Are Most of OurCongregations Choosing a Slow Death?

[James Nored]

The stats are in, and those 18-30 are increasingly unlikely to "go to church." Recent polling shows 30 percent of this age church claims no religious affiliation at all. And in my own fellowship, Churches of Christ, this age group (and even Gen X, my own generation), is deserting our fellowship in droves. This saddens me greatly, and it is laid upon my heart to do everything possible to reach these generations. 

Why are they leaving? A variety of reasons, but many of them see the church as irrelevant, with a collection of rules rather than a people of love and grace, that fails to communicate in their language. And today we have alive 6 generations for the first time since Methuselah, perhaps, due to people living long lives. And the pace of change is incredible today, so they have had vastly different experiences and have grown up with vastly different communication styles.

And what happens in a local congregation is that, because so many younger people have left, they have little to no voice. (Certainly, those in the community have no voice, either.) And those that are there don't usually complain publicly or send emails to the elders. They just leave. They feel that the church is out of touch and is not impacting them and is not relevant to their lives, so they either go somewhere else or drop out entirely.

And then when congregations try to implement things that impact younger people, which can prove challenging to those who grew up with something else, because there are so few of them around, the only voices that are often heard by leadership are those who don't want things to change. And psychologists will tell us that it takes 10-20 positives to equal the force of a negative. So even if everyone were present and equally represented, it would only take a few negatives to create a negative perception--even if the majority was supportive of the direction. And younger people tend to not have as much to give financially either, so if they leave it has less impact upon the financial bottom line.

Francis Chan spoke at the Tulsa Workshop this year, and the first thing that he noted was that the crowd was very old. Wow. It was so glaringly obvious to him--and he speaks all around the nation in various venues--that we have lost our young people. I suppose that we have, sadly, gotten used to it. His prayer was that we would listen to our younger people and not quench the Spirit with them, and that he would return another year and see a much younger crowd.

Unfortunately, that is not is what is currently happening. Sure, people are glad to have younger generations come--as long as absolutely nothing is different in the church. Young or old both have value, and they can learn from one another. But the church simply cannot stay stuck in the 1950s and reach people today. The evidence is in--it cannot and will not work.

Here is often what happens in churches. Change is tried to impact the people that are leaving or are not there. There is objection--and it only takes a few of them to outweigh the majority who may be glad to see these positive moves--and the movement is squelched. Worse, when this happens and the church goes backwards, then those who have gotten excited that perhaps things will happen that will impact them or their children, they then become even more discouraged and leave.  (In fact, going backwards after going forwards due to complaints is the worst scenario and one in which a church often ends of losing most everyone.)

These younger folks won't demand a meeting. They will never be heard from. They are very polite. They just walk away. And the death spiral of the church continues. 

This is the scenario that is played out in church after church. Congregations are choosing a slow, but inevitable death and decline. And without these younger generations, the church will eventually die in many places. It takes strong leadership and conviction to buck this trend being played out in congregation after congregation over the US.

May God intervene and somehow change this cycle of certain decline.

[James Nored]

John, I have not even specified any particular change, and already you "seen where I am going" and said that I "might as well join Rick Warren." It is this type of over reaction and unwillilngness to even have a conversation about any issue that is off putting and driving people away. 

[John Nelson]

I see where you are  going and you might as well join Rick Warren and forget The Lord's Church. The "Church" is that body of believers who follow The Bible. There are millions of religious people who claim Christianity, but by looking at their dress, their entertainment and lifestyle in general, we see it does not compare to the pattern given in the Bible. Why should a young person want another "me too" relevant organization, there are tons of them and lots of them give greater rewards for membership, like how to be happy or how to live better with more. No, the attraction to The Lord's Church is a life of hope, of sacrifice and giving glory to our creator. Francis Chan has expressed this well in the past, but his organization misses the mark. Sad, because it is so big and successful, it will not change back to the old ways.

[James Nored]

Thanks for your thoughts, Zack. You are a real blessing.

[James Nored]

William, yes, many changes are resisted that are not even really doctrinal at all (though someone can always try to make a case). And, yes, because we have made everything equal in weight--those Jesus and Paul both disagree with this and speak of what is greatest, what is of first importance, etc.--we often end up missing what IS truly important. Spot on, William.

[Zack Blaisdell]

Wow. This is staggering. I want to see younger generations come back to the church. Not sure what should be done to that end. But I pray we all can find it and keep our young people. Thank you Brother James for putting this article in your blog. God bless. Grace and Peace.

[William Lloyd Cain]

I am one of the older generation -- grew up in Churches of Christ -- and am a retired minister of the gospel. What you are saying here is not new. We hear warnings like this all the time. And the warnings are correct. Here is how it looks from where I sit. It seems to me that most of my generation resist change (emphasis on the use of technology such as PowerPoint, even contemporary songs, etc) because such changes typify a movement toward unbiblical structure and worship. After all, since we have "restored" the New Testament church, even small changes threaten the truth we believe we have discovered and we must cling to our modus operandi at all costs. In reality, many of the details we cling to are things the Bible does not emphasize. It seems we need to rethink our positions in the sense that we must discover, or re-discover, what is central to the gospel. Such things as the virgin birth of Jesus, his resurrection, the power and strength of baptism and the Lord's Supper, what "church" really means, what Jesus meant when he said, "By this will all people know you are my disciples -- if you have love for one another." When we have learned to apply especially that last point, then maybe the world will take notice and say, "This is different. This is what the world needs and I want to be part of it." I hope so. And pray so.