AuthorDino Katsiametis

Bringing Milliennials Back To Church by Ryan Tirona

Millennials are the most likely generation to disengage from church. Churches have tried to attract young adults through a variety of means. Pastors wear skinny jeans, beards, and tattoos while drinking craft beer and smoking pipes. Church buildings are dark, music is loud and sounds similar to the radio flavor of the day. Please know, these aren’t bad things, they’re just not the main thing. The main thing is God himself. As he is, not as we want him to be. He is the cosmic creator of all things. He is holy and perfect. He is magnificent and powerful. He is radically loving. He is committed to his plan of saving sinners through Jesus. He is the God who accepts people based on what Jesus did for them, not what they do for Jesus. This is the God we need. This is the God Millennials need.

Leave The BuildingMillennials

Most churches are still busy trying to get the unchurched into their building instead of getting those in their building to the unchurched. In 11 months, the church I pastor has experienced steady growth through new salvations, renewed commitments from those who formerly walked away from the church, and many who grew weary of sermons with a heavy dose of moral cleanliness covered with a thin veneer of Jesus. Many of them are Millennials. They’re not coming because of an entertaining experience we provide or a targeted marketing plan. They are coming because people who have been gripped by God’s love are going out to the coffee shops, bars, and neighborhood hangouts. They are engaging friends without the arrogant stance of rightness or the goofy version of bumper sticker Christianity. They are bringing God’s radical message of love and grace to the streets where a hurting generation that craves love and acceptance is searching for fulfillment in the unsatisfying promises of our world.

Fewer people are seeking out churches so we must send people who have been captivated by God’s grace to meet people where they are and share the good news in those places. We must, however, get the good news right, and the more I speak with Christians and church leaders the more I am convinced we have got it terrible wrong.

Grace Sets Us Free

Telling people, “you’re bad, God’s mad, so be good,” is NOT good news, it’s not the gospel. The apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” The gospel is the power of God for salvation. The gospel is the story of Jesus living the perfect life we could not live, dying the death we deserved to die, rising from the grave, and ascending to God while leaving his Spirit to dwell in and empower his people. The gospel is the gift of Jesus Christ, a free gift. We call it grace.

Of course all people need this message, but Millennials are uniquely suited to respond to the message of God’s grace in Jesus. The young adults who are often far from church are hungry for love, approval, acceptance, purpose, and peace. That’s why there is a constant drive to find popularity, significance, success, and security in a thousand lesser things. There is only one person, one God-man I know of, who can satisfy this deep longing of the soul, Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that salvation is a act of God’s grace through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. We don’t earn it. We don’t ever get “good enough” or do enough good things to receive it. We can’t “smarten up” enough to embrace it. It is a gift. When we see this truth for ourselves it changes everything. Since Jesus loves us  with a one-way unconditional love we are finally free to fail and not be crushed by guilt that comes with failure, or the shame that comes from not measuring up, or the fear that we won’t be truly loved.

Since we have the ultimate love of God though Jesus we are no longer enslaved to the endless search for love in who we are or what we do. A love like this can’t be taken from us because it doesn’t depend on us. Jesus bought it with his life and gives it to those who believe in him. This is very different from religion, it’s an all consuming relationship with the one for whom we were made. This is the message that changes people. This is the message that young adults respond to. Millennials are drawn to it because it stands in stark contrast to the burdensome religion of rules, regulations, do’s, and don’ts.

Only when a person has been gripped by this grace can they finally exhale and find the peace they’re longing for. Only in Jesus will young adults find the unshakeable acceptance that leads to lasting joy and love. There’s no more need to hide because Jesus forgives the dark things in our lives. There’s no more need to measure up because Jesus measured up for us and gives us his perfect record before God. This love sets us free.

Authentic Experience

When young adults encounter this Jesus and find themselves at a church gathering we must know that relevant pastors and hip worship music won’t keep them engaged. The vast majority of churches can’t produce an experience that competes with the billion dollar entertainment industry, but there is an experience that only a grace shaped people can offer, an authentic transparent experience.

When Millennials return to church we must put away the facade of shiny Christianity. It’s not real anyway. It shocks me that Jesus was followed by sinners and churches are filled with people denying the depth of their sinfulness. If the same people who were drawn to Jesus aren’t the same people drawn to church we might not be preaching the same message.

Church is not a group of perfect people who have it all together, it’s a group of desperately broken people running to a loving God. Church is not a group of people who are on a moral high ground, it’s a group of people who discovered they were stuck in the lowest moral swamp and need a rescuer. If we truly believe the message of grace in Jesus Christ we will be the most likely people receive sinners like ourselves with open arms into God’s family. Jesus-centered community has the ability drip with authenticity and transparency because all we have and all we need was received from Jesus.

Millennials are advertised to 5000 times a day. They can sniff out inauthenticity in a second. They can spot hypocrisy from 100 yards away. The church is the one community that can, if we digest grace for every meal, be open, honest, and transparent because we are forgiven and loved despite our performance. If the church is going to reach young adults with the sweet fragrance of life we must put away the stench that comes from legalistic religion.

Pastor Ryan Tirona currently serves as the Senior Pastor of The Chapel At Fishhawk in Lithia, Florida. Prior to this pastorate, Ryan served as the pastor of Young Adults at Glenkirk Church in Glendora, CA. He holds a B.A. in Religion and Leadership from Vanguard University and a M.T.S. from Liberty University.

Find Ryan on Twitter: @ryantirona

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#93 Human Trafficking – Pastor Skip Lanfried

Skip Lanfried’s concern for people began with his relationship with the Lord.  He helped children because he was supposed to, but his true compassion was something that came to him much later.  His fight is against Human Trafficking the definition of which is holding anyone against their will and forcing them to do something against their will. This is slavery and today human slavery is at an all time high.  There are almost 30 million people in slavery around the world.

India is the center of all slavery where the most extreme poor are forced into servitude. Bonded servitude is forced labor and is a form of slavery as is child labor and sex slavery.  Approximately a million children go missing every year.  They are manipulated and forced into the slave trade.  Some children are purposely maimed and then told to beg.  This is Pastor Skip Lanfried’s Fight against Human Trafficking.

“And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard” – Acts 22: 14,15

Recommended Book – “Seduced” by Opal Singleton

www.millionkids.org , www.friends.church

For past shows and to learn more about the God’s Men of Influence community, check us out at www.godsmenofinfluence.org

Join us on Facebook for our daily devotionals and updates and please like our page www.facebook.com/GodsMenOfInfluence

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#92 Meningitis and Christian Transformation – Pastor Skip Lanfried


Skip is a champion for those who suffer injustice.  He demands honesty and integrity in his life, but mot of his young life he moved too fast and forgot that Go is in charge. The first few years of his Christian Transformation turned him upside down.  5 years ago Skip suffered meningitis and was hospitalized for months.  It changed his ability to focus and therefore changed his relationship with God.  He was not willing to listen to what he needed and quickly discovered that he was not in control.  His world again was turned upside down.

Through his faith Skip found the willingness to lean into what others are not willing to. His concern for people began with his relationship with the Lord.  This is Pastor Skip Lanfried’s testimony.

“And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard” – Acts 22: 14,15

Recommended Book – “Seduced” by Opal Singleton

www.millionkids.org , www.friends.church

For past shows and to learn more about the God’s Men of Influence community, check us out at www.godsmenofinfluence.org

Join us on Facebook for our daily devotionals and updates and please like our page www.facebook.com/GodsMenOfInfluence

Help us spread the Word and please rate our show on itunes and leave comments for us. Tell us what insights you took from this episode.

#91 Moving From Boyhood To Manhood – Eric Heard

Eric Heard was a boy in a man’s body who got exposed.  He was weak in life because he couldn’t be who God wanted him to be.In the American culture we do not teach the rites of passage that allow a boy to become a man.  Fathers are too busy to speak truth into their sons.  This is a generational problem and Eric decided early as a father that he would never be absent.  He wanted to bless his son with the knowledge of who he is as a man.  It is men’s responsibility to step up and make order out of chaos.

This is a very special show where we get a glimpse of a Pastor’s perspective on Fatherhood.

Recommended Book – “How to Raise a Modern Day Knight” by Robert Lewis


For past shows and to learn more about the God’s Men of Influence community, check us out at www.godsmenofinfluence.org

Join us on Facebook for our daily devotionals and updates and please like our page www.facebook.com/GodsMenOfInfluence

Help us spread the Word and please rate our show on itunes and leave comments for us. Tell us what insights you took from this episode.