Thursday, May 24, 2012
Why are there so Few Young Adults in our Church? Part 1
One of the greatest concerns that I hear from leadership in churches has been their observation of how few young adults are in their congregations. I've heard it said that ages 18-29 represent the lost generation of the church. This is interesting because in the past 60 years the American church has spent massive amounts of money and energy on ministry to young people. After decades of focus on ministry to young people (Youth Pastors, Youth Retreats, Young Life, Campus Ministries, Young Adult Services etc) is the American Church any better off? Are we healthier? Have we raised up new generations of Christians who love Christ and His church? Not in my experience.
I’d like to propose some changes that you could make in your congregation that may increase your opportunity to minister effectively to young adults.
1. Refocus your youth ministry. Let's get serious. What is the drive of your youth ministry? What's at the center? What do you care most about? Youth Pastors, Directors, and volunteers are not mainly called to plan the social calendar of students and focus on ski trips. They are called to shepherd the hearts of students and walk through many of their most formative years. So many today are writing and preaching about the massive number of young people that are falling away from their "faith" in the first two years of college. I've heard many guesses as to why this is. "They can't defend their faith" or "they don't know the Bible well enough" or "they don't know creation science well enough." My guess is much more simple. My guess is that most of them were entertained in their youth ministry and the entertainment was enough to hold onto them through high school. But the entertainment of the College Campus Ministry can't beat the entertainment of the frat party/sports scene/video game scene and they've chosen a more entertaining path. There is a place for fun in youth ministry but let's ask hard questions. What do our Elders want to see happening in our youth ministry? Are our Elders impressed with numbers? Do our youth leaders understand biblical doctrine? Can they teach it with conviction?
2. Don’t make your problem their problem. What is your reaction if you look at your body and see very few people between the ages of 18-29? Young adult flight is a symptom of an unhealthy body as much as it is a symptom of young adults who don’t love God or don’t understand God’s call on the Christian. God has called every local church to minister to multiple generations and God makes this possible when our churches teach God’s Word in its entirety and worship Him in spirit and Truth. We can continually blame larger churches who “steal our sheep” or the culture for our inability to reach people or we can look realistically at ourselves. What are the ways of relating and teaching in your church that alienate young people?
If you like what you're reading, feel free to pass this on to a leader in your church. http://markrevans.blogspot.com/
Part 2 will come next week.
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I wonder if because so much attention has been paid to "entertaining" young people, the Gospel has been sacrificied and many of these young people are not believers. We love sayings like, "Mary is a believer. She's just not walking with the Lord right now." Unfortunately the Bible gives no comfort to the person who remains in a lifestyle of unrepentant, continual sin ("Do not forsake the gathering of believers - Heb 10:25). If the majority of young people leave the church in their young adulthood, are we so foolish to think that the One who sustains every believer and sanctifies every christian is failing at this job? I understand there is a sense in which we are responsible before God for our spiritual walk. Yet, at the same time we recognize that we cannot sustain ourselves and we rely upon the Spirit of God. Is the Holy Spirit failing? No. The more important question is 'Do they have the Spirit?' Relevance, seeker friendliness, and activities are not the answer. The preaching of the Gospel is the answer. A new creation is the answer. A heart of stone replaced by a heart of flesh is the answer. May we be faithful to the Gospel message and pray that God changes the desires of young people's hearts through the work of regeneration.
ReplyDeleteI like this observation/quote from Packer, but this could be tagged for all, rather than just "young adults":
ReplyDelete“At no time, perhaps, since the Reformation have Christians as a body been so unsure, tentative, and confused as to what they should believe and do. Certainty about the great issues of Christian faith and conduct is lacking all along the line. The outside observer sees us as staggering on from gimmick to gimmick and stunt to stunt like so many drunks in a fog, not knowing at all where we are or which way we should be going. Preaching is hazy, heads are muddled, and hearts fret. Why is this? We blame the external pressures of our world, but this is like Eve blaming the serpent. The real trouble is that for two generations or more our churches have suffered from a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord.” -J.I. Packer
Here's three reasons why youth don't leave the church:
ReplyDelete1. They are converted.
2. They have been equipped, not entertained.
3. Their parents preached the gospel to them.
http://www.churchleaders.com/youth/youth-leaders-articles/159175-3-common-traits-of-youth-who-don-t-leave-the-church.html
And the final comment from me, concerning this post:
ReplyDelete'The vast majority of teens, who call themselves Christians, haven’t been well educated in religious doctrine and, therefore, really don’t know what they believe.” Certainly, these results, at least to some degree, reflect the typically shallow theological culture of youth ministry. Why, then, does there seem to be a gap between youth ministry and theology?
We live in a society where we have relegated the teen years to something of a carefree vacation, protected from consequences and responsibilities.
It is strange that we teach young people complex calculus and physics but don’t think they can handle or will be interested in understanding the significance of the Trinity or atonement.
Churches have different expectations of youth ministries.
Some pastors view youth ministry as a necessary bother. They see youth ministry as required yet do not want it to cause them problems or drain their time. Some churches view youth ministers as entertainers and buddies, not serious ministers of God’s Word. Hence, they may hire energetic young adults without theological training (this varies between denominations) to run programs and do little to invest in their theological formation. The care with which we select youth pastors is not typically on par with the process we go through to call other clergy. Often the first question a church leader has for the youth pastor is, “How many came this week?” The second one may be, “Did they have fun?”
Youth pastors just love kids and want them to meet Jesus.
Evangelistic passion among some youth pastors has meant a neglect of theology—both studying it and teaching it. We can aim for “decisions for Christ” and overlook the spiritual formation that follows conversion. It is easy to get so wrapped up in doing evangelism and relationships that little time is spent deepening our own understanding of doctrine. Given that most people who come to faith do so before they complete their teen years, a youth minister can easily take on the attitude that “students don’t need deep theology, they just need Jesus.” Yet presenting the gospel without a solid theology is dangerous. A youth pastor with weak theology is more susceptible to developing a messiah complex, thinking we need to save these students. Students who don’t grasp good theology cannot articulate a faith that will stand up in college or beyond.’
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/04/23/why-theology-and-youth-ministry-seldom-mix/
I think the church and parents, who hold the primary responsibility of teaching their children, are guilty of not teaching the Bible well. Most of the time the Bible is taught in a fragmented manner and where moralism and life lessons are the key, as opposed to a bunch of stories and books all telling and pointing to a bigger story. I have appreciated newer books like The Jesus Storybook Bible that teach the Bible holistically and talk about the plan of God and how God is working out that plan.
ReplyDelete