Posted on 11/26/2011 6:39:04 AM PST by NYer
20-Somethings Cite Many Reasons for Disconnect
ROME, NOV. 25, 2011 (Zenit.org).- It's well-known that many young people stop being active Church-goers. A recent book examined extensive research carried out by the Barna Group to find out why so many drop out as they move into adulthood.
In "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church ... and Rethinking Faith," (Baker Books), David Kinnaman, along with Aly Hawkins, analyzed a wide range of statistical data.
As a preliminary, the book outlined three realities to keep in mind when looking at the situation of young people.
1. Churches do have an active engagement with teens, but many of the young people do not grow up to be faithful adult followers of Christ.
2. There are a variety of reasons people drop out, so it is important not to generalize about an entire generation.
3. Churches are not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ in the context of a rapidly changing culture.
The problem, Kinnaman explained, is not that teens are any less active in church than in previous times. In fact, around four out of five teens in America will spend a part of their childhood or teen years going to a Christian congregation or parish. What happens is that this activity fades away during their 20s.
For both Catholics and Protestants the age group of those in their 20s is the least likely to say that they are committed to Christ, in spite of their previous religious experience.
An even greater problem is the disconnect with the church. Even more than a struggle with their faith in Christ, young people cease their institutional participation.
Different
An important factor influencing young people today is the cultural context in which they live. No other generation of Christians, he affirmed, has lived through so many profound and rapid cultural changes, Kinnaman argued.
During the last few decades there have been massive changes in the media, technology, sexuality and the economy. This has led to a much greater degree of complexity, fluidity and uncertainty in society.
Summing up these changes, Kinnaman used three concepts to describe them: access, alienation and authority.
Regarding access he pointed out that the emergence of the digital world has revolutionized the way in which young adults communicate with each other and obtain information. This has led to significant changes in the way in which the current generation relates, works and thinks.
This has a positive side, in that the Internet and digital tools have opened up immense opportunities to spread the Christian message. However, it also means there is more access to other cultural views and values and it invites people to question more their beliefs. There is also less emphasis on linear and logical thought.
Alienation, Kinnaman observed, means that many teens and young adults feel isolated from their families, communities and institutions. High levels of divorce and childbirth outside marriage mean many have grown up in non-traditional family structures.
Moreover, the transition to adulthood has stretched out, with marriage and parenthood being put off to a later age. Many churches do not have the pastoral solutions in place to effectively help those who are not following the traditional path to adulthood, according to Kinnaman.
In addition, many young adults today are skeptical about the institutions that in the past have shaped society. Grassroots networks and collaborative efforts are prized over hierarchical institutions.
This skepticism becomes then a distrust of authority, the third concept used by Kinnaman. A tendency to pluralism, and even holding conflicting ideas, takes precedence over acceptance of Scripture and moral norms.
A culture of questions can lead people to the truth, and tension between faith and culture can also have a positive outcome, but, Kinnaman noted, it requires new approaches by churches.
Disconnection
Kinnaman admitted that he expected to find one or two big reasons why young adults disconnect from their church. Instead, it turned out that there is a wide variety of frustrations that leads to people dropping out.
Some consider their church to be an obstacle to creativity and self-expression. Others become bored with superficial teachings and platitudes. A perceived incompatibility between faith and science leads others to drop out.
What some consider to be repressive rules, particularly regarding sexual morality, is another reason young people leave their church. The current cultural trends that emphasize tolerance and acceptance of other values and opinions clash with Christianity's claim to possess universal truths and is an obstacle to some.
Other young Christians say that their church does not allow them to express doubts and say that the church's response to the expression of doubts is not adequate.
Kinnaman also found that in many cases churches fail to instruct young people in a sufficiently profound manner. A shallow faith in teens and young adults leaves them with a list of vague beliefs and a disconnect between their faith and their daily lives. Consequently many young people consider Christianity as boring and irrelevant.
At the end of the book Kinnaman has some recommendations on how to stem the loss of so many young people. There needs to be a change in the way the older generations in churches relate to younger generations.
He also urged the rediscovery of the theological concept of vocation in order to encourage a deeper consideration by young people of what God is asking them to do with their lives.
Finally, we need to give wisdom priority over information. Wisdom, he explained, means the ability to relate rightly with God, to others, and to culture. Whatever the solutions might be, there is no doubting the urgency of dealing with this vital issue.
Catholic ping!
1. Churches do have an active engagement with teens, but many of the young people do not grow up to be faithful adult followers of Christ.
2. There are a variety of reasons people drop out, so it is important not to generalize about an entire generation.
3. Churches are not adequately preparing the next generation to follow Christ in the context of a rapidly changing culture.
5. My church doesn’t believe that any good Christian worship music has been written since 1860.
6. The church I was forced to attend as a child would rather die than change to be more attractive to the youth.
There is a church in my county that has made a hard run at kids 12 to 24. This is a county with a population of only 67,000....that church has tripled in size in it’s three years of existence and it’s youth group alone outnumbers most other churches in the area....combined. They didn’t do it with organ music and dry, depressing hymns.
Young people do NOT want to be bored. Look around at your congregations, are there vastly more elderly than 25 and under? If so, your church is probably boring. It is also dying. Who is going to replaced 85 year old Mrs. Jones when she passes? or 90 year old Mr. Clifton?
That is quite literally a dying church.
That is the most important job PARENTS have,is to instill a deep religous commitment in thier lives.
We are talking about Eternal Salvation here. That is what God expects of parents and anyone who has any influence with the children of this world.
The problem is that churches try to establish a “young adult” ministry that is basically high school youth group part 2. High schoolers in a suburban parish are fairly uniform in terms of their life situations: high school, homework, dating, curfews, learning to drive, applying for college, etc. Churches of all denominations have successful youth programs that can reach these people.
The problem arises when a church applies a high school mentality to 20-somethings by establishing a young adult group that is supposed to somehow blanket cover all 20-somethings. 22-year-olds are far more diverse in their life situations than 17-year-olds. Some are finishing college and trying to find a job. Some are working full time. Some are married with small children. Some are not married, yet have a small child. Some are still living at home. The fears, anxieties, lifestyles and needs of these people are far too diverse to be covered by programatic ministries similar to youth group.
What needs to happen is that these people need to be incorporated into the life of the parish, not relegated to their own little side area as though they’re still in high school.
I like older worship music, but yeah I see your point.
Thank you for understanding.
Teenagers do not find watching “Veggie Tales” interesting, exciting or informative.
Lets get down to basics, WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CHURCH?
Your comments could be a strategy for any social club I belong to. Ok, let me say it, most churches are club houses.
Tale a look are the 7 churches in revelation. Any judging criteria on growth of church and youth attendance? Most of it is get back to your first love and get rid of wrong doctrine.
You are correct. The church that I attend (my wifes’ church since she was a child) has plenty of activities and messages geared towards the over 50 crowd, the under 12 crowd but NOTHING for those of us in between.
We are thinking of going to a different church so that our son (will be born in a month) does not grow up with the idea that church is supposed to be boring.
Easy answer. Because the church has become more like the world than the world like the church.
Deep theology? Prophecy and end time events? Your eternity? What’s at stake? Your life could end tomorrow then what?
Nope, today’s church messages, like from Joel Osteen and other mega church, are about how to be happy in this life. How to be this in this life, how to be that in this life. All about this life.
The whole message of the Bible is about how to get to the NEXT life, the one that counts. Not how to be happy here or have lots of friends or how to be whatever.
Billy Graham used to preach that life was a vapor, and that you could die tonite, and then the JUDGMENT. And millions came out to hear this great preacher.
And now? Mega churches think they need bands, donuts, coffee, and Pastors who dress like hippies rather than real men of God who thought church was so important, and special, you ought even dress and act like it.
If I ran a church I’d play the doxology, and the men in suites, the elders would march up the aisle and the organ would play and we’d all stand for prayer, and anyone in that church would know, it’s the worship hour now. Time to show reverance and respect and I don’t care if you are not “happy” about this service because it’s not about you. It’s about God.
“Pastors who dress like hippies rather than real men of God who thought church was so important, and special, you ought even dress and act like it.”
Did Jesus dress in rich mans’ clothing or rags?
It is not more youth programs that church needs, it is more faithful preaching empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit. Oh, and 35 hours of indoctrination in secular government schools verses 2 hours of Biblical instruction is a sure way to quench the work of the Spirit. If you love your children and want them in heaven with you, get them out of government Schools. If the church loves its youth it should be telling parents get them out of the schools of Babylon where their hearts are made hard, and sin is crouching at their door.
85% of those who attended government socialist and godless schools leave their faith 2 years after high school.
Hm?....Should we investigate what is going on there? Nope! Let's ignore the above. Educating children in the home or building and maintaining Christian schools is real work....And....The minister's wife might lose her job at the local godless and socialist government school.
Pizza, loud music and light shows do not instill Christian truths in young people. Only serious discipleship will accomplish that, but we as parents support the opposite by our Mcdonalds drive through iPhone lifestyles.
>>Did Jesus dress in rich mans’ clothing or rags?>>
Christ went to the cross and saved me from my sins. He took all my sin upon him. He died so I could live. And as Luther said.....He did it all for me.
I figure the least I can do is wear my best when I go into his house and worship him. Afterall, I wear my best to the office and my boss didn’t die for me.
And I will teach my children to do the same.
We are talking about why youth leave the churches they grew up in. I just gave you very good reasons. The message should not ever change. But I have yet to see the group of teens that prefer organ or piano and hymns to contemporary worship music.
Churches that embrace the new music and aim a large portion of their resources and time at youth will prosper with the youth. They will overflow.
Churches that cling to old hymnals as if they were almost as important as a Bible, keep banging away on that out-of-tune piano every Sunday and have what few little kids they have in a room watching veggie-tales while the few teens they have are in the sanctuary with Gramma being bored to tears will die when Gramma dies. Because once Gramma dies and the kids are of age, why would they go to a place that talked down to them and bored them to death every Sunday for years?
Uh...cuz it spoils their “fun” and limits their new found “freedom”?
Kids naturally want to throw off the shackles and explore their freedom.
This means avoiding anything that might make them reflect.
Teenagers are compelled to go to church by their parents, and often live in communities and attend school where the truth of their faith is taken for granted, and there are significant social and economic penalties for open dissent.
Young adults only go to church if they want to, and often live in communities and attend school or work jobs where many people have no religious practice or identity, and many others have wildly different religious practice or identity from the one with which the young adult grew up, and there’s no penalty whatever for irreligion and sometimes real penalty for strong religious identity.
So ... those who never had faith no longer have to fake it, those whose faith is weak question it or become apathetic, and those who are lazy, even if faith is strong, can let their attendance at church dwindle.
I see and understand your point. I will try to teach my son that church is not a place that you “have” to go, it’s a place that you “get” to go.
I will teach him that Jesus loves all of us, no matter how we dress.
I will teach him that church is not supposed to be boring and if it is, someone is doing it wrong.
I will teach him to listen for that still, small voice for that is the Holy Spirit directing him, counseling him when his Dad is no longer here.
Most of all I will teach him to love everyone, no matter their religious bent. That if he loves them, as Jesus commanded he will share his faith with them and not pick and choose who gets to come to his Lord based on how they dress or what song they sing.
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