Why Students Leave Church
This week I had the opportunity to be at a conference with a bunch of other pastors. The speaker was good and I enjoyed being with friends that I only see occasionally, but that wasn’t my biggest take away.
Sometimes you can attend a three day conference and a one line sentence is your biggest take away, and that was my experience this time. One of the leaders asked us to pray for the students at this conference meeting in another room nearby. Then he said that one potent sentence I’m talking about.
“Do you know the number one reason why students leave the church?” he asked. He continued, “Between the ages of 15-18, 70% of students leave the church due to lack of relationships with other adults.” He then cited his source as the Barna Research Group.
Basically, he is saying that as students move into adulthood, they want to be part of the church community, but if they don’t feel welcomed by an adequate number of adults outside their family, then they began to look for life support from another community outside their church.
So what can you do about this? Simple. Get to know three young adults, between the ages of 13-20 in your church that are not part of your family. You will be helping to build a bridge for their fulture.
Sometimes you can attend a three day conference and a one line sentence is your biggest take away, and that was my experience this time. One of the leaders asked us to pray for the students at this conference meeting in another room nearby. Then he said that one potent sentence I’m talking about.
“Do you know the number one reason why students leave the church?” he asked. He continued, “Between the ages of 15-18, 70% of students leave the church due to lack of relationships with other adults.” He then cited his source as the Barna Research Group.
Basically, he is saying that as students move into adulthood, they want to be part of the church community, but if they don’t feel welcomed by an adequate number of adults outside their family, then they began to look for life support from another community outside their church.
So what can you do about this? Simple. Get to know three young adults, between the ages of 13-20 in your church that are not part of your family. You will be helping to build a bridge for their fulture.
posted by Don Ross at 5:57 PM
1 Comments:
I think there are a few reasons adults don't try to get to know young people in their church:
1. they are never instructed to (so this post will certainly help)
2. They are afraid that they might not be cool. Teenagers don't really want cool, they want real.
3. Many churches insist on segregating people under 20 out to things other than sunday morning, and that doesn't really help a student get acclimated to a church environment with adults.
4. Churches don't talk to students, so students don't see a need to get involved.
I'm sure there are more, but I agree that relationship is the biggest factor. if you ask any adult why they go to their church, they would probably point to relationships more than to doctrine.
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