Generational definitions vary with the research, so we will define some boundaries here for our purposes.

Builders - Born 1926-1945
These are the people that built the institutions that serve us today, including the church. Worship starts with a Call to Worship, then you sing a few hymns, take an offering. Then the choir sings (at 11:25) and the preacher preaches for 30 minutes. Sing an invitation hymn and go home.
Church Attendance: Some 60% of the Builders attend church today.

Boomers - Born 1946 - 1964
Hymnbooks don’t work. You can’t hold a hymn book and worship at the same time. Worship music needs lots of percussion. The church is purpose driven. Small groups are very important for spiritual growth in this group.
Church Attendance: Some 42-44% of the Boomers attend church today.

GenX - Born 1965 - 1983
These live in small groups. Relationships are big, big. Their work ethic is dramatically different from the boomer - they don’t work for the job, the job works for them. They can’t follow a sermon that is not authentic.
Church Attendance: Some 18-22% of the GenX attend church.

Millennials - Born 1984-2000
These people are volunteers and integrate their witness into everything. They are the true digitals and into iPods, video, DVDs, CDs. They do a lot of multitasking and multimedia. They have a very short attention spam. Don’t expect them to sit still for a 30 minute sermon. To reach these, the message must integrate video, music, drama. They do Internet, Instant Messaging, email, blogging and phoning - all at the same time.
Attendance in Church Today: Less than 10%

Nexters - Born 1001-2005
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These numbers were provided to me by Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Tense: Six Tough Questions for the Church in December, 2005. He is director of leadership development for the South Carolina Baptist Convention. To quote Reggie, “Looks like the church is working, just got to tweak it a bit.” (Reggie is quite humorous.) Sure.

Here’s another serious quote from Reggie’s book:
“ Those whose message is an appeal for church members to make the church successful and significant will lose when the institutional loyalist’s money runs out (by current reckoning, less than a generation away).”

Those younger generations no longer will choose to join an institution. They are not institutionally driven. What they want to join is a vision, a passion. Something that will change the world. They work from small groups, but the groups are highly relational and unlike those of the Boomers. Often they live in their small groups.

This does NOT mean the younger generations are unfaithful. Many of these have a strong faith. It is just that this faith is not insititutionally driven. In the Northwest (unlike other regions) the single largest segment of the population is composed of those who identify with a religious traditionbut have no affiliation with a religious community. Even when people are affiliated with a church, the church is often independent. The fastest growng churches in the Portland area are the independent churches. Even churches that are a part of a mainline denomination are often only loosley affiliated with the denominational headquarters.

We don’t know the size of the early churches or their organization structure, but we know they had vision and passion. They were dying for it. Read Hebrews 11, or Revelation. The early leaders led from vision. They were more of a movement. You chose a personal relationship with Christ. Then you became part of a movement. Most denominations started as movements, then became institutionalized. Then they die.

I asked Reggie where he got his statistics from. He said it was from George Barna, Thom Rainer, and others. These are all in his Chapter 1 footnotes of his book. Interested in more?
See these books:

REVOLUTION - by George Barna.
MEGASHIFT - by James Rutz.
Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest (This has other editions for other areas of the country)
The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal
See also Discovering Your City by Carl Townsend and Bob Waymire. This was written in 2000 but contains forecasts of what you are seeing today. (This is also at Amazon, but Amazon orders don’t help our ministry any - order from us using the link here.)