Recently, our team released an eBook titled, The Millennial Handbook: 16 Ways to Engage Millennials on Stewardship.

In this resource, we interviewed several millennials who work for INJOY Stewardship and asked them to share their perspectives on what church leaders need to understand about this generation of church-goers.

One of the questions we asked them was,

What are common mistakes churches make in engaging millennials in the area of stewardship?

Below are their answers to this question.  

The Millennial Handbook: eBook

1 – Many churches knowingly omit millennials altogether.

Many churches neglect the engagement of millennials in the area of stewardship because they have a misconception that millennials won’t give.

Real or not, millennials often, unfortunately, interpret this lack of engagement in the following ways:

• “We’ve given up on you.”

• “We don’t think you’re worth the investment.”

• “We don’t believe in you.” 

2 — A significant number of churches don’t talk about giving enough.

If your church talks about giving, stewardship, and personal finances regularly, millennials will be less skeptical of your motives.

The more you show us that you want something FOR us, not FROM us in our personal finances, the more skepticism tends to wane, and trust is built.  

If your church does not talk about giving on a regular basis, when it gets brought up, the first response from millennials might be skepticism.

Churches who effectively engage millennials in the generosity experience talk about giving, money, or stewardship at some point in every weekend service.  

When you connect millennial giving to stories of life-change in a clear, crisp, and concise fashion, maximum participation takes place.

If quality communication on the topic of money is part of your ministry’s natural rhythm, equity is built, and millennials will respond wholeheartedly.

3 — Some churches don’t show the return on dollars invested in the ministry.

As mentioned previously, millennials respond to actual, real-life stories of life-change.

Churches who consistently communicate and connect stories of life-change to dollars invested in the ministry have a high success rate of seeing millennials funnel resources into the church. 

4 — Some churches preach equal giving, not equal sacrifice.

Luke 21:1-4 tells the family story of The Widow’s Mite.

The passage says, “As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury.

He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.

‘Truly I tell you,’ he said, ‘this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’”

Not everyone is at the same place in life.

Your congregation is made up of people in different seasons of life and various financial brackets.

The best approach is calling your church not to equal gifts, but to equal sacrifice.