Assignment 3 | Reflection 3

Who do Millennials say that Jesus is?

By David Garcia
Who do you say I am?
Jesus1

When Jesus asked to his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied,
Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the
prophets.2 It is an interesting response because came from a generation that grew up
among of a spiritual culture, swamped for traditions, rituals and religious ceremonies. But
many things have changed from this time; for instance, today we have the Millennials or
Generation Y, a group that has the reputation of being the toughest generation to
manage. They grew up in a culturally diverse school and play environment, are tech-savvy,
enthusiastic, self-centered, confident, well networked and achievement-oriented. Millennials
are one of the best-educated generations in history are accustomed to new ideas and
situations, a constant opportunity to learn (or more accurately find out). 3 Undoubtedly, this
generation signifies for the church today a series of challenges and opportunities, especially
if want to share and teach them an accurate image of Jesus based on the Bible.
Oden said, Our purpose is to understand and teach Jesus the Christ as he has been
understood and taught by those whose lives have been most profoundly transformed by
him.4 Millennials will have more chance to know the real Jesus through watching lives living
as Jesus modeled us, loving God over all the things and the neighbor as themselves.
Teaching about Jesus to this generation is not only a theoretical task, it requires more than
attending Sunday classes, graduating from a discipleship program or having a theological
degree; they need to experience a personal encounter with Jesus in order to be able to
respond who Jesus is in their lives. But Millennials not only need to observe and be
motivated by others in order to know Jesus and for being holy as he is holy, they need to
have faith in him; it implies a deeper knowledge of Jesus; they must believe in God enough
to entrust ourselves entirely to his tender care5, and it will be a new way to do theology for
a generation that more than words, is thirsty of facts.
Now then, an interesting statistic according a research conducted by Barna Group is that,
Millennials are the only generation among whom evangelism is significantly on the rise.
Their faith-sharing practices have escalated from 56% in 2010 to 65% in 2013 in the
middle of a generation defined by their religious indifference, these Millennial evangelists
stand in stark contrast.6 Is not here the place to going deeper about it, and analyze the
causes or motives of this tendency, but is important to highlight the importance that the
church should reinforce in an intentional way that Millennials need have a biblical Jesus
theology in order that their evangelism efforts not become only a well-intentioned social
activism7. The effectiveness of the evangelism lay when the sacrificial love of Jesus that

1 Matthew 16:15 New International Version (NIV)

2 Matthew 16:13-14 (NIV)
3 Mayhew, B. (2014). Multigenerational Characteristics. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.brucemayhewconsulting.com/index.cfm?id=20209. [Last Accessed 13 November 2014].

4 Oden, Thomas C. (2009-07-23). Classic Christianity (Systematic Theology) (p. 217). HarperCollins. Kindle
Edition.

5 Kinlaw, Dennis F. (2011-04-19). Let's Start with Jesus: A New Way of Doing Theology (Kindle Locations
2489-2491). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

6 Barna Group (2013). Is Evangelism Going Out of Style?. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.barna.org/barna-

update/faith-spirituality/648-is-evangelism-going-out-of-style#.VGTxHNZdenW. [Last Accessed 13 November 2014].

7 They've been called "the social justice generation," and for good reasonMillennials are actively taking up the
cause of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan and the widow. Yet the most common critique leveled at this surge in
social compassion is that it comes at a great expense. Sure, skeptics argue, they might feed the hungry and free

transformed us may transform others; Oden said, We need a radical change in our nature,
and that cannot come from us.8 When we really have a personal encounter with Jesus
regardless of be part of Millennials or other generation, and leave him to take the total
control of our lives we could know him as he is, and we could say as Peter said, You are the
Messiah, the Son of the living God.9

the captives in this life, but what about the next? According to this view, Millennials are elevating physical needs
over spiritual needs and forgoing evangelism altogether. Barna Group (2013).

8 Kinlaw, Dennis F. (2011-04-19). Let's Start with Jesus: A New Way of Doing Theology (Kindle Locations
2281-2282). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

9 Matthew 16:16 (NIV)