Six Reasons Young People Leave the Church
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Isolationism. One-fourth of 18- to 29-year-olds say church demonizes everything outside church, including the music, movies, culture, and technology that define their generation.
Shallowness. One-third call church boring, about one-fourth say faith is irrelevant and Bible teaching is unclear. One-fifth say God is absent from their church experience.
Anti-science. Up to one-third say the church is out of step on scientific developments and debate.
Sex. The church is perceived as simplistic and judgmental. For a fifth or more, a "just say no" philosophy is insufficient in a techno-porno world. Young Christian singles are as sexually active as their non-churched friends, and many say they feel judged.
Exclusivity. Three in 10 young people feel the church is too exclusive in this pluralistic and multi-cultural age. And the same number feel forced to choose between their faith and their friends.
Doubters. The church is not a safe place to express doubts say over one-third of young people, and one-fourth have serious doubts they'd like to discuss.
—Adapted from a list by David Kinnaman in You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church … and Rethinking Faith
Young ExodusSix in 10 young people will leave the church permanently or for an extended period starting at age 15, according to new research by the Barna Group. And for the generation now coming of age, it's more than the usual "driver's license to marriage license" joy ride, according to the pollsters. For church leaders, the question is, what will we do about it?
Today's young adults are marrying later, if at all, are technologically savvy, and hold worldviews alien to their upbringing. Barna Research president David Kinnaman, after a five-year-study, declared that church leaders are unequipped to deal with this "new normal."
Their response is mostly at the extremes, both dangerous. Many ignore the situation, hoping young adults' views will be righted when they are older and have their own children. These leaders miss the significance of the shifts of the past 25 years, Kinnaman contends, and the needs for ministry young people have in their present phase—if it is a phase.
But the opposite reaction is just as problematic: "using all means possible to make their congregation appeal to teens and young adults." This excludes older members and "builds the church on the preferences of young people and not on the pursuit of God," Kinnaman said.
Kinnaman prescribes intergenerational ministry. "In many churches, this means changing the metaphor from simply passing the baton to the next generation to a more functional, biblical picture of a body - that is, the entire community of faith, across the entire lifespan, working together to fulfill God's purposes."
Copyright © 2012 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.
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Displaying 1–5 of 6 comments
Pamela
You are missing another, even more vital reason, why both responses are dangerous: neither response recognizes the Church's need to for the ministry OF teens and young adults -- their ministry TO the rest of the church to help us to grow, and their ministry as part of the church to the rest of the world, to help seek Christ's lost sheep. We as the Christian community are dispossessed, disabled and diminished when we lose those important young voices.
Robert Goodman
This is sad. I look at this list and see a lot of issues that my generation has with the church and it is really an issue with Christianity. Christianity IS exclusive, faith IS important, sex IS exclusive to marriage. Churches need to work on address doubt among our youth. Doubt is fine, however we need to alleviate that doubt with truth. I find that many churches are embracing "Answers in Genesis" and the like. I find that too many churches are celebrating secular culture in our churches. As a young single male Christian who believes all the above, I find that I have no place in church because I am too rigid and "old fashioned". That is why I have not had a church home since moving 4 months ago. I have yet to find a church that believes Jesus is the only way, that sex is between a man and his wife, that "The Hangover" and Eminem have no place in a sermon, and the like.
Dave Barrett
Fascinating & disturbing information. No surprise the age at which they begin to be challenged is when they enter high school & the world applies its pressure. Obviously, we want to reverse this; we must reach our youth & learn from them as much as we want them to learn from us. Ignoring the situation isn't going to help, & we can't lose sight of our true purpose. Clearly the strategic solution is intergenerational -- and "a more functional, biblical picture of the body" *sounds* good -- but what does that look like? What tactics work? What do we *do*? ...This is a "Leadership Journal." Please go out on a limb and give us some ideas... Like: Do missions work? Pairing youth w/ adults on short, simple trips to help those in "away" places? Boy Scout organizations? Bringing fathers & sons together in service & the outdoors? (Note: I leave out Girl Scouts & their challenges.) Do we reverse roles & invite youth to teach us? Can we leverage technology in productive, Christian ways?
Christopher Ferguson
You hit it right on the head...
Nagma Grewal(Registered User)
good one
