Young adults aren't sticking with church

USA Today: Young adults aren't sticking with church

Protestant churches are losing young adults in "sobering" numbers, a survey finds.
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.

"This is sobering news that the church needs to change the way it does ministry," says Ed Stetzer, director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"It seems the teen years are like a free trial on a product. By 18, when it's their choice whether to buy in to church life, many don't feel engaged and welcome," says associate director Scott McConnell.

The statistics are based on a survey of 1,023 Protestants ages 18 to 30 who said they had attended church at least twice a month for at least one year during high school. LifeWay did the survey in April and May. Margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. ...

Comments

[Denis Hancock]

I've seen this for years. Young adults stop coming for years, and then (often when their first child is baptized) they return, and may become quite active.

These guys seem to have quantified it to a degree.

[Dana Ames]

If it's only about "buying in to church life" the majority surely are not going to stay.

Is "becoming active" in church all we want for people?

I guess I'm too much of an idealist.

[Michael W. Kruse]

I agree about not getting confused about our mission as "buying into church" and I agree that "becoming active" can be misleading. On the other hand, I know from research over my adult life that the single best determinant of whether or not a professed Christian will behave differently from Sunday is whether or not they attend church weekly. I think the link is to connect people with God and community and out of that flows a desire for corporate worship, not the other way around.