While reports have confirmed a mass exodus of young adults from the church, one local pastor and researcher says secular universities are not to blame.
Sam S. Rainer III, who heads Rainer Research, says it's a myth that universities push believers away from the church.
"No significant different exists between the dropout rates of those who attend at least a year of college and those who do not," he said in his latest weblog.
Sixty-nine percent of active churchgoing youth stop attending church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22, Rainer stated. Yet 71 percent of active youth who do not go to college stop attending church during the same period. Results are based on a three-part research project on why 18- to 22-year-olds leave the church and how to get them back.
But many Christians, including youth ministry leaders, have pointed to colleges as a major influence in the departure of young believers from the church or Christian faith altogether.
For many young adults, transitioning into college life means falling into the party scene as they try to make friends on an unfamiliar campus. And apart from parents, for the first time for many, students experience the freedom of making their own decisions. A lot of times, those choices leave out God and church.
An earlier study by LifeWay Research found that 25 percent of young adults said transitioning into college was a major reason for quitting church.
However, a more likely reason they listed for dropping out of church was "I simply wanted a break from church," with 27 percent of young believers saying so.
A University of Texas at Austin study also found that the highest rates of decline in church attendance were among those who never attended college.
"The college itself is not prompting students to drop out of church," said Rainer.
Dispelling a second myth about young church dropouts, Rainer said high school students do not plan to leave the church once they go to college. An overwhelming majority (80 percent) of high school students do not plan to leave their church once they graduate high school, according to Rainer's research project. Only 20 percent of high school students have preconceived notions to leave the fellowship once out of their parents’ nest.
"Students are not fleeing the church because of deep desires for personal freedom," Rainer noted. "Nor are they scheming to leave once out of the house."
And they're not fleeing because they are disenchanted by a host of church scandals publicized in the media, the researcher added.
Despite several high-profile sex scandals in church leadership and money fraud allegations, only 15 percent of young believers who feel displeasure with the church say it's because of a moral or ethical failure of the leadership, according to Rainer.
These findings are released ahead of the release of a book co-authored by Rainer and his father – Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. The tentative title for the upcoming book is Essential Church. The release date is planned for fall 2008.
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Comments
I have attended church at various times in my life. I have tried out religion, I really cant relate to it. As an agnostic, I find science to be very interesting and exciting. Religion, except for the politics of religion as it relates to its influence in politics and public policy, I find to be quite uninteresting. If there is a creator, I doubt its like anything I read on these posts or the stuff I have heard in church. I prefer the science of cosmology, it provides for an understanding of the structure of the universe, religion does not.
I agree with Lex above and I also will add that we have not made church real to them. I mean real in the sense that we have not taught them that they are the church. We are caught up in dogmatic teaching that only certain people and men can function within the church.
A case in point came when I asked the elders of my church if my teen girls could assist in passing communion trays to the congregation. We had to have meetings to discuss the pros and cons of who we might offend. Unltimately it never happened and I had some disappointed teens.
We are also failing to teach them the importance of having their own faith as well. This is one reason they cannot defend what they beleive. They get chewed up and spit out because they do not know what they beleive.
We have got to do a better job of equipping our teens and college aged youth for this part of life.
Greg
There are at least two reasons youth are leaving the church (these same reasons can be attributed to adults as well). First, though the youth may be "church kids" they are not genuinely saved. 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us."
Secondly, they are what Scripture calls "backsliders." People who are saved can get so wrapped up in the flesh that they begin to "slide back" into sinful living. Let's face it the world, in whatever form, seeks to destroy the faith of God's people.
I firmly believe that if someone loves Jesus, he/she will love the things Jesus loves. Scripture teaches that "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her." Faithful church attendance is not about feeling. It is all about loving. When we get our heart right and love God, we will love God's people and want to be with them.
"However, a more likely reason they listed for dropping out of church was 'I simply wanted a break from church,' with 27 percent of young believers saying so."
That means church isn't important to them. It's not exciting them. It's not fulfilling them. No one "simply wants a break from" something that challenges, motivates, or moves them. People simply want a break from things that are mundane, boring, and obligatory.
True Christians are the Israel of G--d
A vital key to understanding is to truly grasp Jesus instruction to the Samaritan woman. He told this non Jewish woman, "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22)
Although they often rejected His teaching or overlaid it with all kinds of human traditions, the Jewish people did preserve the knowledge of the Creator G--d and the only written Bible available to the original New Testament Christians-which today we call the "Old Testament".
Clearly, the Jews were given the " Oracles of G--d" (Romans 3:1-2) which certainly included G--ds Holy Days and the understanding of how to construct the sacred calendar upon which those days are based, There is more but try Trumpet.com or Tommorowworld.com alot of education to be had,.......
True Christians are the Israel of G--d
A vital key to understanding is to truly grasp Jesus instruction to the Samaritan woman. He told this non Jewish woman, "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22)
Although they often rejected His teaching or overlaid it with all kinds of human traditions, the Jewish people did preserve the knowledge of the Creator G--d and the only written Bible available to the original New Testament Christians-which today we call the "Old Testament".
Clearly, the Jews were given the " Oracles of G--d" (Romans 3:1-2) which certainly included G--ds Holy Days and the understanding of how to construct the sacred calendar upon which those days are based, There is more but try Trumpet.com or Tommorowworld.com alot of education to be had,.......
And, lets also discuss the "Seven deadly Sins" which also the "kids" might be also running through their minds,...1 Lust, 2 Envy, 3 Greed, 4 Pride, 5 Gluttony,..6 Sloth,..7 Anger,....look at the newpapers and watch the news on TV,.....seems kinda overwhelming if one is looking from a young persons point of view,....but still,,.....very important to discuss.....by all standards (personal opinion)....
Right, medievalist,.......maybe because "rocket science" or, "politcal correctness" just gets way too hard to follow, when it should`nt be that way..........
This article lists several reasons, why they aren't leaving, but doesn't say why the ARE leaving.