Young Christian Leaders Point Out 3 Reasons Why It's Hard to Evangelize Millennials

Young Christian leaders say comfort, doubt, and narcissism are some of the key issues keeping young people from the gospel. 

The Gospel Coalition hosted a conference in Indiana this weekend that tackles the problems that come with evangelizing in the modern age. The conference featured a panel called "Youth Are Not the Future: The Urgent Task of Evangelism Today." 

Stephen Um, senior minister of Citylife Presbyterian Church in Boston, spoke on the panel and argues young people are addicted to comfort. 

"They don't want to be challenged with anything that will make them feel uncomfortable. So they believe that somebody who disagrees with them is a potential threat to them. We used to call that 'intellectual inquiry,'" he said.

Um added that people in the United States are "so consumed with comfort" it has lead to the "oversafetyism" of youth. 

Meanwhile, author and ex-lesbian Jackie Hill Perry said she believes today's youth is plagued by an "addiction to doubt."   

She often sees young people "wrestling for the sake of wrestling, but never really wanting to come to a conclusion on something that you have to now submit to."

Perry said there are many people who like to analyze a moral truth or idea but don't want to truly believe it. 

"You don't even want the answer. You just are addicted to questioning it. I think I see that a lot. I think that's an idol where it's like you don't really want to know," she said. 

On the other hand, Australian evangelist Glen Scrivener believes narcissism is a huge issue in today's culture. 

"The dangers of narcissism are just huge, especially in a social media age and especially for younger people," Scrivener said. 

"Something very interesting in an Instagram age, that we fall in love not even with ourselves, but we fall in love with the curated image of ourselves that we project out into the world. And yet, it's so empty, it's so hollow."

A  Barna Group study from September reveals that only 14 percent of Millennials believe the Bible is the literal Word of God.

A 2017 study also found that one in three Millennials view the Bible as "just another book."