There is something very interesting about the top 10 reasons young adults drop out of church....the reasons haven't changed much since I was in my 20's. Some may disagree with me, but I don't see a lot of difference from the reasons I heard nearly 40 years ago. So I wonder...is it ultimately just a heart issue? I know there are things about the church that we must change and work on, but even if we had the music just right. Even if the pastor was the best teacher, best guy in the world. Even if all things were perfect I don't think these reasons would change that much. I wonder...is it ultimately a heart issue?
3 comments:
Scott and I have had some discussion about this recently. I think I would have to agree with you (though I've never made a study of it). It seems to me that there really is nothing new under the sun and that the common issue really must be the heart. Satan would love nothing better than to pull us all away from the church and have us all feel as though we are justified. Just another reason to pray without ceasing.
I didn't go much during college or grad school. Mainly, I wanted a day that I could sleep in and catch-up (I had a part-time job during college and never felt caught up). It just didn't seem very relevant to me either. Lame excuses, I know, but totally true. Maybe it was a consumer mentality - "I just don't get anything from it." - which I didn't. I didn't need "community" since I had that on campus.
I don't know what the answer is to retaining young people. I think it's largely a function of just trying to figure out who you are and how "religion" fits in with that picture.
I beleive you are right about it being a heart issue. When I was young I searched for what would satisfy the needs of my longings without the knowlege of the roots of those longings. Being young I understood mostly what I experenced through sight sound taste and feelings. While I posessed the ability to think, it was not used often enough. Mike McM
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