Why do so many 18-22 year-olds drop out of church after high school? Not for the reasons you might think. An upcoming book called Essential Church by Sam Rainer looks for the answers to that question, and the author has posted some of his findings at his blog—see his three myths about church dropouts.
The first (and most widespread, I think) myth he exposes is the idea that secular universities are responsible for pulling students away from the faith. Rainer’s research indicates that young people are about equally likely to stop attending church shortly after high school whether they attend college or not. In other words, atheist professors and worldly college life are not the primary culprits.
David Wayne explores this idea further over at Jollyblogger.
Loading ...
January 17, 2008 at 16:08
Having been involved with campus ministry as a student, a leader and as an advocate, I would say that he is absolutely right about these myths. They are often recited as a mantra to help churches feel better about our losses on this front.
I would say that two actions can help to change this. One, support campus ministries finiancially and pastorally. Over the past 40 years, denominational structures have almost uniformly cut campus ministries from their budgets and put the money elsewhere.
Second, have congregational youth ministers help make the transition. Our church leaders often just drop the youth when they turn 18. It’s well worth the time to know where your youth will go to college, find the campus ministries for them (they can be difficult to find) and email or call the chaplain or pastor responsible to the college.
It doesn’t take much effort, but handing the youth over to the campus ministries helps to make sure that there’s no ministry gap for students to fall into.
January 18, 2008 at 15:55
UT Austin had an article published recently (past year) that went along with these ideas. It was entitled “Losing My Religion.” Very interesting.
I’d agree with Jason in that churches have probably been overly eager to ignore their part in this process. So many times we look to create over the top youth programs. That’s not bad in and of itself, but many times they are shallow (fun and gets a good group there).
In working with students for 9 years now I have seen that we have failed horribly when it comes to teaching the habits and practices necessary to maintaining a healthy faith life—in our out of college.
Stay blessed…john
January 19, 2008 at 11:13
Dear John;
I’d like to see that article from UT. I was a visiting professor there and remain lightly involved with college ministry on the campus. In our church, the most significant stream of adult converts we see is from that ministry, which, like the article and book, flies in the face of common assumptions. If Jesus is glorified on campus, he will draw people to him.
Grace and Peace in Jesus!
January 21, 2008 at 16:09
John:
I have it on file, but I’m not sure where I got it from. Perhaps I could email it to you or post it to my blog (can I do that?).
Stay blessed…john