Keeping the faith beyond the teen years
My story on today’s cover of The Oklahoman’s “Life” section focused on the ways campus ministries seek to connect with students at several of the state’s colleges.
However, that was not the focus of researchers who reviewed the data from The Barna Group’s study mentioned in the story.
The study noted that despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, most twenty-somethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years and often beyond that.
Researchers indicated that churches could do a better job at discipling teens so that they don’t fall away from the faith when they are in their twenties.
“Much of the ministry to teenagers in America needs an overhaul — not because churches fail to attract significant numbers of young people, but because so much of those efforts are not creating a sustainable faith beyond high school,” David Kinnaman, the director of research, wrote.
“There are certainly effective youth ministries across the country, but the levels of disengagement among twenty-somethings suggests that youth ministry fails too often at discipleship and faith formation. A new standard for viable youth ministry should be — not the number of attenders, the sophistication of the vents, or the ‘cool’ factor of the youth group — but whether teens have the commitment, passion and resources to pursue Christ intentionally and whole-heartedly after they leave the youth ministry nest.”
In his report Kinnaman said the Barna research team is conducting more research into what leads to a sustainable faith, but they have already observed some critical enhancements that youth workers might consider.
“One of those is to be more personalized in ministry,” Kinnaman wrote. “Every teen has different needs, questions and doubts, so helping them to wrestle through those specific issues and to understand God’s unique purpose for their lives is significant. The most effective churches have set up leadership development tracks and mentoring processes to facilitate this type of personalization.”
Here are more findings from the survey:
– Most twenty-somethings maintain outward allegiance to Christianity: 78 percent of twenty-somethings say they are Christians, compared with 83 percent of teenagers.
– Loyalty to congregations is one of the casualties of young adulthood: Twenty-somethings were nearly 70 percent more likely than older adults to strongly assert that if they “cannot find a local church that will help them become more like Christ, then they will find people and groups that will, and connect with them instead of a local church.
– Much of the activity of young adults, such as it is, takes place outside congregations. Young adults were just as likely as older Americans to attend special worship events not sponsored by a local church, to participate in a spiritually oriented small group at work, to have a conversation with someone else who holds them accountable for living faith principles, and to attend a house church not associated with a conventional church. Interestingly, there was one area in which the spiritual activities of twenty-somethings outpaced their predecessors: visiting faith-related Web sites.
What do you think? What would help young people continue to “keep the faith” from their teen years on into their young adulthood?
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
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