Why Are So Many Young People Leaving the Church? | Jesus vs. America

Listen to this episode on your preferred podcast platform: https://www.jesusvsamerica.com/explore

Many of us are aware from our own experience that young people who grew up in the faith appear to be leaving the church in greater numbers. In this episode, we look at some of the top reasons cited by researchers who survey young adults about why they are leaving the church, and sometimes also leaving the faith. We talk about the impact that parents have on the faith of their young adult children, how the church’s elevation of political ideologies is increasingly cited as a reason young people are leaving a church, and how moving to a new town can often make it hard to re-engage with a new church. We also share some of our own observations from our years of experience working in young adult ministry, including how churches often want to have young adults attend their churches, but are often unwilling to make any of the changes that would truly engage young adults or make room for them at the table in a meaningful way. We end the episode with a description of the model of dialogical engagement that we have used for close to two decades in young adult ministry and ask why churches have an aversion to a method that has been statistically shown to have a significant impact on propelling young adults towards a resilient faith.


____________

In Jesus vs. America, a Gen X attorney sits down with a millennial and a member of Gen Z to untangle the Christian faith from the influence of the American culture.

For over two decades, we have collectively watched young adults walking away from their faith at an alarming rate. Most Christian resources focus on this exodus from a sociological lens, and we have benefited from the work that has been done in this area.
But as three people with on-the-ground experience working with young adults every day, it is increasingly clear that young adults are not so much reacting to Jesus, his message, or even his plan for the church. Instead, many young people are being repelled by a counterfeit and enculturated version of Christianity, a version of Christianity that commingles the American culture and political ideology with the Christian faith. Jesus told us we could not serve two masters, and yet so many Christians have tried to serve both the teachings of scripture and the dictates of the American culture. Young adults have taken notice, and they want nothing to do with this tainted form of religion. Many may bemoan the loss of so many young people, but we have often given them the reasons they cite when they leave.

Our podcast is designed to first and foremost untangle the teachings of Jesus and the will of God revealed throughout the scripture from the enculturated version of the gospel that has spread to many corners of the church in 21st Century America. In doing so, we hope to validate what young adults have long suspected, while challenging them to go deeper with Jesus rather than bail out on a counterfeit gospel. We want to demonstrate honest questions and to wrestle with doubts while also encouraging young adults to do the work of seeking answers and working to rebuild their faith.

More resources:
https://www.jesusvsamerica.com/

Follow us:
@jesusvsamerica