I wanted to like Thom Rainer’s book, The Millennials. I mean, church leaders can use all the help they can get to catch the attention of the newest adults, and the book provides some insight that will help. Besides, the ebook and audiobook formats have been offered for free for a limited time.
But I still can’t recommend the book. Here’s why:
(1) Rainer has a way of disparaging the generations who most need to read this book. I don’t think it’s conscious, but it’s still there. I finished the book with the impression that there are only two remarkable generations: the generation of Rainer’s parents and the generation of his sons. His own generation, the Boomers, are presented as primarily a self-centered and spoiled group. And Gen X, now in their 30s and early 40s, are presented (when they are discussed at all) as mostly a brooding, morose bunch. I’m sure Rainer regarded his portrayal of Boomers as somewhat self-deprecating, given that he is from that generation himself. Still, my leadership team is made up of mostly Boomers and Gen X. If I put this book in their hands so we could discuss how to reach Millennials, I wouldn’t blame them for having a hard time getting over the way their own generations are portrayed.
(2) Rainer completely ignores the generation between Boomer and Gen X. Yup, there’s one in between. I don’t guess he’s entirely to blame for ignoring this group, since it’s the stock-in-trade of generational discussions to say that Boomers envelope everyone born through 1964. Still, those of us born in the early 60s really don’t like being lumped together with those who came of age in the late 60s. Leave it to Beaver was not our childhood show, Woodstock was not our watershed cultural moment, and the Watergate scandal did not rock our world. We were all far too young for that. Now we’re being told that Boomers are all about retirement planning while those of us born in the early 60s still have, oh, about 20 years to go in our careers. It leaves my generation jonesin’ for recognition I tell ya. Jonesin’. Again, I want to put a book in the hands of my leadership to help them think about reaching Millennials, but this isn’t the one. It mis-handles the generations of the people who need to read this book while at the same time calling on them to reach the newest generation of adults.
(3) When it comes to the Millennial generation itself, I’m not confident it gives us the information we need. For one, Rainer and other writers are making the same mistake with the “Millennial” label as they make with the “Boomer” label: They make it cover 20 years of births--and then they describe everyone born in that 20-year span with only the experiences of those in the first 10 years of the span. So, for example, Rainer tells us about marriage trends of this generation, though half of this generation is still in grade school (leave alone that much of the older half isn’t married yet either). In fact, much of the research Rainer reports is on what Millennials intend to do, since there simply isn’t much information yet on what they’re actually doing as adults. So they intend to marry only once, they intend to be fully engaged with the kids they don’t yet have, and they intend to change the world with social action. (As to that last one, Christian Smith’s forthcoming book isn’t nearly as glowing about the social consciousness of emerging adults). It’s hard to make intelligent plans for outreach to Millennials without reliable information.
Again, this is a book I wanted to recommend, because I need to get something in the hands of my church leaders that can help us reach out to the newest generation of adults. I'll keep looking.
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