Black Protestants have retained the greatest number of millennials compared with Catholics, white mainliners, and white evangelicals, according to 2012 data from the Public Religion Research Institute and Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. These traditions have seen their market share of millennials drop by 8.4, 7.3, and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. In contrast, black Protestant millennials have decreased by 1.5 percentage points.<\/p>\n
The black church\u2019s unique history and culture help to explain why it is keeping millennials while other traditions are losing them. In the Antebellum Era, the black church was a place of \u201ccommunal and spiritual encouragement\u201d\u009d for slaves, says University of Albany professor Roxanne Jones Booth. And during Jim Crow, the church was one of the few institutions that let blacks lead.<\/p>\n
Consequently, the church \u201cserved more than a religion function,\u201d\u009d said apologetics pastor and researcher Carl Ellis. \u201cThere are institutional, social, and cultural reasons why people attend church. They\u2019re not all theological.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n