Why Are Young People Leaving The Church?


Why Are Young People Leaving The Church?

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There is a huge problem in most of our churches today. Unanswered questions.

The apostle, Peter, wrote:  “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15 ).

But when questions come, too often, they are left unanswered. When the church no longer has the answers, people look elsewhere. They look to the secular world. They look to the wisdom of man when the wisdom of God is not taught.

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”

For lack of knowledge, our young people are looking to the world. For lack of knowledge, others are staying in the church, but bringing the values and culture of the world into the church.

 According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey which allowed respondents to answer in their own words, most  who left the church said they no longer identified with a religious group because they no longer believed it was true. When asked why they didn’t believe, many said their views about God had “evolved” and some reported having a “crisis of faith.” Their specific explanations included the following statements:

  • “Learning about evolution when I went away to college”
  • “Religion is the opiate of the people”
  • “Rational thought makes religion go out the window”
  • “Lack of any sort of scientific or specific evidence of a creator”
  • “I just realized somewhere along the line that I didn’t really believe it”
  • “I’m doing a lot more learning, studying and kind of making decisions myself rather than listening to someone else.”

The fact is people often leave the Church because they don’t think anyone in the Church can answer their questions or make a case.  I know when I was about 13, I asked questions in Sunday School and I was treated as a trouble maker. I just wanted answers to things I did not understand. In retrospect, I realize the problem was, the teacher didn’t know the answer. But I stopped going to church at that point.

For years, I only sporadically attended church, but continued to study on my own. Even as an adult in adult Sunday Schools, I discovered at various churches I visited, that I understood more about the Bible than the teachers did.

It wasn’t until 1995 that I discovered a church where most of the folks knew the Bible, and made the Bible the center of their lives. I had my questions answered and many of my beliefs questioned and corrected. I finally found a church where the average member knew more about the Bible than I did. A lot more. And they lived what they knew and encouraged me to live it, too.

I started attending every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and spent many evenings studying in the homes of the ministers and of church friends.

I am blessed to have had several mentors the past 20 plus years that took the time to open the Bible and study with me. Not just the standard Bible stories we teach our children, but real study. Digging deep into the word and finding the meaning of scriptures, their audience relevance and how to apply these things to my life.

I am convinced that if I had teachers like this when I was a lad, I never would have stopped attending church for twenty years.

We need to stop picking Sunday School teachers who do not have the gift and the burning desire to teach. The willingness to dig into scripture and to research earnestly and exegete correctly must be a requirement for teachers in the church.

From my experience, I know Christians of all ages and even nonchristians, get wide-eyed and engaged when I teach not only the words of the Bible, but what the words mean. People want to hear about what was happening when the words were written and how they would impact the original audience.

When we are asked a question about evolution or how the Genesis account compares to the Enuma Elish, as teachers we need to be willing to study and find the answers. As preachers, we need to preach expositional sermons, revealing what God is saying in his words. We need to do background studies and bring the history and culture of the writer into the message, to clearly convey what was being communicated.

It is right and it is important to say, “I don’t know,” when asked a question we do not have the answer to. Then it is our responsibility to find that answer.

It appears from the Pew survey that young people (and even older people) in our churches are experiencing the same thing I experienced as a teen. If our questions cannot be answered, we go elsewhere for answers. I went to independent study of the Bible, but too many go to secular teachings for their answers.

Pastors need to become true students of the Word, not just teaching easy topical messages, but bringing every aspect of the Word out that it may bear fruit in our hearers. We need to teach our people how to study the Bible for themselves. We need to teach our teachers how to become true students of the Bible themselves, that they may teach from a depth of knowledge and experience.

A true teacher inspires their students. When students are inspired, they study, succeed and hunger for more. When you feed a stray cat, the cat always comes back for more food. When we feed a hungry student, they will not leave.

I encourage you to leave comments and follow my blog. I will endeavor to answer any questions you may have.

Watch my video on why we need to stop trying to make the Bible relevant to teens – an interesting look into our youth ministry. https://youtu.be/Kxxu7d36Lok

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Dennis Regling

Dennis Regling is an author and educator and an evangelist.

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