Why are young adults leaving church?
I’ve recently read two blog posts which give the reason why young people leave the church. Both of which gave very differn’t responses.
Mark Sayers gave three reasons
1) Choice Anxiety
2) Post Christian identiy
3) The pornification of Christian resources
4) Consumerist personality
5) Commitmentphobia
You can get his resource here
Mark Connors who has the biggest church in town quotes Steve Murrell’s
10. Lost touch with my church-going friends
9. Family responsibilities preventing me from attending
8. Made life decision not accepted by the church
7. School responsibilities preventing me from attending
6. Spending more time with friends outside of church
5. Became too busy, but still wanted to attend
4. Moved too far away from church
3. Change in work schedule
2. Moved to college
1. Simply wanted a break from church
I’m not surprised that these two guys have different idea on why young adults leave church. Though I think Mark Sayers is digging a bit deeper.
My own thoughts are-
1) maybe its the church model?
2) Children need to grow up and have their own faith apart from their parents. Hirsch uses the term liminality and communitas. (Tim has a good summary of this)
Any other thoughts?
I’m not so sure about the church-model stuff as a significant factor – I reckon it’s probably more of a catalyst rather than the underlying motivation. I think it probably has more to do with how we do (or don’t do) discipleship. And I think that hits at your second point: we just haven’t worked out how to guide our kids through owning (and being able to question) their own faith – and as a result we end up young adults who don’t have their own faith to stand on.
I really did like Mark Sayers’ series – there’s little doubt he’s looked a little bit deeper at the heart. It’s easy to say that people leave the church during life changes – but Mark Sayers actually looks at why.
Hi Geoff good to see you are dropping by. I’m not sure what you meant ‘I reckon it’s probably more of a catalyst rather than the underlying motivation.’
Anyway I left my self open for not really explaining what I meant.
Certainly the examples given on Mark Connors blog all of them are about change in the Young Adult. For me this raises suspicions. Surely their has ownership of the problem by the church. Eg the model. Part of the model as you have alluded to would include discipleship, their are many more components as well. The model should be dynamic, to allow for the constant change in society and culture. I think it is these things which Mark Sayers has picked up without pointing out the church.
I hope this makes things a bit clearer
I’d like to address the suggestion of ‘committmentphobia’. Depending on how you define it, I think there could be some merit in that, but only with the view that young people are over-committed to the church and eventually burn out. For those teens that have grown up in the church, there is this silent pressure to be involved with pretty much everything that the church has going-from the music team, to the car-park team, ushers, overheads, cafe and coffee crew, running home groups and youth groups, working in the offices and just setting up chairs. Whilst its great to serve in the house of God, I think sometimes late teens and early 20′s feel flogged, and loaded with so many extra ‘curricular activities’ on top of Sunday church sessions that there is little time left for themselves. So when they finally get sick of all the work, or quite often when they get married, they reevaluate their priorities & just want some time for themselves. I think there is still a love for God generally, but its hard to be a part of churches sometimes without getting ‘roped’ into something, so its easier just not to go. Generally this group will return to churches when they start having families of their own, as the love for God has always been there, and they want their kids to grow up with the same Christian values.
I am not sure that the figures showing that young adults are leaving the church are relevant to Australia. I think that may be an American phomena. I have figures for Australia showing that in the uniting church young people are leaving but in the pentecostal churches they rae retaining and growing in the younger age brackets. Not sure what it is overall.
Craig
Hi Craig,
Steve Murrell’s stats are from the US while Mark Sayers is writing about Australian Statistics. Mark has writen a book and DVD and is pretty contextual to Australia.
I havn’t read the latest Census or Australian national church Survey figures for about 3 years but the figures were pretty convincing that young adults are leaving the church, especially the main stream churches. Pentecostal churches didn’t fair that much better, although they picked up more through conversion and transfer growth. As I said I havn’t read the latest material so things may have changed.
I believe you are on to something when you say “church model.” I have recently written two different research papers about this problem and have come to the following conclusion. The church as a whole is not doing a great job at ministering to young adults in our culture today. Many individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 are yearning for a church home and a place to encounter the living God, but many of our local churches are not making any attempts to reach this generation. After kids graduate from youth group, the church expects them to go on to college and hopefully return when they graduate college and start a family. Sadly, alot of these individuals never return to church. Statistics show the decline of church attendance involving this age group is on the rise and will continue to do so unless we as the church change the way we view these individuals. Studies have shown that this age group of people are not wanting to leave the church, but rather they are searching to find purpose through the church! The only problem is that the church is not providing the opportunities to do so. What do you think?
Hi there J…. I havnt read this post for a while but I think your line ‘unless we as the church change the way we view these individuals’, is the key.
Universities, especially in Australia are inclusive in nature. They are a soup of different ideas and are tolerant towards them.
Churches on the other hand are exclusive. They have very fixed ideas on belief and what you need to do to belong.
Its a huge step for a young person to grapple from a place of openness to rigidity. It will be interesting to see which and how churches will adapt…