{"id":14050,"date":"2007-10-01T14:32:59","date_gmt":"2007-10-01T14:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2007\/10\/01\/why-many-young-adults-quit\/"},"modified":"2007-10-01T14:32:59","modified_gmt":"2007-10-01T14:32:59","slug":"why-many-young-adults-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/why-many-young-adults-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Many Young Adults Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/strong>bout three-fourths of young people quit church. “Tell me something I don’t know,” you say.<\/p>

Well, Lifeway Research (Southern Baptist) says they know the reasons why 70 percent of 18-year-olds who attended church regularly in high school quit by age 23: they don’t like it. And by age 30, 34 percent still have not rebounded. That means one in four young Protestants has left the church.<\/p>

On their laundry list of reasons: they wanted a break (27%), church is too judgmental (26%), they moved away to college (25%), busy with work (23%).<\/p>

On the positive side, the 30 percent who kept attending church cited solid spiritual reasons, including: “it’s vital to my relationship with God” (65%) and church “helps guide my everyday decisions” (58%).<\/p>

Lifeway’s Ed Stetzer blames the losses on sorry youth ministry: “Too many youth groups are holding tanks with pizza,” Stetzer said. “There’s no life transformation taking place. People are looking for a faith that can change them and be part of changing the world.”<\/p>

“Unless religious leaders take younger adults more seriously, the future of American religion is in doubt,” said Bowling Alone<\/em> author and sociologist Robert Wuthnow, whose new book, After the Baby Boomers<\/em>, was published in September.<\/p>

The proportion of young adults identifying with mainline churches is about half what it was a generation ago, and evangelicals have barely held their own, Wuthnow said.<\/p>

Posted in the USA Today<\/em> newspaper on August 6, 2007.<\/p>

Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal.Click here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership<\/em> Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About three-fourths of young people quit church. “Tell me something I don’t know,” you say.Well, Lifeway Research (Southern Baptist) says they know the reasons why 70 percent of 18-year-olds who attended church regularly in high school quit by age 23: they don’t like it. And by age 30, 34 percent still have not rebounded. That Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[142,160],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[703,704,156],"tax_ctp_tags":[3591,3598,3933,5074,5190,5314,5315],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-14050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_publications-2007-leadership-journal","tax_publications-fall_2007-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-christian-history","tax_ctp_tags-christianity","tax_ctp_tags-faith","tax_ctp_tags-statistics","tax_ctp_tags-trends","tax_ctp_tags-youth","tax_ctp_tags-youth-ministry"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nWhy 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