The church *IS* over-protective.  There is a tendency for the church to “cloister” itself away from the rest of humanity.  There is a tendency to bring up Jesus for a solution to all problems even though that is the last thing that most people want to hear.  It’s a cancerous type of subtle legalism.  A canned-answer that most people don’t want.  Jesus doesn’t take away our problems, he helps us pick ourselves up when stand back up and brush ourselves off from having survived them.

In addition to that are the christians that have never experienced any kind of real hardship in their life.  Most people outside the church can’t identify with them. 

I could go on and on about this topic, but to sum it up, would we rather try and heal peoples’ wounds by accepting them with compassion and dignity? or would we rather give them a heavier burden than the pharisees placed on their people in time of Jesus by being judgemental and self-righteous?

Exercise:
“God loves everyone, except for _________.”

If you found yourself mentally filling in the blank with any group based-off their beliefs, their politics, their culture, their criminal history, their race, or even their sexual preference, then I have bad news for you. 

You are the type of person that drives the people away from God that probably need Him the most.

Would Jesus have invited them hang out and eat and talk with him?

Assignment:
Go and make friends with one of these people.  Try and put yourself in their shoes.  Don’t throw your beliefs and faith out in front of them.

I believe this is a huge cultural shift in our society, in which the institution of the church no longer has a central cultural influence. The sooner we realize it, the more likely we are to be able to address it. The issues are complex, and there probably isn’t a “single fix”. If we care, we must change.

1. Recognize that the cultural trends are real and alarming. If they continue, the trends suggest that after another generation of two, church as we know it will largely die and we will become a “post-Christian nation,” similar to European countries. We must have a passion for reaching the younger generations.

2. Emphasize “Missional” over “Attractional” approaches to reaching people. Attractional means we design a great program and invite others to join. Missional means we go to where they are, rather than inviting them to “come to church.” We must learn to expressing faith and experience faith community through relationships, within the marketplace, in our communities, and in our homes rather than just in church. Christians need to have many meaningful relationships with people who are not believers, in which we are transparent with our faith and lives and get to know them, whether or not they have the same perspective or ever accept Christ.

3. Recognize the positive trends as well. For example, younger generations are perhaps more interested in “spirituality” than ever before in the history of the US. They might be skeptical about Christianity, but are also very open to faith discussions with us IF we have a meaningful, accepting, and trusting relationship and engage in TWO-WAY dialog.

4. We must get back to the front lines. “Normal Christians” must learn to “be missionaries”. We must learn to think of America as a missionary does. If we were in Papua New Guinea, we would recognize that they have a vastly different culture and history than us, and study the culture. We would try to come up with meaningful cross-cultural ways to develop relationships and communicate. We would recognize that we are “foreigners” and have a very humble, respectful, accepting approach. We would sacrifice ourselves, not just our money.

5. We must learn to ask lots of questions and listen long before we speak. We must have deep relationships with those who are not believers, so that we are still around when they are ready to ask questions.

6. We must experiment and take risks… with God, with relationships, and with how we experience church.

7. We must rediscover the spirituality of God, such as praying for others like we mean it and expecting God to show up in miraculous ways.

Wow. I didn’t realize how high those numbers actually are. From personal experience though, I can understand why. I have dealt with all of those problems and more. And it’s really a shame that the church (in general) places so much judgment on our young people. Didn’t they remember what it was like when they were this age??

While the study addressed youth, I am nearly 60 and would agree with most of the points. So would many of the people I work with as a Hospice Chaplain. I work with people outside the church, usually over 50. They feel the same as those in the study. Many I work with have abandoned the church for the very reasons mentioned. When I have an opportunity to share a well thought out, non-judgmental approach to Christian Faith I find little resistance.

I am afraid that some are going to argue that we should not “compromise the Truth” to satisfy society. I am sure someone will address the verse on “tickling their ears.”  However, the need is not to compromise the truth nor became acceptable at the cost of being faithful.

If the church (small “c”) is to be relevant for any age it must be scholastically honest, hold to intellectual integrity, and listen, listen, listen to others.

I wonder if #2 reflects the egocentric way we have “marketed” Jesus to this generation. Our emphasis on what Jesus can do for me—rather than on a call to radical discipleship—may lead many to conclude they don’t need Jesus when other products meet their needs. (Many feel better after a latte than after prayrer.) We live in a consumer culture, where relevance often equals whatever fits my style and personal taste. Trying to present a more stylish and cooler Jesus may be the wrong path. Many paths to God sounds cooler and more tolerant than the exclusive claims of Jesus. Maybe we should scrape off the barnacles of cultural paradigms from the gospel through good biblical scholarship and recover the call to follow Jesus. The church’s youth are hungry for a cause worth dying and sacrificing for, but see many in the church as passionless and unwilling to forsake the material comforts of our middle-class lives. God is fine in small doses, it seems.

Seems “fear” is the connecting factor. We operate out of fear rather than faith.

Am I surprised? Sadly, no. As someone who is answering God’s call to become a pastor, I think that #2 is the most troubling. If the experience teens and twenty-somethings are having of Christianity is shallow, then the onus falls on those of us who are speaking into their lives to make it something deeper.

Well I would have to say, being one in that age group that leaves the church, I am really saddened that the church has not done anything about it. Must people my age in ministry undo what previous generations are doing without any help?

I am willing to accept people. I am willing to listen to science. I am willing to address the tough topics in a relevant manner, and make church a place where anyone can go.
But I need the help of those who are currently in leadership roles in the church. I need the help of the people who attend church weekly who are 30+ and believe they have all the answers to life.
Very simply, all I need from these people is an open mind and an open heart for the gay person, the tattoo sleeved individual, the homeless person, the skeptical young person, the pregnant single girl… You know who I’m talking about. Make room for them in your heart in the workplace, the mall, your home, and the church, and- make no mistake- they will come to church if they see Christ’s love in you.

These questions, and their answers, all seem to stem from the same fundamental problem. For some reason, in the American Church faith in God quickly turns into certainty. Belief and certainty can not co-exist by definition, but for some reason when we are all encouraged by either our local pastors, passing evangelists, or lay ministers to be “sure of what we believe”, most of our brothers and sisters take that to mean that there is no room for doubt, error, unbelief, or experimentation within the confines of the faith.

However, I am not sure if embracing doubt, change, reverence, and exploration in the American church is preachable. :/

Sadly, no I am not surprised. I do have a deep connection with the CotN and its VERY good news. But as soon as we forget what it means to be a church, to be molded, willing to learn, to grow in understanding, to be deeply relational, to be in the world and relevant,then we are in trouble.
As long as we are just waiting on Heaven to come down at a certain time and in the meantime go on with a mediocre faith that is a subculture with access rules we might as well throw in the towel.

We can make a difference in young lives as long as we understand that we are the reflection of Christ through the Spirit and it is our responsibility to act, rely and invest on Him. Are we willing to let The Almighty’s Love shape us?

We need to take young people serious. We need to learn their culture, we need to invest heavely in them! That means to get out of our comfortzone and into their world.
We need to share a faith/life(not separate but in unity) that is challenging! And one thing I know is that Gods Love can definitely be challenging when it comes to shaping your/our life(s)! If we know how to do that then Christ is relevant for future generations. (He always is and will be but we churchpeople, the incrowd are the ones who need to step up)

Thx for posting Tom. This helps me again to tweak my senses…

Innerestin’, but hardly new. All that and more is why I walked away from the church (the One True Church, too, given that I’m a Recovering Catlick) fifty years ago. The only reason I’m back is because of the influence of Leece, the Recovering Fundie, but I gotta tell you, I could walk away from it again any old time. It was good to go back, too, but it didn’t take long for the old churchly demons to raise their heads again. But I’m still there. I’m no longer afraid of the church, nor the neo-Pharisees.

More on that here:

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2010/01/christian-book-buying.html

and this one illustrates another attitude/behavior that drives young people, and not a few of we old gasbags, right up the wall about ‘traditional Christians’, the ones who seem to make up the bulk of the Christian Right:

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2010/07/strange-bedfellows.html

I think much of this has to do with the influence of the so-called ‘Holiness movements’ on American churches. And that goes hand-in-hand with the Doc’s recent essay on God’s holiness factor.

Unfortunately I would have to say that I agree with most young people about the church. So why am I staying? I had a youth pastor who was not afraid of talking about the dirty things in life. He taught us that doubt was okay. He talked about sex and the importance of abstinence and why it is a God ordained gift. Basically he was everything that the reasons stated above were not. He was real and he knew that what we were struggling with was real and he was not afraid to talk about it. He left in the middle of ninth grade and the youth pastors that I had after that were the epitome of the given reasons. If it were not for my first youth pastors realness I would probably be included in the 3 of 5 that left the church.

That being said. I think that it is important for Christians to start living out their lives in ways that say “yes, humanity is dirty but so is Christianity.” If we let the young people know that sex is not bad but it should be saved b/c it is of God then maybe just maybe our young people will start valuing themselves again. If we talk about the realness of doubt and how it can be healthy to doubt then maybe they will see that questioning things is not bad. If they see the deep rooted love of God lived out and invested in them they will not leave.

It is time to get raw and dirty in ministry.

Hi Tom,

The issue is how do we, the church reach our generation (all ages and sorts) with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? We can’t tamper with our raison d’être. If we do , the light on the hill goes out; the salt loses its savour; and the yeast becomes useless. Only the Holy Spirit can make the church what we must be - a loving, agent of moral change.

As Christians, we must have the moral courage and humility to identify for ourselves from Scripture and by prayerful dependence upon the Holy Spirit, (self examination is both Scriptural and necessary, 2 Cor. 13:5) what in our own lives and organisational structures, are genuine obstacles preventing us from co-operating with the Lord and with each other in achieving God’s redemptive purpose for our generation.

God is not married to any denomination or group who happen to name His Name. Church history is replete with examples of how the Holy Spirit by-passed established church organisations which had become calcified and He thereby created new opportunities for people to come to faith in Christ. “The wind blows wherever it pleases.” And there is no doubt that if we attempt to bottle up the wind for ourselves, or we try to redefine it, we will be blown away.

Roy

The cost of discipleship is costly. Jesus said, “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  I do not know of any Christian, those who have repented and accepted Christ, who did not surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in exchange for a new life. I know I did.

I believe the real problem today is more excuse making rather than surrender. We have an example of this found in Luke [9:] When some said to Jesus “I will follow you wherever you go.” And after Jesus laid down the ground rules concerning the cost of discipleship they began to give excuses why they would not follow.

When I was in the service, in boot camp, we learned three little words, “No Excuse Sir.” If you goofed up intentional or not and was called on the carpet for it, you could only offer up in your defense these words, “No Excuse Sir.” When I was in they didn’t accept excuses. That training has served me well to this day. Before Christ I will be without excuse if I should follow the pattern of excuses that some of these young people have set for themselves.

No one wants to take responsibility today for their own actions and it becomes easier to blame others, including blaming the church. As long as the church acts under the direction of the Holy Spirit there will always be those who will find fault regardless of the truth. The church cannot change its message simply because some do not like the cost. Others have tried and failed.

Good day to you, lige Jeter. After reading your comments, I could not help but think, “This attitude epitomizes why people leave the church, or never embrace the church.” Your military analogy is a false analogy. The military always accepts excuses. The old saw “... for the good of the unit ...” allows a multitude of organizational sins to be swept under the rug; every time I heard the phrase I knew some colonel’s career was in jeopardy, or some favored lackey had screwed up and needed protecting, and they were trying to justify whatever it was they were going to do to cover it up. The church, being a great monolithic bureaucracy, is no different. But continuing on the main thread ... it is not up to you to determine who is properly following which ‘rules.’ Christ was a master of the metaphor, and he rarely gave a direct answer. Even his New Commandment, and his Great Commission, are open to interpretation as to how they should be executed. The mission objective may be clear, but the manner of execution of the orders is not. So Christ is in violation of a number of military precepts. Perhaps using the military as an analogy for how one should embrace the church and Christ is not a good one?

All it takes is for ME to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I definitely agree with #2. I experience that now. I plan on going into ministry and I think church is not relevant to people. I hope to help correct that in some way. I think part of the reason people do not think church is relevant is the illusion of community. Many people go to church and think of it as fulfilling some duty they have. Church does not fulfill its role in fostering growth and service to the community. Making church relevant means breaking a lot of the “traditions” we have in order to make church real and communal and not some duty that needs to be fulfilled every week.

DinkyDau Billy,

Thanks for your comments, otherwise I would not have known that my comments were confusing to you, and may have been to others, which were never meant to be. Therefore, I feel compelled of the Lord to try and explain and remove any misunderstanding you or others may have. I will address my remarks primarily to you and include all others who may have been mislead as well. 

Obviously we both served in the military at different times, and had a very difference experience based upon your concept of the military always accepting excuses.

Mine was at the end of the Korean war, and the experience I shared in my earlier comment and took away from my service experience was personal and obviously different from yours, and was not intended to fit everyone. I recall a personal incident that happened to me that reflected the training I received in boot camp that served me well throughout life including my spiritual journey. Perhaps it is not for everyone.

It was while newly being stationed at Keesler AFB, Miss. that I failed to pull latrine duty. I failed to check the duty rooster on the bulletin board (I knew better, but failed to do so). That morning I was summoned to the First Sergeant’s office. When I arrived another person, who was up for discharge, was being chewed out for something else. When I was asked, why I did not pull my duty, my response was as taught in boot camp, “No Excuse Sergeant.” Apparently the other Airman offered an excuse which the First Sergeant did not accept. Because I offered no excuse The Sergeant showed mercy and I did not receive company punishment, and was merely told not to do it again. I got the message loud and clear.

I believe that when we come to Christ without excuse when the Holy Spirit shows us our short comings and we confess our need, Christ shows us His mercy. It has been my personal experience that if I try to offer up an excuse to avoid personal responsibility and correction, I wind up the loser. I hope this helps.

There are several good points made here, both in the blog entry as well as comments made.  I tend to agree with most of the the entry, but I also can’t help but wonder about individual responsibility.

I deal with a lack of individual responsibility/accountability quite frequently and I think there is some of it included AT TIMES when people leave the church.  For instance, #2 talks about a shallow faith.  For their part, the church certainly should be teaching and preaching appropriate, well interpreted theology to its members and those in the church should embody those teachings to others.  The member must understand that it is HIS/HER relationship and the only one that can make it less shallow and more meaningful is him/her.  That requires time, effort, study, etc.  I’m certain there are churches that are irresponsible and foster shallow faith, but if one wants a deeper understanding, there are a lot of churches who do a better job.

I can attest to having plenty of doubts as a Christian and church goer and identify with #6.  That being said, I go back to personal responsibility.  Could the church do better at having resources and/or being more up front and open for people who have questions?  You bet.  But, it’s still on me as to whether or not I want to push through those doubts, or just walk away.  I’m the one who sought out people to speak with, kept going to church (for the most part), and continued asking the questions to seek out answers.  I’m not special and I know my experience is not the same as others, but I tend to think it could be in line with the average guy out there.

I suppose what I’m saying is that our current cultural state has brought us to this point.  Church/religion seems to be further from “main stream” and can be lacking in showing how Christ is relevant.  Individuals look to others for what or why they are where they are.  These are generalities, but I feel there needs to be growth on both sides of the fence in order to have meaningful change.  Just my $.02.

Good day to you, Lige Jeter,

Thank you for your response.

I do not believe I am confused by what you wrote in your first post. This belief is reinforced by what you wrote in your second post.

I believe your black and white approach to life and to Christianity is without mercy and is unworthy of being linked to Jesus Christ’s teachings. You tell us that this approach, which you developed as the epiphanic result of failing to swab out some toilets and urinals, ‘... was not intended to fit everyone ...’, yet you then insist that those who in your judgment offer ‘excuses’, are somehow slackers, failures at being Christians. You paint with a broad brush, brother, much too broad a brush.

My life experiences have shown me that this ‘no excuse sir’ approach is in itself a copping out. When I ask someone why they did something wrong, I react much more favorably to a reasoned explanation of why the behavior occurred. The explanation may be a valid reason for the alleged misconduct. The explanation may illustrate a failure to communicate effectively; it may illustrate a failing on my part to properly instruct the alleged miscreant; it may illustrate a failure of training; it may illustrate a failure of the command to allocate adequate resources ... there are any number of reasons why ‘no excuse sir’ is so much horse excrement, which poorly serves the organization and the people in the organization. In the law, these would be considering mitigating or extenuating circumstances. They are hardly ‘excuses.’ They are valid circumstances for he who sits in judgment to consider before making judgment.

Matters of spirituality, of sin and of salvation, do not equate to failing to read a duty roster assigning toilet swabbing activities. Indeed, for a related discussion on this, though the connection may be difficult to perceive immediately, I draw your attention to Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, where in Question 88 of Prima Secundæ Partis he examines the nature of and relationship between mortal and venial sin. It’s clear to me that Saint Thomas would not buy into your ‘no excuse’ approach. Nor, I believe, does Christ.

I am not surprised in the least by the title of this blog. I am not surprised that many young Christians choose to leave the Church. I do think it’s incredibly sad. I have many friends that fell away from the Church when they hit later high school years and early college aged years. I recently had a friend tell me that she wishes she would have never left the church and that she wants to start going back. She misses the community.
I sort of think that is key. I agree with all the reasons stated above, but I do think a lot has to do with community. Our churches have become so age segregated over the years. When I was younger I can remember there being a strong sense of community among everyone. When I got older it was very much stay with your own age group. I think this poses a problem. When high school teens are ready to leave the youth group they find that they don’t fit in really anywhere else. I do think that judgment plays a big part of it as well. I know that many people in the church tend to judge others for their actions or their not believing. It’s a sad reality.

I think that the church does need to do a better job of looking out, essentially, for our teens. I mean, those are the years when a young person is breaking away from their parents’ faith and trying to figure things out on their own. Their community needs to surround them. The community of all ages.

Sad reality.

Personally, I feel that often the Church does not go into depth with theology, though perhaps that has something to do with educational needs for congregations.  My experience in the Church was fine for me personally but I did not often question the Church.  Once I got to college I discovered and learned a lot and realized a lack of discipleship in my life.  My greatest mentor was my father and he taught me a lot but, at the same time, there was a lot that I didn’t get from my local church.  I have also, personally, heard stories from various people of the judgmental side of Christianity.  Now perhaps this has some source in personal responsibility in the individual and not necessarily sourced entirely from the Church.  However, my thought is: Should the Church be individualistic?  How much have we lost community-wise and how much of the current issues of young people leaving can be sourced to an overly-individualized Church?  Now I know that in an individualistic society it is hard to be communal for various reasons.  At the same time how much can we point to personal responsibility when the Church should be an empowering community?  There is only so much the Church can do but are we doing all that we can do or is ‘less than’ good enough?

Dr. Oord,
  Sadly I would have to agree with most if not all of the reasons that are listed above and they are no surprise for me. Reason #2 makes me the most upset I think. “One out of every four Christian young adults said Christian faith, as they understood it, is not relevant to their lives.” I think that if the church actually spent more time educating their teens we would find more of then understanding what they believe and how it is relevant to their lives.

I am actually not surprised (nice picture by the way!).  I have definitely experienced this in churches I have been involved in. It is extremly frustrating too, when you think “If we only just…. the people would stay in the church.” I appreciate you posting this, becuase if these are the reasons, and people are concerned about the entire community, then we should be asking what can be done? If the reasons why this age group is struggling bothers anyone, then they should ask themselves why they struggle with adapting to these ideas. Why is doubt wrong? Especially if it leads to finding a stronger foundation in faith. There are worse things that will lead people away from Christianity, and like these facts show, it is happening anyways! The only oppostion I had to this article is the need to make your faith your own, and being a grown up.

I do think we should be considering the needs of this age group, but I also know even with that sometimes we are just lazy. It is easy to go to church when our parents make us, or it is a part of our schedule, but once we graduate and hit college life,man, we are already packing our schedule with stuff. It is easy to make and excuse not to go be involved and learn in a faith community.  At some point if we all get frustrated and leave we are never going to see a shift or change in our comunity that will help our peers etc.  I know that does not speak for everyone.

Talitha Edwards writes…

Personally, I feel that often the Church does not go into depth with theology, though perhaps that has something to do with educational needs for congregations. My experience in the Church was fine for me personally but I did not often question the Church. Once I got to college I discovered and learned a lot and realized a lack of discipleship in my life. My greatest mentor was my father and he taught me a lot but, at the same time, there was a lot that I didn’t get from my local church. I have also, personally, heard stories from various people of the judgmental side of Christianity. Now perhaps this has some source in personal responsibility in the individual and not necessarily sourced entirely from the Church. However, my thought is: Should the Church be individualistic? How much have we lost community-wise and how much of the current issues of young people leaving can be sourced to an overly-individualized Church? Now I know that in an individualistic society it is hard to be communal for various reasons. At the same time how much can we point to personal responsibility when the Church should be an empowering community? There is only so much the Church can do but are we doing all that we can do or is ‘less than’ good enough?

Talitha Edwards

Dr. Oord-

These reasons, though true and visibly verifiable, are doubtful to be the sole reasons that people of my generation leave the church, but rather, seem like the root to many other complex issues that have created an age divide within the church as we see it today. In my own experience, I became burnt out on the church during my first two years of college and struggled to see beyond the churches flaws. While there is no such thing as a perfect institution and finding a specific church that meets your “needs” is impossible, it seems like there is also an unfriendliness to criticism within today’s church framework. I think the church should be willing to openly discuss and come to the heart of the problems it faces with age divide in order to regain community and holistic growth.

On the nature of ‘education’ and ‘community’ within the church, please see:

http://www.nakedpastor.com/2011/10/01/brain-check/

Tabitha brings up the idea of an ‘overly-individualized’ church as driving people away. That’s an interesting concept, and I think a complex concept.

The Catholic church has for a couple of millennium relied on the liturgy of the Mass to provide a foundation for worship and community. I love the Mass, though not as much as I did when I was a kid, when it was in Latin ... you have to attend a High Mass in Latin in a Roman church of Byzantine design to really get a grip on that. (It’s OK. Protestants can go to a Catholic church. All those Papist heresies won’t rub off.)  But one of the major issues I have with the Roman church is ... like the example in the Naked Pastor’s cartoon, The One True Church doesn’t encourage a lot of thinking. Kind of reminds me of the line in ‘GI Jane’: “When I want your opinion, Lieutenant, I’ll give it to you.”

Protestant churches are not much different; they are just less openly corporate - except, of course for televangelists and prosperity preachers. IOW, I don’t see a lot of individualization in any church. It’s pretty much toe the party line, and check your brain at the door, and when the Church wants your opinion, they’ll give it to you.

The church leadership doesn’t do well in coming to grips with the vital issues of the day. It just doesn’t. And when they try, it often falls flatter than Pope Alexander VI’s world, though come to think on it, The One True Church is still trying to pull those particular Chestnuts out of the fire in more ways than one.

On that Byzantine church thing? There’s a link to a magnificent example near the end of this blogpost, which is also a commentary of sorts on the failure of church leadership in the modern milieu:

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2008/03/lenten-sacrifices.html

Last thought ... Our middle son, attending midnight Mass at the local parish last year, observed that all the doodads - Stations of the Cross, etc - helped him to focus on his prayers. Yep. It does. A variation on that Lectio Divina thing, don’t you think? Will he go to hell for that? Or is Rob Bell on to something?

These results are not surprising to me. I think that the main reason for these results is because in the 60’s and 70’s there was a generation that revolted against authority. At this time, the main authority was the Church and the Church’s response to the rebellion was strict rules and a firm stance. I think that this was the wrong approach and was probably a result of scared parents. However, now that these teenagers have grown up and become parents, they have presented a bad representation of the Church to their children; causing the Church to loss influence in our culture. As a result, our youth has turned to science for answers which appears to contradict Christian doctrine. In order for the church to gain cultural influence we must turn to relationship building and logic. In a culture that is heavily influenced by science, we have to present logical theology. In order for the Church to gain a new representation in our society, we have to present ourselves to our society, rather than wait for our society to come to our churches.

Hello, Joshua Farmer,

I have to disagree with your premise that the ‘main authority’ was the Church, back in the sixties and seventies. It wasn’t. The government was the main authority. The Church was offering up the same pre-digested pap that it does now, and we weren’t buying back then any more than today’s young people are buying it now. The church was playing a very poor second fiddle to the government, for most of us. The church then, as now, is pretty much irrelevant to a really significant percentage of the population, Beaver and family notwithstanding.

OTOH, there were a number of church figures who joined the anti-war anti-govenrment movement, and the civil rights movement. Some of those pastors who joined the civil rights movement were even white guys.Jim Reeb and Gregg Liuzzo come to mind. So there was a component of the church that ‘resonated’ with us back then. Like the practical application of liberation theology in Central America by nuns and priests, much to the chagrin of The One True Church. The Church was an obstruction, but the real threat was the government and its support of right-wing despots.

Today, we don’t have that kind of stirring leadership in the church. Nope. What we have is the likes of John Hagee, who has anointed Rick Perry:

http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2011/08/rick-perry.html

and who has recently been joined by fellow Perry endorser Bob Jefress, who calls Perry a ‘genuine follower of Jesus Christ’ and refers to Mormon Romney as a cultist. There ya go. If Hagee or Jefress are examples of church leadership today, my only question to myself is why I’m still in it. And, their followers really do not set much of a Christian example for we of the unwashed masses.

As for presenting ‘logical theology’ ... huh. Now there’s a thought. What do you think of the premise that all theology is nothing but opinion?

I agree that all of these reasons are and have been reasons that young people leave the church, but I think that the main two are that churches are often too legalistic and young people are too often scorned and looked down upon for their actions. They are not invited to be an integral part of their church. I think that instead of youth and their ideas being taken seriously and listened to they are being spoken “at” and treated as if they are spiritually immature. There are too few avenues by which youth are enabled to decipher Christianity in reference to their own live and the are in consequence unable to be intrinsically motivate to attend church.

As a twenty-something, I can agree with a lot of the reasons why young Christians stray from the church. Most churches I have been to do not address issues such as sexuality, death and sin in an understanding way. I feel that some pastors take the easy way out and use the Bible in a very literal manner to avoid much discussion about those topics. If pastors were more open minded and more willing to talk about such subjects, less young Christians would stray from the church because they would be able to talk through these issues rather than just be told that we need to think this way because the Bible says so.

Those are some of the reasons why I choose to stay out of anything related to “church”. When I became a twenty something I noticed that my values were changing and those values were different from the “church”. As I was exposed to more to the world after entering university I felt myself changing from what the “church” believed. The more I see the world and see what constitutes religion. I find the exclusiveness hard to reconcile with even now.

I think I would have to agree with most of the reasons. A church can be overprotective but its what I want to put into it, is what Im going to get out of it. Teenagers start to understand church more thoroughly I think and its hard to be Christians twenty four hours a day. We all make mistakes but we can learn from them. If something happens we like to go to the church for help. In some phases I think churches can be trying to hard to teenagers. I myself love going to church but as a young teenagers youth group wasn’t such a high note for me. I learn more in the service then I did in youth group eating donuts and drinking juice.