Barna Group, Twentysomethings, and Church Attendance
The Barna Group recently published new research that indicates what was already obvious: a very low percentage of twentysomethings are connected to a local church.
I’m thankful that right now at CPC we have an average of 35-40 twentysomethings showing up at 20s every Thursday night, and the group is growing. It’s my prayer that CPC and 20s an play a significant role in helping twentysomethings here on the Peninsula grow in:
1) better understanding, enjoying, and applying the gospel
2) grasping the joyous gospel imperative of committing to a local church (not just a young adults group).
We’re off to a good start, but we do have a long way to go with 20s. As the research indicates, the twenties decade can be a pretty low commitment, flaky decade. In my 2 and 1/2 months here I’ve certainly seen that. I’ve felt it too. As a twenties pastor it’s certainly frustrating, painful even, when you witness members of your flock date the church and date a young adults group, rather than commit to it and serve it. It hurts to see people you love miss out on loving, serving, and committing to the body of believers that Jesus went to such great lengths to purchase and draw together.
So, I keep praying, I keep loving, I keep proclaiming the gospel. If you think of it, please pray for me as I seek to lead 20s towards a more mature, sacrifical, gospel-centered commitment to the body of Christ.
What are your thoughts? What do you make of Barna’s research? Why do you think most twenties aren’t committed to the church? What can be done to fix the problem?
Wow–that Barna chart is perfect for your job as young adults pastor. Did George make it especially for you and this post?!? These statistics are not surprising, but certainly sad. Especially the number of 20somethings who were active in church in their teens and aren’t in their 20s. That is really really really sad. I consider 61% epidemic. Why is this happening?? I agree that twenties@cpc is an awesome place for 20s to gather, study, and build friendships. But, after being a part of the group for a while now, I too long to see an overall stronger allegiance to the group and to our church. Though many people are “core” and show up all the time, you chose a good word the other half of the attendance: rotating. My prayer is that more and more of us would become devoted to consistently showing up and actively contributing to the group. How else will we grow in depth and breadth? Anybody else have thoughts on this? Am I being too tough?
Yeap, it’s sad all right. Personally I put it down to the sparseness of the twenties something website ;-) Maybe you can give it as a project to some tech savvy twenty something to fix! I’m 30 by the way. :-)
Those statistics seem to be more focused on those falling away rather than those who are just luke warm. It sounds like you need to teach on Revelation 3:14-22: Jesus’ letter to the Church at Laodicea or the Church of Nauseating Ineffectiveness. Our God has some pretty stern words to us who find ourselves in that category.
It would be interesting to see what happens to those 61% when they reach their 30s? Do these people somehow pick up their level of commitment when they get older?
Do the twenty somethings not feel an integral part of the church? Do they feel that older people run church; the opportunities for service are less? Do they think they can get serious about Christianity when their lives have settled and become more structured?
To be honest Justin, I would think the stats are probably similar for the rest of the church. It sounds like you have a core group of people who are committed, and then a bunch of people who show up when it’s convenient or the mood takes them. Sounds pretty similar to the rest of the church. It seems pretty consistent with the 30% of the people do all of the work in a church.
I think it fundamentally could boil down to people not having a real need for a Savior. Sure they make a profession of faith, but people today don’t feel the need, they have everything. Jesus is just the icing on the cake. If we had a true sense of our sin and the righteousness of God, I think we would never stray far from the cross and the people of God. If we truly believed without Christ we are sick and perishing we would be there whenever the church met together.
Another contributing factor to this is the culture of American Individualism. We have heard that all that matters is you and God. It’s all about God and me. The church is not needed. I can stay at home and read my bible. I don’t need the church. It’s a lie that has been bought into by many. The apostolic writers had no place for such talk though. It was always about Christ and the Church (just read Ephesians). To live out your faith outside of the context of the church is simply not Christian.
Augustine said it well “He who does not have the church as his Mother does not have God as his Father.”
6 out of 10 churched teens are disengaged as 20′s. That’s really difficult to hear while looking at our high school ministry. Seeing our seniors going off to college this year was a little scary. Knowing this stat and how easily it is to disengage from church once you leave home and your home church. This stat just shows how big of a ministry need there is for us in our 20′s.
You’re off to great start here at CPC!!
