Why Young Christians Leave

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.

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.

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

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.

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…

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 am not surprised at the results of the study. I interpret the goal behind these observations is to discover how to minister effectively. If the faith life experienced in Church is perceived as shallow, overprotective, antagonistic to new ideas, out of date, and exclusive, something needs to change. These adjectives describe an institution different from the movement started by Jesus. In drastic contrast, Jesus taught depth, “fear not”, unity, relevance, and inclusive ideas. Young minds who want to be a part of the Church are wrestling with why the Church at times functions in ways that is contrary to their understanding of God. An open discussion needs to take place where the youth represented in this study and current Church leaders are able to explain their theology and how this either affirms or contradicts the current practice.

The study and the answers given are not surprising as the Church has forgotten where they once came from. We as the church are sometimes guilty of being like the “Pharisees” with our self-righteousness guiding us instead of the Holy Spirit. Many of the young generation want genuine answers to their questions on faith and how it relates to the situations they are going through. Socially speaking we are more open as a society where we are sharing our problems with each other. The emptiness that is left in lives are being filled by the various self-help religions that a social media that allows them to find tailored made groups for them to join. At times the Church has been slow and even in reverse when it comes to dealing with the questions and issues that the younger generations is going through. The church has forgotten that Christ was a rebel in His times and His outreach to those with social stigma was not a program but a genuine love. Genuine love does not ask someone to conform who they are but accepts the person with all of their faults and weakness. It was this acceptance that was expressed in such a love that the person was is left changed from the experience. The church can begin to change this if it opens a true dialogue with the next generation allowing them to guide the church in its vision and ministry. The best people for this type of ministry are the people from the generation who has speak and live the language of the times. They know the challenges, temptations and the manner they have experienced God in their life gives them a genuine ministry. The church needs to stop being an entity and start living as unified living, breathing people with everyone having the same importance in the outcome.

I must say that none of those six answers are surprising and I have wrestled with all six of those issues. Somehow I stayed in the church, however, and I am not entirely sure why this is the case. I wish that it were more ok to discuss these frustrations in our churches and I also wonder why this isn’t happening. If we are going to be honest about these problems we don’t just get to dismiss them because “kids these days” (said in your best cranky voice) don’t get it. These are systemic problems to the organized church.

So if these issues are pervasive why aren’t they talked about in our churches as a source of concern? Are we afraid of talking about these things, too? Isn’t this exactly why the young people are leaving: we are afraid to grapple with difficult issues in public settings? The idolatry of certainty has been erected and placed on the altars of our churches, and like Josiah or Asa, we must clean out all the high places we have erected that replace a dependency on God. We need courageous pastors, leaders, congregants and instructors to face the hard truth that the church as we know it will fail if we do not stop to meet these kids in the multi-cultural, pluralistic, gender-bended, world that they occupy. A failure to do this is just putting on display our churches prefer idols of pretention over the humble seeking of a disciple of the Way.

So I open Facebook today and find this “Open Letter to all the People Writing Open Letters About What’s Wrong with The Church” (http://www.faithit.com/open-letter-people-writing-sharing-open-letters-whats-wrong-church/). I have to admit I am not a “Millennial,” so it would be hard for me to talk into why this group of people is leaving the church. The writer of the Facebook blog says maybe it is due to the fact that young people are “spoiled, selfish, uneasily satisfied, hypercritical, consumeristic and socially enlightened but biblically light-wiegth.” The writer is part of the aforementioned group. The writer points out that church going is like a marriage relationship. Are our spouses perfect? Do we focus on every negative aspect of the relationship or do we lean into what is good and pure with the hope of a better tomorrow. The Church will never be perfect. It is made up of people who need Jesus, people like you and me. Let’s make this the year of positive thinking and proactive change. Be part of the solution not part of the problem.

This is a very interesting research. I have always worked with youth and the main reason I have seen them leaving the church it has been mostly for the number two.

However, teens also are being raised in a very consumerist environment. The church is treated as a supermarket where you go to do your shopping. Instead of being a place where we bring our offering, it has become the place where we demand an offering from God.

We lead our youth group in German and many times we hear them say that they do no like the music, things are formal, people are cold, nobody really smiles etc. We always recall them to reflect on themselves. Do you do all these things? Now most of them are involved in worship and other areas of the church.

I think that biggest problem has to do with the way the church is organized. Jayme Himmelwright (Missionary in Portugal) said that the church is a place with the highest segregation. We have teens group, children’s group and church service on Sunday. While each of these groups is important, they should not take time during the service. We should all came together as a family to celebrate God. We must get the young people and children involved during worship. Only through meaningful participation they will feel they belong to the church.

I believe young people not only leave the church due to Christian’s antagonistic view of science, but also because many Christians treat the Bible as a science. The Bible is not science —it’s a story. It’s a narrative about a God who creates, rescues, gives judgment, redeems, frees and loves. Viewing the bible as a science text book leads many to use it as a tool proving and disproving others. It becomes a way to “defend” the faith. Anytime we try and defend faith we have assumed a lording posture of defensiveness rather than one of humility and love. How can the grace and peace of God be extended when we have our fists up?

Allow me to try to communicate these six findings in a positive, response-focused way:
#1. Young Christians need room to have freedom to “breathe” – to talk, try, and even fail, in an accepting environment. They need freedom to take risks, and need a church willing to take risks in order to make a difference in their community and world.
#2. Young Christians need a faith that is deep and relevant. What does this mean? We must be willing to dialogue with young Christians about the important matters of their faith (learning things like success in life and self confidence are helpful, but peripheral and not primary to their desire for depth).
#3. We must be willing to have open dialogue across all disciplines.
#4. We must at least be willing to listen to young Christians about issues of sexuality, if not also re-evaluate our teaching methods for clarity and relevance.
#5. We must be willing to be open and accepting of other faiths, while knowing our own theology well enough (and being secure enough in it) to sit at the table of conversation with other religions.
#6. We must allow the doubts of young Christians, seeing them as opportunities to have honest exploration that leads to stronger faith.
And I would add #7: We must be willing to trust God’s prevenient grace!

I have been involved with churches that were primarily younger and others that were predominately older. Not since I was in college have I attended a church that had a good representation of all demographics. A healthy church ought to be spread out generationally, but they are a rarity.
In a world where the Rolling Stones are performing concerts in their 70s it seems odd that the church would have this issue. While there will always be generational issues it seems that the church has a much more difficult problem in bridging the gap between young and old.
Our older believers must be willing to be uncomfortable if the gap is going to be bridged. To minister to younger people there needs to be a different worldview and worldviews simply don’t change easily, especially at an advanced age. Our older generation in the church must do things that seem unnatural. They must seek out to understand the younger generation, and, although it might seem unnatural, minister to them in a way that they can comprehend.

As I read this blog, I believe that many young people are leaving the church for another reason. As someone who works in the public school system I see first hand the attitudes that they are developing. It is not uncommon to hear students cussing up a storm as they walk up and down the halls. Years ago there would have been severe punishment; today it is almost the norm. Students would much rather be on Facebook or Snapchat than to hear a lesson that could forever change their future. They simply believe that their lives are too short, that now is all that matters, and that there is no better hope for them. What should the church do to turn this tide? How about actually loving them and reaching into their world instead of just pretending; or even worse, not even noticing them to begin with.

As I was reading through the blog the one word that kept coming to mind was “our voice.” It is apparent that the biggest struggle is that the church is dealing with is finding the connection it needs to curve this trend. The one reason the jumped out to me the most was the many today don’t feel that the church is relevant to their lives. If the church is going to continue to exist, then it imperative that how we interact and deliver the Gospel to today’s youth vital. I think it is important to move outside our walls and interact, engage within their stories, in order for our students to be realizing that the story of God is very much relevant to their lives. We need to be willing to invite them into the conversations, no matter how risky this may be for the church in the moment, because if we don’t, we run a greater of risk of failing within our mission as a whole.
What does this look like? It means we need to become better listeners, to not only the culture, but also with the students that we are interacting with daily. We simply cannot shay away from the tough questions, because we aren’t willing to push the envelope afraid that we are going to ruffle someone’s feathers. The church needs to present a message of love that is willing to journey with our students discovering where God is on message. If the church is willing to do this, to allow our students voice to be heard, then how we engage future generations will also change.

I think information like this is really helpful. I know there are some Christians that think this is frustrating and scary, and it can be, but I also think there is much relief to it. If we think about the reasons young people are leaving the church, it’s all for reasons that seem fixable. Many of them have to do with people themselves as opposed to Jesus.

The church can become authentic and gospel centered. The church can be relevant to the lives of young people. The church can be open to other peoples’ faith and the church certainly can be a place where people feel safe. this does anything for us, it should give us goals to strive for. All of the things that were on this list are things that I have experienced in the church before, so it shouldn’t be difficult for us to see where young people are coming from. The question is, are we listening and like Clayton said, are we willing to change and be teachable in order to reach the world for the Jesus who loves them?

As one that regularly works with students of all ages I have seen this for far too long. One of the biggest issues that I think the church needs to address is helping students address their questions. We’ve put them in classes, often since they were toddlers, and told them what to believe, but often we’ve done a shallow job at helping them to understand why. While they may know some of the stories and some of what we’d call “key verses” they haven’t been helped to connect how those things are important to their lives as they go about the world. Whether about science, sex, or any of a wide array of topics, we’ve often simply went around the issues rather than walking alongside them through the process of figuring them out.
The other main issue that I see is that we’ve entertained them for so long that they eventually get bored with it. The church needs to engage students in a way that helps them see that God is partnering with them in a way that is significant.

I can’t help but think that a lot of these issues have come up because society has put the Church in a place where it is supposed to have all of the answers, and I don’t think the Church should have all the answers. Pastors and church leaders have taken on roles of being mentor, counselor (of all kinds), business advisor, arbitrator, social worker, volunteer coordinator, fundraiser, trainer, scholar, writer, manager, and a million other jobs – most of which he or she was not trained for. I think the Church needs to be a place where it’s okay to say that we don’t have all the answers, but we trust in a God who is faithful and here is why, and here is where God has proven to be faithful. If the Church became more honest in the way that it dealt with these issues and took the time to listen instead of rushing ahead and trying to fight for all the right answers then I think we would see fewer people leaving the Church. People want honesty and realness. When people get a sense of something that is fake then they will leave. Let us stop being fake in the way that we pretend to have all the answers and be okay with taking our time to find answers.

Being a younger person myself, I know this to be true. The resistance to change and holding onto tradition blindly has led to many young believers questioning the way things are. Because they are asking a generation that accepted these things with the authority of the church, and the generation asking the question does not share this view on authority, there is a disconnect. The older generations took it upon faith what they were given, whereas the younger generations want to understand it and process it for themselves. If we are to reach these young people, we must allow for doubt, reason, and integration with todays thought to permeate our church. This is not a destruction of the structure o the church, but required for belief and ownership to occur for the younger generations. Its a call to connect with them and allow them to find themselves within the story of God.

This is some great information to have a church leader. I think that, if I remember correctly, this was covered in the book “UnChristian” that the Barna group put out a number of years ago. That was a great book by the way. I remember growing up in youth group and being one of the rebellious kids and I can attest to all six of those points being completely accurate. I never did walk away from the church but I have to admit, I thought about. The one that sticks out the most to me is the point about the church being unfriendly towards those who have doubts. I think it stands out to me because I have witnessed that first hand. One of my closest friends in youth group was doubtful and many in our church singled him out and were not nice to him. I think that one thing that could help this is the implementation of small groups. These are usually places where people can ask questions within the confines of guided discussion and in the safely of a close knit group of people.

Thank you for your blog and I do agree with most of your points. The issues you bring up point to a generational gap that the church has been unable to overcome. Christianity is not the only faith to face a protectionist mentality; one can see this type of attitude in other faiths when facing challenges to their dominance. It is a fear reaction and one that was seen in the Pharisees as well as they saw Jesus a rabble rouser and a trouble maker who was challenging the status quo. It is a fact that we become comfortable with what we are used too and constancy often becomes a tradition one that we began to cherish over true faith.

The younger generation is not against faith or against believing in Jesus. They are looking to have their own imprint on their faith and to see how faith can impact their life story. I remember during my time all I heard was about how evil the world was, how sinful all the pleasures of the world were. It became “them” verse “us” and instead of finding the love and beauty of God’s hand in other people and the world around us I had a biased image already implanted in my mind. But the world out there was not the same as I had been told and taught and this left me questions about everything that I believed in and was taught.

I don’t think there is any one solution or process that can deal with these issues you bring up. I think if we want to keep young people in the Church then stop fearing them for taking over the church. Let them express their thoughts, fears and questions and encourage them to find the answers either within the church or outside of the church. Let them take Jesus outside of the church with them and let them bring the world into the church. Christ was a real person with a real answer for a real need in the world. Young people are looking for the real Christ to help them with their real problems and not looking for the church to supply them a cookie cutter answer to all their questions.