Why Millennials Are Rejecting Modern, Boisterous, Trendy Churches in Favor of Quiet, Classic Sanctuaries

Teresa Neumann : Nov 18, 2014
The Barna Millennials Project

Some of it has to do with escaping the busyness of life, tuning out of the technical world, and tuning in to spiritual serenity. Simply stated, Millennials want to walk into a church and have a "sense of awe." This holds especially true for the marginally churched or unchurched.

(Ventura, CA)—A new study from Barna reveals Millennials are going against the modern grain in a big way when it comes to where they prefer to worship. (Photo via Aspen Group/Barna)

Christian hippies in the Jesus Revolution of the 1960's rebelled against the status quo in their time by preferring simple, unadorned locations to worship. Traditional churches, to them—with their grand architecture and expensive embellishments—were just so... bourgeois. Better, they believed, to return to more natural settings and use money to build the Kingdom of God, not fancy churches.

Fast forward to the 21st Century, and we have Millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) and, no doubt, Hipsters—a subset of Millennials who are their own version of modern hippies—entirely reversing that trend.

According to a report in the Christian Post, "Millennials gravitate toward classic, quiet church spaces that feel authentic and provide a break from the busyness of a fast-paced, technological world."

Indeed, 67 percent of the study subjects chose the word "classic" to describe their ideal church. Additionally, noted the report, 78 percent of the respondents selected a quiet church over a loud church.

"They don't want something created artificially for them... what they want is something deeper and more authentic," said AIA Architect Derek Degroot.

Click here to read the complete Barna study.