By Agencies
A new survey from LifeWay Research has investigated church attendance among young adults (aged 23 to 30), and the results are diverse, provocative and startling.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said between the ages of 18 to 22, they stopped going to church for at least a year.
They cited a variety of reasons for leaving. The survey listed 55 and asked them to pick all that applied. On average, they chose seven or eight reasons,
Scott McConnell, the executive director of LifeWay Research said when the report was released Tuesday.
“There is a substantial amount of people in this age demographic who for whatever reason decided that the church is no longer integral to building their faith or their faith is no longer integral to them,” Brooks said, according to USA Today.
Nearly all — 96 percent — cited life changes, including moving to college and work responsibilities that prevented them from attending.
Seventy-three percent said church or pastor-related reasons led them to leave. Of those, 32 percent said church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical and 29 percent said they did not feel connected to others who attended.
Seventy percent named religious, ethical or political beliefs for dropping out. Of those, 25 percent said they disagreed with the church’s stance on political or social issues while 22 percent said they were only attending to please someone else.
Also, 63 percent said student and youth ministry reasons contributed to their decision not to go. Of those, 23 percent said they never connected with students in student ministry and 20 percent said the students seemed judgmental or hypocritical.
, says the results indicate the church had a chance to share its message, but it didn’t stick: “That’s a lot of folks saying, ‘No, that’s not for me’ or ‘It’s not for me right now’” he told USA Today.
LifeWay Research is a ministry of LifeWay Christian Resources, which is the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Nashville-based entity interviewed 2,002 U.S. adults ages 23 to 30 who attended a Protestant church two times or more a month for at least a year in high school. The interviews were conducted from Sept. 15 to Oct. 13, 2017.
