I stopped believing Barna’s “research” ten years ago when it became obvious that his view of traditional church was tainted. Barna appears to have his own agenda or bias that filters into his polling much like the rest of secular media.

Once again we must measure ones connection to the body of Christ not by whether or not they sit in a pew, attend, etc. This makes the church a building, a place rather than a body. The measure of our fidelity to Chirst and His church is Transformation.

A major aspect of Transformation is life in community. Sleeping in does not qualify as life in community. Please note that Transformation must be consistent but it is not constant. Where is accountability (defined as - each one helping the other keep the commitments they have made to God on the basis of loving relationships) when you are laying in the sack? When our children were teen agers we called that ‘log doggin’.

The majority of people view the church from an organizational rather than an organic perspective. When this correction is made, much changes on the horizon of evaluating church health .

Hope this brings light and clarity to this topic.

In Grace,
Tom Fillinger
IgniteUS, Inc.
http://www.igniteus.net

Its true that many young people are leaving Church, but its also true that many young people are finding Christ and joining Churches!

You only have to look at Hillsong or similar type Churches to see God has not given up on Young people!

As a college pastor I am frustrated by this topic. I minister to this age group that leaves home, sleeps in, and may or may not return to the roots of thier faith in later years. What I am noticing is that they leave because wherever they go, they are not finding a place where their faith is relevant.

In my area, a rural environment that is home to Campbell University, we have a handful of fairly local churches that are “contemporary”, but none with a dynamic college ministry. You have to travel 45 minutes to Raleigh - to the big city - just to find a big church with a viable college ministry. Persoanlly, I grieve for my students who have not had a church to minister to them in years.

But it’s not just college students; its young adults in general who have probably not been taught how to find a church family, have no idea what they believe, and find nothing relevant to their lives in a traditional church full of families with their own spiritual agendas. When church is supposed to be an extension of the community, and it reflects nothing of your world, why bother going?

Let us also keep in mind that the majority of churches today are not your Saddlebacks and Willow Creeks, They are small churches with less then 200 members. This is the real world of Christianity, the world these young people are facing. Dare I say the burden is not on them to find us, but rather it is up to us, the ministers and the church to find them.

Grrr.  Wish you could edit posts.  Misspelled words…

Phyllis Tickle in her new book _The Great Emergence_ explains the phenomenon of the popularity of institutional church in the 1950s and 60s well; that the institutional church of those days is not appealing to young people today makes sense:  the pressures on them are not the same.  My own twentysomething kids are struggling to find churches that make sense to them - and they don’t like “contemporary” churches any more than they like my own small traditional church.  I am inclined to think they will learn to make some compromises and churches will figure out how to welcome them...we just can’t see what it is yet. 

Tom, above, makes sense to me:  the young person sleeping in doesn’t understand transformation and community, but neither do many of the old saints who are at my church every Sunday - their reasons for being there often have very little to do with becoming like Christ or loving one another sacrificially (I note this in their complaints!).

And I agree:  I don’t trust Barna’s conclusions anymore since he has made his own positions on “church” clear.  Methinks he is rooting for the organized church’s demise.

I agree with Tom100% .  “Once again we must measure ones connection to the body of Christ not by whether or not they sit in a pew, attend, etc. This makes the church a building, a place rather than a body.”
Christ followers are of one body and as one body are the bride of Christ.
The majority of our young Christians who while they were young made a confession of faith, do leave the fellowship of the body during their late teens/early twenties.  They do so because they are not equipped with the knowledge and skills to flourish and grow deeper in their relationship with Christ.
Why?  They have not been given the tools and the training in basic Christian doctrine and have a firm grasp on what a Christian world view is.  When they are tested in the world especially when accosted by a secular university professor who uses intimidation and challenges their beliefs; they are not equipped to fight the good fight and stand firm.
As a result they start questioning what they do believe and since they do not have and basic doctrinal foundation, they give into the desires of the flesh that are also pounding so hard on them.
What did Jesus do to with his disciples for three years?
Why isn’t it a high priority in our churches to prepare our youth for Christian adult-hood and be able to handle the spiritual forces of evil?

Bias or no bias by Barna aside, I think we all agree with this observation:

“It merely shows that when young people leave home, some of them tend to sleep in on Sunday morning rather than go to church. That they haven’t defected is obvious from the fact that a bit later in life when they have married, and especially after children arrive, they become more regular attenders. This happens in every generation.”

I’m going to make a hard-line statement here, reflective of my own life and subjective experience:

The reason why young people leave church, deviate, and then, “come back,” is because most of them are not truly saved when they go into adulthood.

Seriously, think about this for a minute.  A child grows up in his church, is active, gets baptized, and then heads off for college.  There, he lives like a perfect heathen, partying late into the night, looking at pornography on the computer, having sexual relations with a number of women across his years of study, cheating on tests, and acting less than honorably.  Would we call that man saved?  If so, why?

--
CS

Young adults leave church for many reasons. Rebellion against the tradition of the previous generation is a major one today. Being unsaved to begin with is one. Walking in disobedience and being of the world, which may mean that they are not saved, is another one.

I for one do not think there is any less youth today than there was 50 years ago in the church. God saves those He wills and if there is not many in the church then there is nothing we can do about it, unles we want to attract goats. Those that will be saved and be members of the church, kids, youth or adults will be faithful if they are drawn by the Father and hear His voice. If they are drawn by sociological or philosophical wranglings of the world, which are being used by a part of the visible church, then I would say most are not true believers anyways. God saves those he wills to save. If there is a drought , then God causes the drought. He is sovereign. Our duty is to preach the Word so to make disciples which are given by His will though the expounding of the Word . It is the power of God unto salvation. If youth do not like church, it is because there hearts are after something else. If youth do not go to church , then it is because they do not love the Father and Christ Jesus as they should. We need to quit all this pycho babble and figuring ways to get people interested. They are interested if they are drawn by the Father though our preaching of the Word. Plain and simple. We make it much more difficult then it need be. Remember, the church did not always concern itself with these things. It is us today that concern ourselves with these things because we like to measure things. That is a product of the Enlightenment and Humanism.

I’ve not come to any hard and fast conclusions about Barna’s research or conclusions. 

But I will say that I really believe it all comes down to being relevant and connecting.

Plenty of churches aren’t doing that.  I know that for sure.

We minister in a very post Christian community and the one age group we are reaching is this one.  Last week we had 65 attend (18 3 years ago) and 95% of them were age 30 and under.

I think a big mistake would be to take this research, correct or not, and own it as impossible to reach this generation.  They want family.  They want community.  And they hunger for relationships that go beyond the surface.

Being real and relevant and keeping our doors open at church and in our home, as gone a long way in reaching this age group.

I hear so much about the younger generations wanting family and community and relationship. Why does everyone think that this generation is different than others? I believe every generation desires those things. I am a Boomer (older one) and I know we as youth wanted that. Speaking with my 85 yr old father, he says that his generation wanted that. Is this what we are going to use to excuse the behaviour and patterns of youth?

Again, all this is about job security---giving us a purpose to figure out how to methodically make change. (s) This is no different than what we are doing on a national and global level. It is all about change and methods and measurements and expertise , techniques,etc. That is modernism/post modernism and it is the ways of man.

People are the same across the centuries. We have the same needs and Christ is the answer. All else is shifting sand.

Young people leave the church about the time they are leaving home.  I remember my own experience.  My mother was faithful to church but she died when I was nine years old.  My father and step-mother were sporadic in attendance.  I was saved through a Youth For Christ after school Bible Study.  The challenge was finding a church that would welcome me...in Kansas City, and I did not feel welcome.  I just wanted to belong.  Then I entered the Army.  The chapels were friendlier - but we were all soldiers.  In my sojourn, I studied my Bible, prayed, witnessed (and I was without a church for about 7 years).  After I married and after the birth of our second child, I found a church - a large church, but a welcoming church.  In talking with other people’s experience of my generation (Baby Boomer) there is a period of wandering.  Every generation will have the young folks wander off a bit.  God eventually rounds them up...key is a welcoming church.