Farbeit for me to actually know the answer to what sounds like a rhetorical question, but I’ll take a stab at it anyway, with the disclaimer that this isn’t based on any sort of formal research. I’ve just been pondering this for awhile since you/Bob posted it. I’m just guessing … educated guesses, maybe, but still guesses.

First, a note: to come up with any sort of compelling answer, we’ve got to figure out what has changed recently. We could say something like “the church isn’t doing a good job of explaining reasons why Christianity is true” but I’m not sure that this aspect, really, has changed all that much in the last few decades.

Also: answers like this are complicated. Church and culture have both changed in the last few decades - both internally and in their relationship to each other. I don’t think there’s going to be one big reason for all of this.

Here are the answers I’ve come up with, though … by no means any sort of final answer, exhaustive list, or anything else. (If you can think of any more disclaimers, put them here.)

Changes in the Church

- Youth groups - while these sorts of programs are good at attracting large amounts of kids, it seems that they might not be quite so good for keeping them in the church for an extended period of time.

I’m not sure when “the rise of the youth group” started, or if it really ever did, but I think it’s a fairly recent development. I wonder if the impressions of what “adult church” is going to be like is created by being in youth programs - even good ones. If it is, it’s no wonder that they’re disappointed with what the church is actually like when they get there.

Some of this is failure to live up to expectations, and some of it is just incorrect expectations. To explain: Some of the expectations that youth group participants presumably have - the emotional intensity of a youth retreat, for example - may or may not have a place in the church at large. Some of the expectations of fellowship and deep sharing that show up in youth sometimes don’t show up in the other areas of the church, and they should.

On the other hand, if you’re only used to being close to people that are your exact age, getting into a true multi-generational church is something that will seem weird and possibly not much fun. That is to say - some of the problem could be that youth groups, as a concept, do not help the youth in them be ready to get plugged into the church. Possibly they could benefit from being more integrated to the church in the first place.

(This guess could be checked if anyone had access to statistics to see if the decline in people returning to the church - the statistics that Patton had - hold for all churches, or just for those with youth groups.)

- Megachurches and the Christian Ghetto - Christians have created their own subculture and they stay in it without venturing outside into the culture at large. Bob’s made reference to this as the church becoming a cultural monastery, and I like the description, but for me, whenever I think of a monastery, I think of good beer, more than anything else. For me, then I like “Christian Ghetto” a little bit better, though, as it makes it more clear that the subculture that we’re building up isn’t something that the folks outside are clamoring to get into. It makes sense that generations that grew up with Thomas Kinkade paintings, Sandi Patti music, and the Left Behind books for literature don’t come back when they go to a university and are exposed to real art, good music, and actual literature.

The example of Bach - as Bob’s already brought up - is huge, here, but another key is to not reject things that are in the outside culture but not necessarily wrong. I’m not sure that “redeeming the culture” here means “work on building the Christian ghetto.”

(Apologies if you like Thomas Kinkade. It was just an example. I don’t mean to offend … but it’s not really that great a form of art.)

Changes in Culture

- The metanarrative of postmodernism is more compelling than the metanarrative of modernism, which is most appealing to scientist types. Even if your average joe on the street doesn’t know what postmodernism is, they’ll still be okay with the “true for you but not for me” concept, even if they only apply it to selected areas of their life.

- There is no longer any sort of assumption that morality or spirituality have anything to do with religion, which has led to the “I’m spiritual but not religious” mantra. This idea that you can be spiritual on your own is - I think - one of the more subtle but profound differences in culture that’s taken place since the 60’s.

Some other category, I’m not sure what

I think, to an extent, we may be also seeing the results of a generation that grew up seeing Christianity necessarily associated with the religious right. I wonder if people that are trying to decide if they should leave the church are influenced by the fact that they are unable to separate the church’s message with the politics that seem to always follow along in the form of the religious right, moral majority, or whatever you want to call it. If they went to college and suddenly got concerned about fighting poverty or outlawing land mines, etc., this shouldn’t make them leave (or even feel out of place in) the church.

The “moral issues” that seem more compelling (and get more airtime in the media) are things like fighting poverty, protecting the environment - both of which I would claim are moral issues that the church should be involved in. The moral issues that the church is traditionally more concerned about - protecting the unborn, for example - does not get so much airtime. Obviously, many of the issues the church cares about are still incredibly important. The problem isn’t that there are church ministries for people that want to help pro-life/adoption agencies. The problem is that it’s harder to find one that is concerned with [[insert something here that someone other than Republicans see as a moral issue]].

If the mission of introducing people to Jesus was separated from the politics, would the church lose so many people? I don’t know, but I suspect they wouldn’t.

—

It’ll be interesting to see, if Patton’s statistic is true, how this changes the church in the next few years. It seems that the average age will go up substantially, but the younger generation that is there will really be there on purpose rather than just out of habit.

Here’s where I would put some sort of conclusion, but I don’t have one, really. I’m just throwing out undeveloped thoughts in the hope that they help us all get closer to the answers …

- garrett

- garrett (golfsierra.org/blog)

Some good points, Garrett. I think your youth group observations are on target. And I also think you’re correct in that there is no single answer. Bottom line: Follow Christ, be authentic, engage the culture, befriend unbelievers (for real with no agendas) ….. and let God do the rest.

Bob
Fides Quaerens Intellectum

Bob Pratico
Fides Quaerens Intellectum
(my Sojourn blog)

Could it be that most religions are not teaching what is found in the bible? Most teach that everyone will go to heaven or hell. If you read Psalms 37:10-11 you will find that God intends for meek people to live on the earth.