Many church leaders are not sure how to navigate their relationships with millennials as they see a growing disconnect between the church and the young people in our culture.

They feel the tension of the age gap and often are tempted to give up trying to connect. In addition, another gap, not a new one, but newly highlighted, adds to the tensions in the church: the gender gap. But if the church will equip its congregants to bridge the Sunday worship to Monday work gap, then the church cannot continue to sidestep the church to Women or the church to millennials gaps.

Monday faith that practices whole life discipleship in all spheres of life involves the whole person of both genders, male and female, and in all stages of life from young to old. I asked Karley Hatter, a twenty-four-year-old millennial and recent seminary graduate, who aims to build strategic relationships in the faith, work, and economic integration networks, to re-envision how the church can make room for women and millennials.

Karley’s Story

August 2017, just weeks before I embarked on my journey to Fuller Theological Seminary in Los Angeles, my pastor asked me, “Why would you go to seminary?” As my mind started to spin, the only question that came to my mind was, “Why wouldn’t I?” Ever since I became a Christian, I was captivated by the desire to preach.

All through college, I found myself leading Bible studies, preaching, and teaching. Going to seminary was something I never thought would be questioned; it was always something I thought was incredibly clear. As I continued to see my male colleagues encouraged to attend seminary, my pastor’s questioning continued to plague my spirit.

“I had been attending this church for years, and this congregation had been instrumental in shaping my theology. However, my pastor’s question led to more questions about my call. Where was my seat at the table? Where are the women?

As a millennial woman who has dreams of preaching in a pulpit, exploring my giftings in ministry, becoming an entrepreneur, charting new territory, this question was disorienting. The lack of encouragement and support to attend seminary during this season shaped my ecclesiology and theology of vocation.”

Over time, I have become grateful for my pastor’s question. It provoked in me an earnest desire to deconstruct and reconstruct my ecclesiology and devote an entire season to letting the Spirit of God reshape my theology.

What would I re-imagine the church to look like? Feel like? Sound like? My seminary journey has been layered with complexities, frustrations, and joys. Seminary has deeply equipped me for the spiritual journey that lies ahead, but most of all has helped me see the expansive nature of God.

Re-imagining Church

I would re-imagine a church that fully affirms the roles of women in leadership and ministry—where both male and female are equally championed. The church at large has failed to spiritually equip women, as well as younger people’s minds and voices.

One of the biggest questions young people are asking today is, “What am I called to do?” The church has often failed to help young people vocationally discern their work, leaving them in spaces of spiritual immaturity.

If the church continues to fail to ask young people the right questions around faith, work, and calling, their sense of community and belonging will remain detached from the church. I deeply desire that the church would re-imagine what it would look like to focus on the whole self.

Reflection of Instilling Whole-Life Discipleship

Miroslav Volf described the vision of a whole-life-discipleship church well: “We need to build and strengthen mature communities of vision and character who celebrate faith as a way of life as they gather before God for worship and who, sent by God, live it out as they scatter to pursue various tasks in the world.”

Steven Argue from the Fuller Youth Institute talks about helping our young adults go from faith to ‘faith-ing.’ He says that “programming also buys into these preconceived notions where more emphasis is placed on getting people ‘in’ or counting conversions, never realizing that these same people leave the church because, in their own words, they’ve ‘outgrown it.’

One-time conversions or the length of being a Christian don’t necessarily speak to spiritual maturity.” Cultivating space for young people to fully mature in their person-hood while engaging in questions of vocation have the ability to equip the next generation to make catalytic shifts within the church. The church has a unique opportunity to embrace younger generations who are searching for a place to belong, specifically in wrestling with conversations around faith and vocation.

Young people like me want to show up in church and celebrate our vocations, work, and passions as acts of faith. I imagine creatives, artists, entrepreneurs, women, men, all races and ethnicities and ages representing the modern-day church.

Are you equipping women and millennials well, to be empowered to bridge the Sunday to Monday gap?

An Excerpt from the book, “Church for Monday” by Dr. Svetlana Papazov.

Svetlana Papazov is Lead Pastor and Founder of Real Life Church, President/Founder of Real Life Center for Entrepreneurial and Leadership Excellence, a first of its kind model of church and business incubator that educates in entrepreneurship, leadership and faith praxis.