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Reasons 18 to 22 Year Olds Drop Out of Church
A new study from LifeWay Research reveals that more than two-thirds of young adults who attend a Protestant church for at least a year in high school will stop attending church regularly for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. As young people transition from high school into the workforce or college life, they are faced with many choices – including whether to continue attending church. Although this decision is a source of concern for parents and church leaders, discussion of the reasons young adults choose the direction they do has largely been speculative...
"Lots of alarming numbers have been tossed around regarding church dropouts,” said Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, the research arm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. “We wanted to get at the real situation with clear research – and there is some bad news here, no question. But, there are also some important solutions to be found in the research. When we know why people drop out, we can address how to help better connect them.”
To uncover the reasons young people leave church, LifeWay Research conducted a survey in April and May 2007 of more than 1,000 adults ages 18-30. Each indicated that they had attended a Protestant church regularly for at least a year in high school.
Should I stay or should I go?
According to the study, 70 percent of young adults ages 23-30 stopped attending church regularly for at least a year between ages 18-22.
In most cases, the decision to leave was not planned far in advance. Only 20 percent of these “church dropouts” agree that while they were attending church regularly in high school they “planned on taking a break from church once [they] finished high school.”
Among those who predetermined to leave church, few told anyone about their desire. One reflected, “I just told my parents I didn’t like it,” rather than sharing an intention to actually leave. Another said, “I kept my feelings secret for fear of losing my friends.”
Why do most young people leave?
Life changes or life situations cause young people to leave the church. In fact, 97 percent of dropouts list one or more specific life-change issues as a reason they left church.
Six of the top 10 reasons church dropouts leave relate to life changes. The most frequent reason for leaving church is, in fact, a self-imposed change, “I simply wanted a break from church” (27 percent).
Read more of the study here at Lifeway.com...
This post has been viewed 1127 times and was added on November 15, 2007 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Engaging Culture Trends in Today's Church Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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I'm Todd Rhoades... the MMI guy. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the founder and developer of a website named ChurchStaffing.com.
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Posted by Camey
Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 8:42 AM
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Posted by Leonard
Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 9:55 AM
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 11:16 AM
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:14 PM
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 2:38 PM
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 3:57 PM
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Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 5:29 PM
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Posted by Camey
Friday, November 16, 2007 at 9:32 AM
Post Your Comments:Stetzer noted, “There is no easy way to say it, but it must be said. Parents and churches are not passing on a robust Christian faith and an accompanying commitment to the church. We can take some solace in the fact that many do eventually return. But, Christian parents and churches need to ask the hard question, ‘What is it about our faith commitment that does not find root in the lives of our children?’”
Amen, Ed. For several that fall in this age group that I know, they say that their parents did not model for them at home what they heard in church. So, the decision to not stay in church had just as much to do with not wanting to invest time in something that they didn’t really believe in. They hadn’t actually seen it lived out and therefore, did not truly know the difference it does make in living life. For a couple of the girls/women in my Sunday group, they only returned back to church because of getting pregnant and wanting their parents support. If they hadn’t gotten pregnant.... they say they would have been long gone to never return to church… especially not to “God”.... Okay.. I’m sort of passionate about this so I’m going to stop here for the moment.
One of the issues we have found is that much discipleship for the past many years had been focused at teaching us how to be a good Christian instead of how to be a friend of God.
Nearly everyone in the age group defined by the survey gets friendship but they have not been taught to apply those principles to a friendship with God.
I think 18-22 is a very natural time for people to evaluate the faith of their parents and decide if they want to make it “theirs”. Some decide that that faith is unappealing, for whatever reason. This is really to be expected. But I do think that the popular church strategy for dividing the children and teens from the adults is a recipe for the disconnect that the 18-22 year olds feel upon graduating from the youth group. Add to that that many churches view being single as an undesirable and hopefully temporary state, and it’s no wonder that those young adults who return wait until they are married—and more socially acceptable—to do so.
I agree, Nora. It’s true that we separate our young people from the rest of the church. They don’t know how to be a part of the church as a whole. In our setting, the youth group is full of fun, energetic, interesting, and exciting messages, videos, activities, games… then they graduate and are automatically thrust into a different setting where they are supposed to be a “grown up”. I realize that not all churches are like this, and that church for adults can still be fun, energetic, interesting, exciting and more (I think it is!), but to them, it’s such a contrast in teaching styles and activities. I wouldn’t have wanted to go through that change either.
I like what you said, Leonard. So much of our conversations are about how we should behave, rather than focusing on our relationship with God. It’s a direction I’ve been trying to move in with our youth group.
Karen, I agree—it’s really a very abrupt change. And I completely understand the need for youth activities and so forth. I just wonder if maybe a different model should be employed, one in which a more gradual transition was made from youth church to adult church. I also see myself as being part of the problem—I am pretty active in church, and yet, because I am not involved with the youth, I really don’t know any of them very well. The adult congregation needs to be encouraged to get to know their youth as well.
Great point, Nora. Thanks for that reminder.
i agree with camey , the youth hear one thing but see another.
Leonard said:
“Nearly everyone in the age group defined by the survey gets friendship but they have not been taught to apply those principles to a friendship with God.”
I’ve taken some time to let this one soak in… Friendships are huge to this age group. We’ve been seeing friends of the young man (Josh Fant) who died get tatoos in memory of him… guys and girls alike. They are willing to have his name or something that represents his life on their body because of the difference he made in their life… because of friendship..
It took reading what you wrote, Leonard, for me to really think about that from a different perspective. I was only seeing it from a response to the grief of their friend dying. Thank you dear brother!
Nora,
Absolutely agree with what you said about “many churches view being single as an undesirable and hopefully temporary state”..... We’ve got to get it in our heads/hearts that not all will married for whatever the reasons. I know I fight the blanket statements and questions when talking with this age group of females. I don’t ask the males normally about their marital status… Why is that? Good food for thought there Nora. Thanks! And I encourage you to spend some time getting to know the youth in your church.
Karen,
Your setting sounds like a very familiar one. I think a lot of churches fall more into this category than not. It is an area that has to change. Thanks for being willing to do your part to help that.
Deaubry,
Thanks… And welcome to MMI.
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