Church? No Thanks…
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, April 22, 2008
- Viewed 576
- (53) comments so far
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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Leonard on Fri, April 25, 2008
One piece that might be over looked here is that it is not my youth pastors or my youth ministries responsibility to make my kid like God. It is mine as a father to lead y teens to maturity in Christ. Can I tell you, that does not happen unless I am available as a father to listen to them, to ask them questions, discover them. It does not happen because someone has my kid for 2-5 hours a
week when I have them much more.
Kids who have on fire parents are most likely to be on fire when they are adults.
Christian Kids who have parents who are pagans have a higher rate of faithfulness to Christ as adults.
Christian kids who have wishy washy parents become wishy washy adults. In other words you can have the greatest youth ministry in the world but if Christ is not modeled in the home, it has little impact
Wendi on Fri, April 25, 2008
Many posts back I talked about my own kids loss of interest in the church, and attributed it (in part) to the inward focus of our church and even our family. Here is what I meant by that statement.
The youth group offered fun activities AND good mechanisms for my kids to grow and become devoted followers of Jesus. We WERE called on to live differently from the world, to understand our depravity and recognize our need for repentant posture before the Lord.
Now, though I would never suggest the church preached a “false gospel,” I would say that we communicated an incomplete gospel. Jesus spent nearly all of His time going after the least, last and the lost. Jesus was about the poor, the disenfranchised, the sick. We were mostly about ourselves; our personal relationship with Jesus, our own spiritual growth, our own needs for healing, having fellowship, building community and enjoying life with one another. Our family was busy with soccer, PTA, AWANA, camping trips, and all the things growing American families focus on. These are not bad, but as I reflect back now, I have to admit the glaring absence of emotional energy or practical resources we (our family or church) that we committed to the poor, the disfranchised, the sick and broken. This absence made for an incomplete gospel, because we ignored an important part of Jesus’ message.
I believe now that if our kids had grown up in the kind environment where they grew in their walk with Jesus by spending themselves on others, it MIGHT have been compelling enough to keep them engaged.
Wendi
DanielR on Fri, April 25, 2008
I remember reading an Erwin McManus story about his young daughter saying when she grew up she wanted to make a million dollars so she could give it all to the poor. Erwin started trying to explain that she couldn’t give everything away, that wouldn’t be practical but that it was admirable that she wanted to help the poor. Then she got upset because he was trying to be practical and she said she just wanted to give it to them and what was wrong with that. He realized it wasn’t the time to be practical and that he was witnessing his daughter displaying the heart of Christ, the innocent, unbridled idealism and enthusiasm of a child.
I’ve seen young people working for causes they felt were worthwhile, devoting themselves idealistically even when adults might say a cause is just not practical. And I’ve heard young people asking why churches are not more involved in causes that they are passionate about, many of which benefit the poor, the disfranchised, the sick and broken.
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