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    Church?  No Thanks…

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    Findings from the study, in which 1,023 adults, ages 18 to 30, were surveyed, reveal that 97% of dropouts give specific life-change issues as their reason for leaving. Only 20% of the dropouts predetermined their post high school departure.

    “The most frequent reason for leaving church is, in fact, a self-imposed change, ‘I simply wanted a break from church’ (27%),” according to a LifeWay report summarizing the study. “The path toward college and the workforce are also strong reasons for young people to leave church: ‘I moved to college and stopped attending church’ (25%) and ‘work responsibilities prevented me from attending’ (23%).”

    Following are some similar findings cited by the Youth Transition Network (YTN), a coalition of some of the nation’s largest denominations and ministries that are working together to help reduce the dramatic loss of youth from the church:

    “An Assemblies of God study showed a loss of 66% of their students within one year of high school graduation.”

    “A Southern Baptist transition project estimates an 82% loss of youth within one year of high school graduation.”

    “Fifty to eighty percent of high school students walk away.”

    “As someone who recognizes the importance of an ever-growing faith, especially during the college years, these are staggering statistics,” said Cyndi Forman, campus minister of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM) of Georgia Tech and Emory University. “The statistics are sad, disappointing and dangerous, all at the same time.”

    You can read more here at OneNewsNow...

    FOR YOUR INPUT:  So… has your church been successful in reaching this age group, or are you an unfortunate part of these statistics?  How do you think your church can change to fill this void?

    Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open the doors. Where are all the people? Seventy percent of the people, 23 to 30 years old, are nowhere to be found in church on a regular basis for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. They become church dropouts, according to a 2007 study from LifeWay Research. These students who attended a Protestant church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school are leaving the church, and most of them are doing so during their first year of college...

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    1. Adam on Tue, April 22, 2008

      We haven’t done a great job at reaching college students, but we are trying.  One thing that we have done is to start a college small group that meets off church campus throughout the week.  We planned this small group around the schedules of college students by meeting from 8:30pm to 10:30pm.  They’re up late anyway!


      I wouldn’t say that we have been real successful, but we are keeping many who would have dropped off.

    2. Wendi on Tue, April 22, 2008

      I think the absence of people in this age group isn’t a result of not reaching this demographic but rather not retaining the preceding age group (high school), as indicated by the stats at the end of the article.  I say this from personal experience at church and at home (2 sons who have dropped out after leaving the nest).


      Since we know that most people come to our churches with a friend, if there are few 20-30 year olds in our church because the 15-19 year-olds leave when they turn 20, it stands to reason that we’ll do a poor job reaching 20-30 year olds.


      I work for a very evangelistic youth para-church organization.  Part of our mission is to connect the kids we reach back to the local church, and this is probably the most difficult part of our job.  Most of the sometimes rough, tatted and pierced, worldly wise kids we reach simply will not fit into a typical church youth group. 


      Perhaps the better question is how do we retain the kids we reach between the ages of 15-18 (along with the kids, like mine, who grew up in the church)?  As a mom looking back, I can think of many things that were wrong with my paradigm about youth group when my own kids were attending.  Not the least of my wrong thinking, was being fully satisfied as long as there were plenty of activities that kept my kids busy with other church kids.  If I could do it over, I’d ask questions about what was happening to help them grow as young disciples, and perhaps more importantly, how well the YM programs (along with the rest of the church programming) was doing at reaching completely unchurched kids.  I’m ashamed to say that their inward focus grew out of their parent’s inward focus during the time we were busy raising our family.  So, when they had the choice, they indeed fell squarely into the group that simply walked away. 


      This experience contributes to my strong belief that one of the best things we can do keep people of any age is get them squarely focused on reaching the lost at the very front end of their own faith journey.


      Wendi

    3. Daniel on Tue, April 22, 2008

      “Another hallmark of Christianity is that salvation is not individualistic—it’s not something one person receives for himself or herself. Salvation is the reign of God. It is a political alternative to the way the world is constituted. That’s a very important part of the story that has been lost to accounts of salvation that are centered in the individual. But without an understanding that salvation is the reign of God, the need for the church to mediate salvation makes no sense at all.”—Stanley Hauerwas

    4. CS on Tue, April 22, 2008

      “‘I simply wanted a break from church’ (27%),”


      Whoa!  Over one quarter of people in this age just want to walk away from being in worship with God with other believers?  I think there is something bigger behind the scenes here. 


      This is a prime time in kids’ lives when they go off to college and often find themselves raising Hell.  I would have loved if a follow-up question to this one was something like, “During the time when you ‘wanted a break from church,’ did you engage in a lifestyle of sin that would be shameful if you were still in a church?”


      “‘work responsibilities prevented me from attending’ (23%).”


      I know with my job that I have to serve as the night watchman, ensuring that everything runs well in the evenings and on the weekends every few months.  It’s like preventing the ox from walking into the ditch.  And sometimes after I have been up all night, I do not attend the morning service.  Life happens, occasionally. 


      But there’s a point where it becomes a willful choice to not go.  Especially when churches have Wednesday night Bible studies, Saturday night worship, and three sets of Sunday services. 



      CS

    5. Eric Joppa on Tue, April 22, 2008

      Wendi,


      You said… “I’m ashamed to say that their inward focus grew out of their parent’s inward focus during the time we were busy raising our family.”


      I am so glad to hear someone say that. Not that I am joyful of your shame or the shame of someone else, but that someone is realizing that an inward focus is damaging to students who will live outward lives when the go to college/the work force.


      As a youth pastor and a former staffer with Youth For Christ (YFC) I too found that the normal church youth ministry is hard for students who have been wounded by life and decisions to fit into. The look different, have had different experiences and are told by adult leaders and some very churched students that…“you engage in a lifestyle of sin that is shameful…”


      I think there is an over arching problem in our churches that virtually ignores Jr. High and HS students as it pertains to the body. Sure, we hire qualified (hopefully) people to care for them and create almost an entirely different church for them. and then we expect them to want to be a part of the church that has not wanted them to be a part until they are adults.


      Then entire time the church is full of older christians who are disconnected from the younger culture and their needs. I think it’s ironic that the claim is that youth ministries are failing. In fact I believe it is the church as a whole that is failing, and not YM.


      If we really want to reach the younger generations then we need do more to reach out to them and make them as though we want them and all of their thoughts and ideals, regardless of how much they give. We are too busy trying to make older people who give happy by doing church their way.


      Mean while the younger generations are leaving the church in droves, and the older believers are scratching their heads because they think everything is great.


      Frustrating.

    6. Tyler on Tue, April 22, 2008

      The dreaded black hole. I think this discussion doesn’t happen enough. It is like churches are just ok with it. As far as your question goes it has to be half and half. Whether churches try to reach that age group or not, a lot of kids will still not go to church. I’ve often seen that in college towns there are not enough college groups in churches outside of campus crusade or young life. A good place to start would be to either hire or get a solid team of volunteers that can speak to those that are their age.

    7. Peter Hamm on Tue, April 22, 2008

      If the kinds of things we are teaching these kids are things like the necessity of believing in a 6-day creation or that the KJV is the only Word of God or other legalistic things that aren’t endemic to the day-to-day living of the life of a Christ-follower, then I’d want out, too.


      If we are teaching them good spiritual habits (disciplines) and the importance of staying close to Jesus as opposed to following all the right rules… then they might not fall away.


      Is it possible that few of us are doing that?

    8. CS on Tue, April 22, 2008

      Peter:


      “If we are teaching them good spiritual habits (disciplines) and the importance of staying close to Jesus as opposed to following all the right rules… then they might not fall away.”


      Right on.  The problems I have seen both as a youth and as an adult is that the groups established for high schoolers especially are focused on social activities rather than building up a foundation in the Word.  The kids play Halo 3, they run around doing relays with balloons and potato sacks, they watch movies or go to the water park.  But then when it comes time for dedicating time to opening up the Bible, explaining it and how it applies to their lives and as they go into adulthood, the people leading those sessions have little formal training, resources, or time invested into it.  I’ve heard some say, “You can’t expect a teenager to sit there for an hour and work on studying the Bible.”  Sure you can!  And they’ll get more out of it than trying to snipe a Covenant creature in a virtual box canyon.



      CS

    9. Peter Hamm on Tue, April 22, 2008

      CS


      Uh oh, I think we might agree again.

    10. John Cheatham on Tue, April 22, 2008

      As an active member of a BCM in college, I can honestly say the local churches had very little ministries I could be involved in. They had youth group up through high school, then the next targeted age bracket was young married couples with young kids. And even then, they mainly targeted the kids. I attempted on various occasions to start a college ministry at my church, but only a couple of people (mainly pastors and college kids from that church) ever showed any interest. The BCM, on the other hand, had over 10% of my 3,500 person university attending weekly meetings and getting involved in small discipleship groups. The college was almost “off-limits” to most church-goers in that town - they didn’t even see it as part of the community. I sincerely hope that has changed since my college days.

    11. Leonard Lee on Tue, April 22, 2008

      I think the issue is many sided.  Some of it has to do with what I was once convinced of today many of our kids simply believe.  It is not a conviction in their life but rather an untested belief handed to them by parents, pastors and other people.  Those beliefs can hardly stand in a friendly world much less a hostile world. 


      Another issue is we have not taught students to love the church.  We actually designed the church to service kids but not built ministries that help students love the church.  Senior leaders must fix this. 


      Another reason is the huge unhealthiness of youth ministers today.  So many youth guys/gals and volunteers today simply cannot take kids to where they are not so they end up pointing the way instead of leading the way.  I come across more ministers who do not spend a daily time with God than do.  I come across ministers who harbor bitterness, resentment, hatred in their hearts towards authority, towards parents, towards their lead pastors and wonder why kids do not stick around. 


      I am an 18 year veteran of youth ministry and still travel across the country speaking to students and youth ministry teams.  One reason so many students are leaving is there is no real plan to keep them.  Once they graduate they are literally on their own.  There is not a clear process or thought process of the kind of student they wish to produce and then a strategic and well conceived plan to build a ministry that produces this student. 


      Churches do not seek to develop younger leaders all that much.  So there is no real place to go once you graduate high school except for the few college ministries that are around.  Many of which are glorified high school ministries. 


      One final piece and then I will get off my box.  We lack any real concept for disciple making today.  There are very few students who are in intensive disciple making relationships. I wonder why we have so few becoming disciples?

    12. CS on Tue, April 22, 2008

      Peter:


      “Uh oh, I think we might agree again. “


      I could have sworn I saw a blood-red moon last night, too.  Must be another sign of the end…


      Leonard:


      “Another issue is we have not taught students to love the church.  We actually designed the church to service kids but not built ministries that help students love the church.  Senior leaders must fix this. “


      Excellent call!  Your post identified many of the problems existent.  For example, with regards to college ministries being nothing more than, “glorified high school ministries,” I completely agree.  Those ministries should be a prime time in leading someone through the transition of being dependent and still a child in many aspects to being an adult, developing families, and confronting mature topics.


      “I wonder why we have so few becoming disciples?”  When you state things so well, I think you’ve identified those problems in passing.



      CS

    13. Jan on Tue, April 22, 2008

      Another reason, I think is that we’ve separated out the youth from the life of the church.


      That goes with not teaching them to love the church.


      I know of churches that hold their youth classes during church, so the youth never even attend church together with the adults.


      Others allow the youth, but don’t include and embrace them.  It’s not THEIR church, it’s the adult’s church where the youth are tolerated.


      We have an interesting thing happening in our church, where the youth are truly leading the adults.  They are sharing their faith weekly, passionately studying the word and today before reading this, I was commenting and counting how many new adults have come to our church as a direct link to the youth attending.


      I think in a smaller congregation like ours, it is easier to think mult-generationally.  So, we have youth taking offering for instance, giving testimonies, helping lead worship etc.  And I think they own the church is theirs. But I don’t think in my 46 years of attending and serving in churches I’ve ever seen a church do this.


      I don’t think these statistics are any suprise to me.  I’ve noticed this trend over the last 20 years, that the youth leave and then start returning when they get married and have children.  Then they come to the realization that they want their kids to at least know church.


      I can think of many of my friends who did this.


      I can also remember feeling displaced myself as a young college student, going from an exciting and ministry focused high school youth group to a lacksidasical college group where nothing much was happening and most discussions were based on very basic Sunday School type questions and answers.


      My solution was to immerse myself in ministry and not even attend the college group.  I wanted more so I went out and found it.  But I think a lot of kids this age group just step back and then move on.


      We need to challenge youth and they will rise to the occasion.  If we do not engage them and embrace them, we will lose them.

    14. Andy on Wed, April 23, 2008

      I can’t believe in all these comments, (some of them with good points), no one has stated the obvious: the reason these people don’t want to go to church is because they’re not saved!


      I’ve been in the youth ministry for several years, both as a church youth pastor and part of a ‘highly evangelistic’ para-church organization. I’ve been to all different types of events where the gospel was supposedly preached and an invitation was given, and I can tell you that it is EXTREMELY rare when the speaker calls these kids to a salvation that in ANY way resembles what Jesus calls salvation in the bible.


      Until we are ready to submit our youth ministries to the biblical standard, instead of the ‘close your eyes - raise your hand - repeat this prayer’ standard of the modern church, all of you will continue to have this same conversion for decades to come.


      We need to ask ourselves 2 questions:


      (1) Does the current system by which kids ‘get saved’ in the majority of youth ministries have any biblical support? If not, why are we doing it?


      (2) Are there many, many things that Jesus calls people to in order to be saved that we never call these kids to before we count them as saved? If so, why are we not teaching salvation as Jesus taught it.

    15. CS on Wed, April 23, 2008

      Andy:


      “I can’t believe in all these comments, (some of them with good points), no one has stated the obvious: the reason these people don’t want to go to church is because they’re not saved!”


      You’re right.  I alluded to this slightly when I remarked about how 27% decided to walk away from the church selfishly.  In saying, “I wanted a break from church,” they might as well have said, “Forget God, I’m going to be me-focused here.”


      I witnessed yesterday to a group of kids, and you should have seen their eyes when I spoke the true Gospel.  Some were on the verge of tears, others eyes shined with that, “I get it!” look, and many walked away, true to the Word.  There was one girl who professed to be a Christian, who could tell me all 66 Books of the Bible, yet was smoking, cussing, and talking about fornication like those acts were second-nature to her.  She said she was actively involved in her church’s youth groups, and it made me wonder what they were teaching her.


      Then again, like I mentioned above, these youth groups are often more about playing Guitar Hero than they are about caring for the souls of the kids.



      CS

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