While I haven’t said this around these parts in a while, I think a big part of the problem is hiding kids away in youth group rather than bringing them into the full life of the church.
The reasons given are a concern that they need something they can understand. Turns out youthngroups tend to be fun driven, rather than something serious. Young folks leave looking for just that,
If those men left the Baptist church for the Anglican Prayer Book and liturgy, or to the Catholic Church with its Mass, I don’t think they did it for entertainment, as you seem to imply. I don’t think anyone seeking entertainment would want to study a catechism and take classes. If they sought entertainment, they would have joined some non-denomiational “evangelical” church that has for its service a Christian rock concert with a sermon thrown in. Some people are happy with what the more radical Reformers left us, others see it as a truncated form of Christianity that has some important parts downplayed or missing.
We recently attended my cousin’s son’s baptism at a Baptist church. When we walked in a woman walked over and pointed the way to the nursery. I thanked her and continued on with my husband and our kids. The woman followed, tapped on my shoulder, and told me all kids three and under go to the nursery. Instead of leaving my daughters with strangers my husband stood with them in the vestibule where they behaved like angels. Church lady didn’t like that. Apparently this is the new “thing”, which is terribly sad. They start hiding the kids in nurseries first, then youth groups later. I was raised in a Baptist church and I was expected to sit quietly in church not run around a supervised room; however, in my teen years the youth group became the new “thing.” It was a way to make us feel cool for going to church and therefore bring more sheep to the flock.