Drew Dyck with some valuable insights about why so many teens are checking out of church after being involved in youth groups.
Over the past year I’ve conducted dozens of interviews with 20-somethings who have walked away from their Christian faith. Among the most surprising findings was this: nearly all of these “leavers” reported having positive experiences in youth group. I recall my conversation with one young man who described his journey from evangelical to atheist. He had nothing but vitriol for the Christian beliefs of his childhood, but when I asked him about youth group, his voice lifted. “Oh, youth group was a blast! My youth pastor was a great guy.”
I was confused. I asked Josh Riebock, a former youth pastor and author of mY Generation, to solve the riddle: if these young people had such a good time in youth group, why did they ditch their faith shortly after heading to college?
His response was simple. “Let’s face it,” he said. “There are a lot more fun things to do at college than eat pizza.”
Good point.
If our strategy is to win young people’s allegiance to church by offering better entertainment than the world, then we’ve picked a losing battle. Entertainment might get kids to church in their teens, but it certainly won’t keep them there through their twenties . . .
Read the rest here.
This is an interesting article–the link did not work, but I found it on CT. The world of teens, by nature of their age/maturity, is narrow and small. Then they get to college, and it becomes so much wider. I liked the model presented at the end of the article of leadership/discipling. I think another essential component for both children and teens is introducing them to missions as early as possible. There is nothing like it for widening one’s world view and seeing how Christ can work in people’s lives.
Sorry about the link. I fixed it.
I agree. I am thinking in an ongoing way – – what can we do to build relationships between teens and the extended church family.
I would be interested in being part of that.