Why don’t 20-somethings go to church?
Posted on August 15th, 2007 by catalyst into the About Us categoryA new survey by Lifeway Research found that many young adults have stopped going to church.
Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.
And why do young people stop going to church:
Among dropouts, nearly all (97%) cited life changes, such as a move. Most (58%) were unhappy with the people or pastor at church. More than half (52%) had religious, ethical or political reasons for quitting.
For myself, I don't go to church because the environment in most evangelical churches feels completely fake. It feels copied from the Willow Creek playbook. "How to waste two hours of your life and still be sanctimonious."
The best service I've been to in recent memories was a chatholic service in an urban area of DC. The worship was fabulous, and the sermon really spoke to me. I loved it! But I'm not Catholic, and I have little interest in converting (that child-sex thing and all), so I find myself still looking for a church that is real.
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August 15th, 2007 at 8:18 am
I am in a similar situation. I am almost 23 and I currently do not call any particular church home right now. I’m sick of wasting two hours (as Catalyst so vivaciously put it) at some spurious youth frenzy. Like Catalyst, I feel drawn to the traditional and reverent institutions like the R.C Church or the Orthodox Church. The R.C. Church never bought into the prosperity anti-gospel or the word of faith teaching, why? Because such a church is rooted in orthodoxy and creedal confession, and of course all clergy are appropriately trained in Bible and Theology, which is much more impressive than Judah’s “Bible college in your bedroom.”
I may even check out an Anglican church - that would be a good intermediary between where I am now and the R.C Church. There are a lot of good figures connected to that tradition: C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright, Alister McGrath… to name a few.
Good luck
August 15th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Well, if we are taking a poll:
I still go to church.
And the reason I go to church is because I was lucky enough to find a church where the people are REAL. They are far from perfect…and that’s what I like about it.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:17 am
I stopped going to church because I don’t think Jesus wanted church to be the way it is. I believe it needs to be smaller and more localized, focused on relationships (with eachother and god). Basically local house “churches”. With a house church you don’t have bills to pay, or pastors to pay, so no need for tithing, we should do better things with our money, like give it to people that actually need it.
I have alot of reasons for not going to a normal church. But I believe what I do follows the bible closer than most churchs do. I blog about alot of it
www.crapyfatjaxs.blogspot.com
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:13 pm
Imago Dei in Portland OR is full of 20 -30 somethings. It’s called “Post Modern Evangelical” theological approach to reaching people of the current culture. The Jesus People did it in the 60’s.