Nearly all Christian millennials (96 percent) who attend church monthly affirm that sharing about Jesus is part of their faith, according to a Barna Group report published Feb. 5.
Yet, nearly half (47 percent) of Christian millennials (born from 1984 to 1998) also believe “it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.”
This is by far the highest percentage of Christians in any generation featured in the survey – 27 percent of Gen-X (born from 1965 to 1983), 19 percent of Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964) and 20 percent of Elders (born before 1946) agreed with this statement.
The generational disconnect seems to be located around the purpose of sharing one’s personal beliefs with others, as responses from practicing Christian millennials align closely with other generations on most of the other survey questions.
A strong majority of Christian millennials agreed that it is good for people to “come to know Jesus” (94 percent) and affirmed that they know how to respond to questions about their faith (86 percent) and are gifted in sharing about their faith with others (73 percent).
Here’s how that compared to Christians in the other generations:
- Affirming that it is good for people to “come to know Jesus” was supported by 97 percent of Gen Xers, Boomers and Elders.
- Affirming that they know how to respond to questions about their faith was supported by 90 percent of Gen Xers, 92 percent of Boomers and 89 percent of Elders.
- Affirming that they are gifted in sharing about their faith with others was supported by 66 percent of Gen Xers, 59 percent of Boomers and 56 percent of Elders.
The full report is available here.
