David Kinnamon's book, UnChristian, gave research results of young, non-Christians and their perceptions of Christianity. These results were eye opening.
Now David Kinnamon has written a new book called "You Lost: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church." The reasons that Kinnamon gives for why young Christians are leaving the church are:
- Overprotective - Young Christians report that churches and Christian parents demonize everything outside of the church, and they seek to protect their children from every outside influence, isolating them from the world. The result is that their kids never experience the outside, making it even harder to live for Christ once they leave home. Also, since Christianity is riskless--and thus rather boring and dull--they seek thrills in negative ways. Christianity's aversion to pop culture often leads to a lack of creativity and aversion of the arts in general. So young people look outside the church for these outlets.
- Shallow - Most young Christians growing up are taught only surface level Christianity. They are not challenged. They are entertained. They have no sense of mission, nothing outside of themselves. There are low expectations. And they live up to these low expectations. Those that drop out have no significant adult Christian relationships in their lives, often due to the segregation that happens in youth ministry--a phenomenon that is encouraged by busy parents who leave the child raising and baby-sitting to their kids.
- Antiscience - Half of 13 to 17 year olds plan on going into some kind of Science field. And yet, many churches give off the message that science is dangerous or at odds with Scripture. This presents a false choice between faith and reason. The issues raised by science are indeed challenging, but these issues need to be dealt with honestly and with humility.
- Repressive - This chapter has mostly to do with sexuality. The fact is that young Christians are being influence by the false sexual narrative in our culture. And churches--or more accurately, families--must do a better job of teaching teenagers to navigate these waters.
- Exclusive - We live in a pluralistic culture, and this pluralism is definitely affecting young Christians. Many leave because of the conflict over homosexuality. (They have gay friends and cannot reconcile this with the church's teachings.) They are less likely to be evangelistic, not wanting to violate their friends' beliefs if they belong to another faith. If they do evangelize, they want this linked to social action. They also care little about denominations or denominational divisions.
- Doubtless - Young Christians have many questions about God and faith, and yet they often feel that it is not safe or not allowed to ask real questions. They have questions about suffering and about other faiths. They have intellectual questions and questions caused by the death of a loved one, divorce, and more. And because these questions are ignored or looked upon as out of bounds, they leave.
These causes of young Christians leaving the church are good to understand. Some of these things are avoidable, while others are not. Which of the above do you think can be changed by the church, and which do you think cannot or should not be changed?
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