The Church: Learning from the past and raising up young leaders

One of the great things about the Black Pentecostal Church is that it is adaptable, embraces technological advancements, and always finds new ways to connect with the younger generation to share the Gospel.

However, many of the churches founded by the Windrush Generation face a new challenge: how to reach Millennials and Gen Z. Churches led by leaders from the African continent seem to be doing just fine in this area – although later down the road they may well encounter challenges similar to those currently being faced by Caribbean churches.

It’s sad that there are churches of Caribbean heritage with few or no young people. In addition to that, their church leadership seem uninterested – or simply unwilling – to make the changes that will see more saved young people within their congregations.

There’s no doubt the Windrush Generation were successful in establishing churches that met the needs of their generation. Not only that, but they also transmitted their values of faith, thrift, hard work and family values to the second generation.

Many children of the Windrush Generation have stories to share of being sent to Sunday School as children (even when their parents didn’t go to church themselves!), saying grace before meals, being encouraged to be people of good character, lovers of education, and to aspire to fulfil one’s potential – or, to phrase it the Windrush way, be people “of ambition”.

But do our children have those stories to share? Some do – but a lot don’t

Many in my generation rebelled against the strictness of church and stopped going, plus they had to contend with the challenges of being of Caribbean heritage whilst living in a hostile British environment. That became their focus, and resulted with legions of people who never sent their children to Sunday school, never passed on the Christian values they learned as children, and never encouraged their children to go to church and serve the Lord.

The challenge is on for Windrush churches to find a way to connect with Millennials and Gen Z. In my mind, it won’t be difficult if leaders are prayerful, understand the times they are in, and share the Gospel in a way that people can understand and relate to.

When I was younger, there were leaders like Bishop John Francis and Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, Bishop Wayne Malcolm, and the late Dr Tayo Adeyemi – to name just a few – who had a fresh approach to church and ministry. Young people flocked in droves to their churches. The same can happen today, because there are young leaders – some in our churches – with the same passion and spiritual fire in their belly to reach their generation.