Survey: Young Adults Want Genuine Church
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Thu, December 14, 2006
- Viewed 226
- (6) comments so far
“Young adults are in the middle – not married, not old enough, not in high school; [we’re] in this ‘ugh’ stage,” said one survey respondent in the latest LifeWay Research report.
The survey measured people age 18 to 34 and found that this particular group’s greatest need is community.
According to the findings, 73 percent of church members and 47 percent of non-affiliated young adults indicated that community with other young adults is extremely important in their lives. But once they end high school, churches send them away to their next life stage without accountability.
“After graduation, they (the church) give you a pat on the back and say, ‘when you start a family, we’ll be here for you,’” said another respondent.
“The church’s responsibility is to reach every generation with the love of Jesus Christ,” stated Jim Johnston, director of young adult ministry at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, in the report. “It just so happens that this generation’s biggest need is relationship. The church ought to be the author and purveyor of the best, deepest, most loving friendships around.”
The need for community was further confirmed when 71 percent of young adult churchgoers said they want to participate in small-group meetings to discuss life application of Scripture. They, along with those not affiliated, said they desired to participate in Bible study that minimizes finding pat answers in the exploration of Scripture.
“The lost and the saved in this age group are looking for just what the church can provide in Biblical community,” said Johnston. “They want absolute truth but they embrace the struggle of finding it themselves. They don’t want it to be spoon-fed to them.”
In such small group settings, 68 percent of churched and 45 percent of unchurched young adults said they can find “advice from individuals with similar experiences.”
Meeting the needs of others, or social action, also proved to be another essential element to this generation with 66 percent of churchgoers and 47 percent of non-churchgoers agreeing.
Social action not only draws churched people but it is also cited as a major reason unchurched young adults would consider being part of a church, according to LifeWay.
“Young adults gravitate to churches that are making an impact,” Johnston noted. “This age group is embracing service, social action and missions. They will embrace the church with a cause as well.”
Johnston is optimistic about this generation, but warned some churches of the need to change their methodology to reach them.
“They (young adults) want to embrace church, but only the genuine, earth-shaking, Christ-powered New Testament church. For some churches, that’s going to mean changing methodology – but not the message of the Bible.”
SOURCE: The Christian Post
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20061207/23925.htm
More studies are taking a closer look at young adults and are finding a fading influence the church is having in their lives. A new LifeWay survey found that a major factor causing young adults to fall out of the pews is the church’s inability to minister to them in their transition stage…
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Chris on Mon, December 18, 2006
In working with this age group in the church, I agree with this article. This is certainly not new information. This is the stuff they want. Honestly, however, they want it only if it fits into their schedules and only if they can be non-committal about it. They want to try something first to see if it works, then decide if they want to commit. As I live life, I think I’m finally beginning to understand that the way to make something work is to commit to making it work up front - not taking a “wait & see” attitude about it.
Now, I truly resonate with this age group & their desire for authenticity & living out their faith, & with the whole emerging church thing in theory - but in practice this group frustrates the hell out of me! It seems they want to give themselves to something larger than themselves, but they still want to focus on themselves in the process. I just don’t think it works that way. I agree that we need to change many of the ways we “do” church to accommadate the emerging generation - & I do think these would be positive changes. But I truly believe that the emerging generation needs to do some mirror-gazing as well. Obviously I’m painting with a broad brush here. Not every young adult is this way. But I do see this becoming more pervasive within this age group in the church. Maybe they just haven’t lived enought life yet, or maybe I’m completely missing it. What to do??!! (Boy, for someone who considers himself “emergent”, I’m sure not sounding like it, huh!)
Jan on Tue, December 19, 2006
I too see this as nothing new. Just another oh yeah duh moment!
But it’s funny how many churches still don’t get it.
I have to disagree with you Chris that the youth of today vs. 20 years ago are more into themselves. I think we were then too. Maybe the WWII generation wasn’t?
The key for us has been in incorporating our high school students and above into the life of the church, not just as token attenders. We have them actively participating in the service and as part of our planning teams. We encourage our young men and women to participate in all aspects of womens and men’s ministries. It has been a pretty awesome thing to see high school girls and senior women, discussing the relevance of scripture in their daily lives.
We plan “spontaneous” community building moments, like going out to eat together after church, hangin out on Friday nights etc and we also find ways to serve our community together, instead of “sending out our youth” to take on a project.
This has given our young people and young adults ownership and significance and included them in the life of the church.
I’m not against youth or college ministries in principle. But I do think we at times build seperate congregations and unintentionally segregate our old and young.
Church is about all ages, worsipping in spirit and truth and in serving the Lord together. And if we don’t wake up and work at keeping our younger people, we will lose them.
Joe on Sat, March 03, 2007
I agree that we need to strive to make connections between teens and “big church”. I think tha one of the reasons why students graduate church when the graduate the youth group is that they have no connection with any adult outside the youth ministry. So when they are no longer youth and we send them to adult church they have NO relationships. They went from being the “stars of the show”, with ever event and worship geared toward them, until the great abyss of “regular” church.
I think maybe more of this 18-34 age group would hang around if we built intential relationship with our students and adults in our congregation.
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