Take Another Look: Young Adults Are Not In Church

 You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church...and Rethinking Faith by David Kinnaman is a recent publication by the Barna Research Group.  You can read a summary of the study called Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts by clicking here.  It’s an article well worth reading.  I’m guessing that it will leave you shaking your head with agreement if you are under 30, and shaking your head in disbelief if you are over 40.  Still, it’s helpful to see life as it really is.

For instance, Kinnaman’s research concludes that only “three out of ten young people ­– 19 to 29 years old - who grow up with a Christian background stay faithful to church and to faith throughout their transitions from the teen years through their twenties.”  Ouch!  If that doesn’t tell you that something is breaking down in families and churches, then nothing will.

Two common assumptions are shown to be myths:

Most people lose their faith when they leave high school. – The fallout happens much earlier and expresses itself in three different ways.  Click Here if you would like to see some interesting video interviews of people representative of each of these pathways away from the church.

Dropping out of church is just a natural part of young adults’ maturation. – Kinnaman points out that this is not what happens to tens of millions of young adult believers, nor has it been the case for previous generations.  Instead, “Today's young adults who drop out of faith are continuing something the Boomers began as a generation of spiritual free agents.”

And there is more bad news for those who are simply waiting for young adults to simply return.  “Young people are dropping out earlier, staying away longer, and if they come back are less likely to see the church as a long-term part of their life.”

I think this research is simply one more confirmation that christendom is dead in the United States.  The prevailing culture and institutions of society no longer recognize or affirm the church or faith as anything other than a private, personal preference. 

But if Christendom is dead, it is a great season for the Gospel!  When a christianized moral climate is stripped away, grace shines forth with greater clarity and intensity.  The “pearl of great price” is laid out for all to see.  In light of Kinnaman’s research and in response to the death of the culture of Christendom, God’s people – the church – must change their identity from being a cultural institution to being a band of people that are Missional in nature.  (Click Here to read more on that!)

Friends, this research simply puts numbers and context to the things I encounter every day in ministry.  It’s real.  But I am not depressed or defeated.  At Christ Covenant, we are seeing an amazing number of faithful young adults who are responding to the Gospel of grace and living an authentic life of faith in response to that grace.  New York City’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, pastored by Tim Keller, has grown primarily among this age group.  Cultural church life may no longer be in season, but the Gospel is never out of season.