What looks like the death of religion in America, may in fact be the birth pangs of one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in history.
by Gary David Stratton, PhD
Millennials are abandoning hierarchical spectator churches
For nearly 400 years American churches have counted on Easter Sunday as the day of their largest attendance. But if you’re watching carefully, attendance at traditional churches is getting smaller and smaller every year, especially among young adult “Millennials” (or “Mosiacs,” or “Generation Y.”)
Yet if you walk into some of the most thriving churches in Hollywood, such as Reality, Ecclesia, or Basileia, you are immediately struck by overwhelming swarms of Millennials. What gives?
Are Millennails leaving the church, or coming back to it? Or is the answer MUCH more complicated?
While swarming redefined faith communities committed to justice and relational connection (Baptism at Basileia Hollywood)
In honor of Easter we’re running a week of special posts on why so many Millennials are leaving the church, why they are coming back to something far different than the church they left, and how they are changing American religion in the process.
Millennial writers and spiritual formation leaders and a few of us more “seasoned” folks will weigh in on various aspects of the topic. Lord willing, it will contribute to a greater understanding of where the Holy Spirit is taking the church in the coming decades.
You Lost Me
We kick off the conversation with two posts by David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group and a beloved former student and friend. David is an ongoing THW contributor and one of the most thoughtful “public intellectuals” on the subject of Millennial Faith (he calls them “Mosaics”).
I wept my way through his two latest books, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters (with Gabe Lyons) and You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church…and Rethinking Faith as he traced the reasons why young adults raised in evangelicalism are giving up on church, but not faith.
Along the way, I hope you come to the same conclusion that Sue and I have: what looks like the death of religion in America, may in fact be the birth pangs of one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in history.
Next: Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church, by David Kinnaman
Pingback: The Zacchaeus Generation: Identity, Community, and Seeing, by @mike__friesen | Two Handed Warriors
Pingback: Four Reasons I Came Back to Church, by @ChristianPiatt | Two Handed Warriors
Thanks for the inspiration. I went ahead and compiled more reasons and paradigm issues that result in young people leaving. I have also been doing a series on this over the last week. Here are 25 reasons young people are leaving – http://mattdabbs.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/how-to-reach-a-lost-generation-5-25-reasons-young-people-are-leaving-the-church/
This is excellent, Matt! Thank you so much!
Thanks for getting the conversation started here. Happy Easter!
There are so many reasons they leave but in my experience it boils down to:
1 – They see a disconnect between the biblical mission of the church and the actual activity of the church. In other words, they don’t see how the church is really advancing the kingdom of God.
2 – There are generational/cultural gaps that were worsened by the popular use of youth groups. The church has become segregated by age and the groups that need each other most have no connection.
3 – Traditional church is more institutional than it is missional.
4 – If an outsider were to try to list the priorities of the church they would say we are about worship and Bible study but little else. A typical church has 3-4 times for studying the Bible in a given week but ZERO ways to serve the poor, take care of widows and orphans, and other equally biblically viable ministries and missions.
5 – We have balance issues. 95% of the activity of the church is geared toward less than 1% of the week, that special hour of corporate worship on Sunday. They want a faith and teaching that translates into the other 99% of their life.
6 – The church “experience” doesn’t seem to reflect real life or the early church at all.
7 – Older Christians think they want things to be less biblical but in my experience it is actually the opposite. For example we encourage them to read Acts to find out what church is supposed to look like and they wonder why the church isn’t more like that.
There are many more but that is what my experience and observations have taught me.
Pingback: 15 Reasons I Returned to The Church, by @RachelHeldEvans | Two Handed Warriors
Pingback: 15 Reasons I Left Church, by @RachelHeldEvans | Two Handed Warriors
Pingback: Four More (BIG) Reasons Young Adults Quit Church, by Christian Piatt | Two Handed Warriors
Pingback: Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church, by @ChristianPiatt | Two Handed Warriors
Pingback: Prodigals, Nomads and Exiles: Five Myths about Why Millennials are Leaving the Church, by @DavidKinnaman | Two Handed Warriors
Pingback: You Lost Me: Six Reasons Millennial Christians are Leaving The Church, by @davidkinnaman | Two Handed Warriors