Youth Exodus from the Church

I don't believe it is that simple in that creation vs evolution explains the whole thing.

In my search for information, I found this website with so much data on the phenomenon of youth leaving the church that it was shocking to me. Shocking in how much research has been done and how much effort went into making this website.

http://coldcasechristianity.com/2018/are-young-people-really-leaving-christianity/

Some nuggets I have gleaned from these annotations:

• The problems with the faith of youths starts all the way back in elementary school, middle school, and high school, not necessarily college. Although the college years are where youth seem to gain an understanding of their waywardness.
• This may mean that upbringing into the faith is failing in most Christian homes all the way back to young childhood.
• Youth are generally lost in sinful activities before questions of faith even arise. They tend to use alcohol excessively, use drugs, practice sexual immorality, be materialistic and consumption driven, are unlikely to care about the wider world, and reject civic or political engagement.

• The vast majority of youth are actually still religious but in a way that eschews the Living God of the bible. They invent their own God who is moral to their understanding, detached and deistic, but still loving and involved enough to be therapeutic to believe in.
• Youth hold to positions deemed "heretical" or heterodox more than other Christians.
  
• The presence or absence of doubt is the single biggest predictor of Christian affiliation and spiritual health.

• Many youth who become secular do so because of intellectual skepticism and doubts.
• Colleges, where many evangelical kids end up, are playgrounds of those opposed to the evangelical faith. Not surprisingly, many youth are lost during their college years.
• The internet is key to the loss of faith of many youth.
• The religious non-affiliaters are 50% secular, 20% opposed to organized religion, 18% seeking enlightenment and spirituality, and 10% said they were just not interested in church or "too busy" for religion.

This seems to present the problem in a wider lens. My eyes strained when I got to the section on ways to curb youth leaving the church. I will see what nuggets I get from those studies later, post them, and think on what all of this means at a more biblical level.

That said the first scripture that comes to mind is:

Proverbs 22:6
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

 

This year's SBC annual meeting saw an upswing in young people as messengers:

http://www.bpnews.net/51251/sbc-messengers-getting-younger-dallas-report-shows

In contrast, the voting clout of pastors fell from 47 to 39 percent (of messengers) at this year's Convention.

 

The devil knows that young people are either the future world or the future Christians of the world. It seems almost all sin is geared toward trying to attract the younger generation. Many young Christians are not grounded in the truth and Satan is able to sift them as wheat. Young people just don't need to know WHAT we believe to be right, but they also need to know WHY they believe it. It hurts because I am just past that age (middle school-college) and I am seeing many of those I grew up in church with departing from church.

 

It's time we realize they are not the "future church," they are part of the body of Christ, NOW! Let us allow them to be used of God in all that we do--evangelism, helps ministries, being active in the services. They are filled and gifted by the Holy Spirit too! Let us stop "putting them on the shelves" (or in other parts of the building) until they "get older." Children-Teens-Young Adults must be allowed and encouraged to use their gifts to equip and edify the Body of Christ right now!!

 

The worm seems to be turning in Britain
http://anglican.ink/article/young-a...hristianity-british-study-finds#disqus_thread
But from a horribly low level.

 

I think a lot of the problem starts in the home -- in Christian homes where the practice/lifestyle of the parents does not match the precepts/teachings of these same parents. Certainly this is not a universal explanation, but is nevertheless a substantial part of what is happening in American churches.