NASHVILLE, Tenn.–– “UM Men need to find a way to minister to the 80 million millennials.”

That’s what Don Davis, a former NFL football star now serving as a chaplain to the New England Patriots told 800 attendees at the National Gathering of United Methodist Men.

“This is the laziest generation in history,” Davis told 800 people attending the July 12-14 quadrennial meeting.

“Guess who made them that way.”

“Look to your left; look to your right; look behind you; look ahead of you,” said Davis. “If they all look like you, you’re going to die.”

In prescribing ways to minister to people born between 1982 and 2004, the former University of Kansas player, suggested men look at questions Saul asked after being blinded on the Road to Damascus: “Who are you, Lord? “What do you want me to do?”
Ananias, the man who accompanied blinded Saul, told him to 1) know the will of God; 2) see the righteous one, 3) hear his voice; and 4) become his witness.

“What are you waiting for?” Ananias asked Saul.

“What are you waiting for,” Davis asked United Methodist men. “”We have to minister to 80 million millennials.”

Davis, the father of two, recalled how one of his teenage daughters stamped her way into her bedroom and locked the door when she learned her father would only give her $200 for her high school prom.

He said, millennials respond in a similar manner to church teachings, and we won’t reach them with words alone. He urged the men to pray for the millennials and win them to Christ with “contagious compassion.”