Date

12-7-2023

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Chair

Alvin W. Dockett

Keywords

Millennials, church membership, church engagement, church decline, membership patterns

Disciplines

Christianity | Marketing

Abstract

Church membership is declining worldwide. Studies show that Millennials are less likely to belong to a church than previous generations. Even among churched Millennials, only 48% of church-attending Millennials are church members. Simultaneously, organizations such as health, fitness, and social clubs are seeing an increase in Millennial membership growth. Brand loyalty is high among Millennials, but church loyalty is low even among practicing Christian Millennials who attend church at least once per month. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how practicing Christian Millennials understand the nature of engagement with church and nonreligious memberships and the factors that shape those commitments. Practicing Christian Millennials were generally defined as anyone born between 1981 and 1996 who self-identified as a Christian and attended a trinitarian Protestant church in the United States at least once per month. The methodology guiding this study was Husserl’s phenomenological approach to gaining insight into the phenomenon of Christian Millennials’ engagement rates with religious and nonreligious memberships.

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