The Church and Nones

It began with unChristian by David Kinnaman. Then there was "Finding & Keeping the Next Generation" in the September/October 2009 issue of Outreach magazine. Next was Essential Church by Thom and Sam Rainer. After that was already gone by Ken Ham & Britt Beemer. These different authors convinced me that the church in America has been doing a pretty lousy job of passing on our faith to the next generation.

In the November 2010 issue of Christianity Today there is another article on the same phenomena. In "The Leavers," Drew Dyck, identified as "a manager in the Church Ministry Media Group at Christianity Today International, offers another take. Citing the work of the Barna Group pollsters, political scientists and sociologists, Dyck gives a measured portrayal of the current situation with 20- and 30- somethings.

On the one hand there is the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey that found that the percentage of Americans claiming "no religion" climbed from 8.1% in 1990 to 15% in 2008. The "nones" are strongest in the 18-29 years age group, as the article says, "a whopping 22 percent." 73% of nones came from religious homes, which again raises the issue of how well we pass on our faith to our children.

Political Scientists Robert Putnam and David Campbell report that "young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate (30 to 40 percent have no religion today, versus 5 to 10 percent a generation ago."

On the other hand are researchers who are not as alarmed at recent trends. Sociologist Bradley Wright calls the trends identified above as "one of the myths" of contemporary Christianity. Wright maintains that "young people commonly leave organized religion as they separate from their families, but then rejoin when they start families of their own." Sociologist Rodney Stark of Baylor University comes to a similar conclusion.

So, who's right? First, as Dyck points out, it's hard to ignore the numbers. Young adults are leaving our churches at a much higher rate than in previous generations. He also questions the "life-phase argument." As has been known for a long time, young adulthood has changed. With a longer period between leaving home and settling into marriage, career and childbearing, the likelihood of return to the church is less likely. As Dyck says, "a two- or three- year hiatus is one thing. Coming back after more than a decade is considerably more unlikely."

Another factor is the change in society from a more Judeo-Christian outlook to the pluralistic, post-Christian society of today. This factor is not universally accepted but there is no question that the Judeo-Christian hegemony over American society has weakened.

As Dyck admits, "The reasons that 20- and 30- somethings are leaving are complex." There is no easy solution to this complex problem. Dyck concludes that the church must work hard to build relationships that can help draw nones back into the fold. Essential Church and another work, Lost and Found by Ed Stetzer, present some strategies for this hard work.

I believe that the effort must be two-pronged in order to be effective. The church must do a better job discipling our children and youth as well as have a workable strategy for reclaiming those who have left us. Better discipleship of our young doesn't mean just filling their heads with more Bible. It means building relationships between generations that demonstrate the love of Christ. It also means giving our teenagers solid reasons for the intellectual integrity of the Christian faith. The focus for our children and youth as well as the 20- and 30- somethings who have left us has to be Jesus in all His fullness and grace.