Are Young People Really Leaving the Church in Droves?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, December 01, 2008
- Viewed 621
- (30) comments so far
So… who to believe? Are we losing our young people from the church forever, or just temporarily until they settle down, get married, and have a family?
From a practical ministry standpoint, it really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change at all what we are called to do: reach people.
Let’s face it: most of the research coming out about the church is not pretty. Churches closing. Attendance down. People believing things we don’t teach. It’s all very depressing. My word to you today is this: It is Christ’s church, and he’ll take care of it. He loves the young person that’s sleeping in just as much as he loves the dear old saint who hasn’t missed a Sunday in years. And he’s entrusted us to reach and speak into all of them. To be honest, that’s harder to do, when you hear research study after research study that tells us how bad we’re desperately failing.
In the end, it really doesn’t believe whose statistics we believe. What matters is that we’re proven faithful. In other words… don’t let the statistics get you down!
Have a great week in ministry!
Todd
A 2007 Barna poll said that young Americans (aged 16-29) are growing increasingly critical about Christianity and the Church, and are leaving the church entirely. Barna’s study wrote that their research showed “that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years - and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years, but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood.”
But a new book by Rodney Stark of Baylor University takes issue with that finding. In “What Americans Really Believe”, Stark says that there really hasn’t been a big shift in young people leaving the church at all. In fact, Stark says, “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.”
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James on Mon, December 01, 2008
I agree with you Todd. All these depressing statistics make you want to throw up your hands, but God was taking care of the church long before we came along and will be long after we are gone. Besides I have heard that 87% of all statistics are made up on the spot! (He! He!)
Paul Newell on Mon, December 01, 2008
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.
Peter Hamm on Mon, December 01, 2008
“Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. 14% of people know that.”—Homer Simpson
I am concerned with the validity of Barna’s conclusions since I read “Revolution” and found that he seemed to me to be reading his own conclusions into the numbers rather than trying to interpret the data.
six in ten involved in church during their teen years? How many of them only because their parents make them, or how many are just filling space and not really ever engaging spiritually anyway. A lot of them, I’m sure!
Tom Fillinger on Mon, December 01, 2008
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
Mark Mitchell on Mon, December 01, 2008
Young people leaving the church when they graduate from High School is nothing new. This has been happening for many years - and it is some rather shallow or perhaps dishonest research that would attempt to make it appear that this is some sort of new trend and that the young are just now turning their backs on the church.
Barna has lost his credibility with me. His bias against the church is showing through in all of his recent “research”.
Glenn Khan on Mon, December 01, 2008
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!
Bill Hayes on Mon, December 01, 2008
I know that my Church is not reaching the young people as it should—but we are trying to make changes in our worship and mission. Many of the young people leaving our Church are not leaving “the church” but going to churches with more contemporary worship and more hands on mission involvement—so they are not leaving “the church” but the more traditional churches that are not reaching them—or—for that matter—the community!
Tim Wade on Mon, December 01, 2008
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.
Rick White on Mon, December 01, 2008
Barna occassionally presents good research…not always bad…not always good. I’ve talked with stats guys enough to know that he’s a mixed bag.
What is not…or rather, should not be in question is that Barna is notoriously impompetent in drawing conclusions based on his own research. For me, “Revolution” was simply the nail in the coffin of what many had thought for years.
Stark has always struck me as a rare talent that can both present research and provide thoughtful conclusions regarding his research. Stark succeeds in this by doing such sparingly.
As an aside, his “Cities of God” should be required reading for those thinking about Missions from a strategic stand point.
Rick White on Mon, December 01, 2008
Grrr. Wish you could edit posts. Misspelled words…
Pastor Tony on Mon, December 01, 2008
Is it possible that the primary reason some Christian young people are sleeping in on Sunday mornings is that they see this practice “modeled” by their parents?
If adults have a less-than-committed relationship to the local church how can we expect their children to be any different?
sgillesp on Mon, December 01, 2008
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.
Bob Beaty on Mon, December 01, 2008
Most people’s actions are a reflection of their relationship with Christ. So, whether they sleep in or in church once a month or every Sunday, it’s a relationship issue. Whether they worship or watch those that do, whether they tithe or don’t tithe, it is all part of the same mix. It’s a reflection of people’s relatisonship with Christ.
Let’s face it. Most young people like to stay up late nights and inparticular Saturday nights. So, sleeping in on Sunday is natural. But the real thought might be that if their priorities and relationship with Christ was stronger, they would make late Saturday nights on less important.
Keith S on Mon, December 01, 2008
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?
Mike on Mon, December 01, 2008
I have personal experience with this discussion. Though youth ministry really hadn’t taken off in Southern Indiana when I was in Junior/Senior High school (early 80’s), I did attend church on Sunday mornings and evenings. And then came college. I was one of those kids who slept in on Sunday mornings. What concerns me is that I know what I was doing in my college years to make me tired. Heavy drinking. Sex whenever possible. Occasional drug use. Everything that I had learned about moral behavior just vanished. We can call it sleeping in, but that’s not all that’s going on.
So now, yes, I have come back to church. And like many in this category, I came back when I had children of my own. What I suspect is that many new parents return to church because they are hoping that their own kids don’t spend that “falling away” segment of their lives engaged in the same activities as mom and dad. Not many people want to acknowledge all of this, since we want to over-spiritualize the conversation, but the truth is we quit going to church for a season because we yielded to selfish desire, and we came back to church in a lot of cases so as to point our own kids to a different lifestyle.
What is weakening the church, as evidenced from my story above, is that you can’t find much about discipleship, transformation, or even simple devotion to Christ in many of our life stories. We have little room in our lives for a call to commitment.
THAT scares me.
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