"5 churchy phrases that are scaring off millennials" In short, millenials are bothered by the churchy language that incites bad theology, cheesy one line salvation, and reliance on literal interpretations of the Bible. This author puts his own return to church this way:
When I returned to church, it wasn’t because of great programs, alluring events or a really cool “café” set up in the foyer. I went back not because of what the church was doing, but rather in spite of it. I went back because I needed community, and because, thanks to a steady dose of medication and therapy, I was finally well enough to root through the cliché to find it.
Community is an obvious church necessity and one, oddly enough, that has also bankrupted the discipleship of many of our churches. While millenials need to feel and experience a community to become more faithful followers of Christ, the generation before them turned church into an theological (or not, as the case may be) country club. BONUS: the generation before millenials added all those cheesy phrases and decided that they "ran this place" (an actual phrase I heard form an actual churchgoer about an actual church) in the same way that they dressed up for dinner at the club and complained when the bread came out cold.
If you believe, like I do, that church ought to exist as it always has, incorporating quality and necessary elements like worship, sacrament, and community then this nonsense is unnecessary.
Millenials aren't into hoakyness. Raise your hand if you're surprised.
Millenials want to be loved and love. Raise your hand if you're surprised.
The only thing I fear: this paring down of church (the attitude insisted upon in this article) to "community" is weak, weak, weak. It may, in fact, draw more millenials to church in the short run but "community" is only the top layer of what church is.