questions
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Those aren’t questions that VII asked, and that wasn’t what I was referring to.
OnAJourney said:
some of the things that we have now as a result of Vatican II have not increased the attendance or people being active in the parish
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Well, you’re mistaken about that. Many younger people are. It’s a terrible misconception that needs constant correction. Terrible because the misconception leads to thinking that has been presented by you and many others who come to CAF and rail against VII.
OnAJourney said:
other things have become very much watered down to try and appeal to wider cross sections of people.
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Again, an misconception of what happened after VII.
 
I agree that many young people are attracted to tradition. That is not necessarily identified solely with the Latin Mass, though. I’ve been in parishes where the ordinary form Mass is celebrated in a traditional, reverent manner, silence is observed before and after Mass, and which have effective religious education for both youth and adults. So it can be done.
 
No? How is my dislike of a modernist expression of the New Mass contempt for the religion itself?
 
Well I don’t think every mass has to be EF either. But I do think you make a fair point. I’m not saying every mass has to be Latin or anything like that. I just think when a Church drops traditional reverence altogether that it loses its power with people, and right now for a lot of millennials like myself we want tradition. We don’t want the liturgy to become watered down
 
OnAJourney said:
I really really dislike modernism or when parishes attempt to go down the whole hip modern appeal. I think more people in my position feel like the Church has slackened on tradition and formality
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THANK YOU!
I totally agree with you! We want and are in need of clear Church teachings, Tradition and morality! We need the Church to be the way it´s always been.

It´s completely wrong to go with the way of thinking that we need modernism to have the Church fit in with young people. We should not even think like that. We have to fit within the Church, not the Church within our minds and thoughts.

(I myself am a part of Generation Z)
 
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Kima said:
(I myself am a part of Generation Z)
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I always have to look this up. My brain either cannot hold this information or refuses to. I think it is because I hear so many terrible things about “millennials” and think: huh, I wonder who that is? Only to find every time that it is me.
 
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