Mason said it's difficult to gauge the impact of a generation early on. She said there is a lifecycle to religion.



Pew research suggests that people are least likely to practice religion during their teens and twenties. As they grow older, some return to church while raising children and even more return later when they must face their own mortality.

​

The Pew report hints, however, that the millennial generation may break the trend. As the older half of the generation begins raising families, they are becoming less affiliated with religion.

​

A tale of two churches

In early April, three women sat around a table at the Columbia Area Senior Center. Donna Marsh, 78, sat with Tommie Wildman, 90, to her left and Kathy McGee, 65, to her right.



The women all attend the United Church of Christ of Columbia. They’ve attended for various amounts of time – from less than two years in McGee’s case to more than 50 for Marsh.

​

The three agreed about half of their church population is millennials, particularly young parents, and most of them are Columbia natives and have a college education.

​

“A lot of young people take part,” Marsh said later. None of them worry about having a generation there to take over the roles that keep their church running.

​

It's not to say the three are unaware of the millennial generation’s movement away from religion, but they believe young people need time to make their own decisions.

​

“We don’t say that just because young people don’t do what we say, the world’s going to hell in a hand basket,” Wildman said.

​

A few blocks south of the senior center is Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist Church, on the corner of Wilkes Boulevard and 7th Street. It’s an old building with a new sanctuary. While the sunny-yellow and watery-green stained glass windows remain from before, the interior has been altered.

​

Two-thirds of the pews have been removed, as well as the chapel in the back. The rear of the sanctuary was fitted with a new floor and coffee bar, as well as tables, chairs and benches.

​

March hopes the change makes the space more hospitable. But the reduction in pews also reflects a change in the church’s capacity.

​

The original sanctuary sat 300 people. March describes it as having been constructed by a generation of “builders,” people who after World War II were very involved socially in clubs and groups and wanted the church to be another place the community could grow together. Drawing from the surrounding neighborhood, it was one of the largest churches in Columbia.

​

But a few decades ago, the area around Wilkes Boulevard Methodist changed. Incomes went down, crime rates went up.

​

“If Jesus were going to walk in this city, he’d probably walk by this church.” March said about the needs of the people in the area.

​

March said while the generation that built Wilkes Boulevard Methodist continued to attend church services, their children did not.

​

Two years ago, attendance had fallen to around 80 people from a history of full attendance. The church began struggling financially since fewer people could donate the tithes necessary to sustain the church.

​

Wilkes Boulevard Methodist was dying.

​

March described the solution the church settled on as a “pretty darn radical” movement toward serving the neighborhood rather than focusing on the congregants. When the church changed, many members left and attendance fell to about 30 people. It has since risen to around 45.

​

Sue Hopkins, 75, said the other people active within the church aren’t her age. They’re younger. And while they have taken up roles such as Sunday School teachers, committee members and charity organizers, there isn’t much tradition being passed on.

​

“The traditional way is gone. We are nontraditional now.” Hopkins said. “And a lot of the people feel very alienated because of that. I don’t know if it’s wrong or bad, it just is.”

​

March hesitated before saying whether she thinks there will be someone to fill her role as a lay reader when she stops.

​

“I hope people see the relevance of serving,” she said.

​

Reflections from the Greatest Generation

A wife married to a career military man must be adept at change and be quick to adapt. Tommie Wildman, has lived in nearly 50 different homes across the country, North America and overseas. That also meant switching Christian denominations multiple times along the way.



Wildman always made a point to take her family — her husband and son — to church wherever they were. Their travel led them to many different denominations.

​

“We’ve done everything … the Protestant churches and some Evangelicals and on to the Mormons and the Catholics,” she said.

​

She said she chose the United Church of Christ of Columbia because she had been a member of the UCC when she lived in Arizona for those 43 years. Wildman said it was everything she wanted in religion: open and affirming, a church that said “yes” to everyone.

​

She said she involved herself in the churches to help her settle into communities. Moving so often made it difficult, but she said she tried to make her home open, especially to other members of the military. She remembers one time in Newfoundland her husband asked if they could have a few servicemen over for Thanksgiving. They ended up with 10 guests.

​

Wildman never questioned the integrity of religion.

​

“I discussed it with a lot of people, and they’ve raised doubts, but I haven’t succumbed. The doubts don’t fulfill anything within me that I don’t already have.”

​

Her son is a baby boomer. Her three grandchildren are all on the cusp of being in Generation X or being millennials. Her five great-grandchildren are still children. One of her granddaughters is a Catholic and sends her children to a Catholic school, but the rest do not practice religion.

​

Reflections from the silent generation

Hopkins and Marsh are both members of the silent generation. Both say they haven't strayed from the denominations they attended as children.

​

“There were times when I was floundering and struggling with how I was going to deal with a pastor or a Sunday school teacher or something like that, but I never doubted God in my life,” Hopkins said.

​

Hopkins has been a social worker, a newspaper editor and a member of the Osceola, Mo. school board. She and her husband, both United Methodist pastors, have raised their children to be United Methodists. Her three children are baby boomers, and while two are practicing within Christianity, one does not. Her three grandchildren are millennials, and as far as she knows, none of them have a religious affiliation.

​

“I do not try to manage my children’s lives,” she said referring to her grandchildren being raised without an emphasis on religion. “They know where I stand on this, and that’s the best I can do. I don’t see that nagging or complaining or arguing or attacking would improve things.”

​

Marsh has always been a member of the UCC and has attended the United Church of Christ Columbia for 51 years.

​

Marsh said religion helped her decide to get married and have children when she was 21. It has also helped her deal with tragedy in life. One of Marsh's children was born with a physical defect, another had cancer and her husband died of an illness at age 31.

​

She said she got through those times because of her faith.

​

“The fact that I had strength there, that I could go on, and I always felt that God was with me.”

​

Marsh said she prays about everything, even civic decisions such as voting. She specifically looks at how policies treat people, thinking of Jesus with the tax collectors, adulterers and prostitutes.

​

“Should we think they’re less? Should we think we’re more?” She asked.

​

Marsh has six children, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. They’re members of many different churches.

​

“I think they’re all believers,” she said. “They may not go to church, but they do read the Bible and pray.” She thinks that over time, those who are not actively practicing will become active again.

​

“I do not try to manage my children’s lives,” she said referring to her grandchildren being raised without an emphasis on religion. “They know where I stand on this, and that’s the best I can do. I don’t see that nagging or complaining or arguing or attacking would improve things.”

​

Reflections of baby boomers

Like the millennials who have begun questioning religion, McGee spent time examining her own faith. She had grown up a Baptist, but began questioning her faith as a teenager after observing what she saw as hypocrisies within the church.

​

During her questioning, she explored alternative religions, but said she always came to Christianity because that's how she was raised.

​

“There are certainly things about other religions that are good and true, but I don’t think they go far enough,” she said.

​

She searched extensively within Christianity as well. She explored many denominations including the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unity churches. It was only a year-and-a-half ago that she found the United Church of Christ Columbia

​

“I just went, on my own, one Christmas Day,” she said. “I just had a feeling of just going. So I did. And I’ve been there since.” She is now a member of the church and feels as though she belongs.

​

McGee has one daughter, who is a Generation Xer. All three of her grandchildren are younger than the millennial age group. She said they are Christians but don’t go to church.

​

“They pray, and things like that, but they don’t take time to study the Bible or things like that,” she said.

​

March also had a time when she was away from religion. She considers herself a born-again Christian after what she calls a “conversion experience” eighteen years ago.

​

“I don’t know if I really ever had faith,” she said. She remembers her time away from religion as disturbing and unsettling, as she constantly felt unsure.

​

She said she believes in God, whom she said spoke to her, had a hand in pulling her out of this uncertainty. This prompted her seeking.

​

“The more I sought truth, and the more I sought God, the more he revealed himself to me,” she said.  She said this process went on for two to three years. Now she said she has answers and inner peace, and she wants others to feel as she does. That's why she spends so much time in service at Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist.

​

March raised her children within the bounds of religion. She said she promotes her religiously-grounded morals views to the young people she encounters, particularly after noticing her great-niece’s distance from religion.

​

March’s 16-year-old son was with her at Wilkes Boulevard United Methodist the week after Easter. Though her 24-year-old daughter has told March she still believes in God, she doesn’t go to church and tries not to talk about religious issues with her mother.

​

“Maybe she has different views,” March said. “Maybe she thinks I would judge her.”