Millennials and Gen Z Want The Use of “Christianese” Stopped, Study Shows
Written by Heartsong Live on 19th August 2020
A new study into the use of language amongst Christians has indicated that younger believers are keen to scrap the terms commonly described as ‘Christianese’. In its report, The Future of Missions, research group Barna found that when it comes to Christian evangelism, Millennials and Gen Z are becoming increasingly frustrated by over-used phrases like “winning souls”
In fact, Barna’s survey showed that young adults and teens prefer to avoid the term “evangelism” itself, instead opting for “sharing faith”.
Roughly a third of young adults (31 per cent) and teens (30 per cent) take issue with the phrase “winning souls”, while 35 per cent of young adults and 38% of teens object to “convert”.
In contrast, 44% of those aged 35 and above said they were not concerned by terms like “convert”, “winning souls”, “making disciples”, “witnessing” and “missions”.
Despite uneasiness about certain linguistics in the field of evangelism, Barna was keen to point out that younger Christians are still extremely enthusiastic about engaging in mission work.
“Listening intentionally to young Christians who object to at least one missions term uncovers important nuance: Their objections don’t inevitably lead to disengagement from missions altogether,” the report reads. “In fact, young adults who may squirm at the use of “convert” or “winning souls,” for instance, are more likely than others to personally know a missionary (83 per cent vs. 77 per cent) and to have been on an international missions trip (41 per cent vs. 29 per cent).
“They are just as likely as others to say giving to and praying for missionaries is in their future. At the same time, however, they are more likely to be supportive sceptics (30 per cent vs. 18 per cent) and to be troubled when it comes to the ethics of past missions efforts (39 per cent agree vs. 25 per cent)”.
For the purpose of this study, Barna conducted 3,606 online interviews with U.S. self-identified Christians, including 1,500 adults 35 and older (all engaged Protestants, see definitions below), 1,000 younger adults 18 to 34 (856 engaged Protestants), 602 teenagers 13 to 17 (380 engaged Protestants) and 504 engaged Protestant parents of children 13 to 25. The group also interviewed 633 U.S. Protestant pastors of missions focused churches.
Source: Premier News
