The longtime, well-respected Christian pollster describes Millennials (those reaching young adulthood around the year 2000 and later) as “one of the most spiritually challenging generations to reach adulthood in the past century.” They are “raising a new set of challenges to Christianity and to a nation whose morals and values have long reflected biblical principles,” he adds.

Barna, executive director of the American Culture & Faith Institute, shares that when given a 20-question survey with questions like Do you believe all people are essentially good? … Is the Bible the word of God, without error? … and Can you get to heaven by being good? – only one in 25 Millennials came up with answers that put them in the “biblical worldview” category.

The younger set, he says, is trending in the wrong direction.

“By and large they are not inclined to move toward Christianity,” Barna tells OneNewsNow. “They’re less likely to describe themselves as Christians, they’re less likely to embrace Christ as their Savior, [and] they’re more likely to say that they have no kind of faith connection whatsoever.”

According to Barna, Millennials are living out worldviews that have no moral anchor in a stormy culture. “They’re much more accepting of lying, they’re more accepting of cheating, they’re more accepting of abortion and divorce and stealing and pornography,” he explains.

Barna

The Church, he laments, is ill-equipped to help. “Only about a third of born-again Christians in America actually have a biblical worldview,” he offers. “That indicates that churches may partly be struggling because they tend to rely on born-again adults as the backbone of the church.”

So the pollster says it’s important that Christian families have worldview conversations – early and often – because “the worldview that you have at the age 13 is essentially the worldview that you die with.”

And since the parents of Millennials may not be any more biblical in their worldview than their kids, those conversations may well fall to grandparents. He puts it this way:

“… Because 24 of every 25 Millennials lack a biblical worldview today, the probability of them transmitting such to their children is extremely low. You cannot give what you don’t have. In other words, if today’s children are going to eventually embrace a biblical worldview, people with such a perspective must exert substantial influence on the nation’s children to supply what their parents are unable to give them.”

An earlier survey conducted by ACFI indicates that roughly a third (32%) of adults of “grandparent” age (50 or older) possess a biblical worldview.