Why We Lose Young People

As a senior in high school, I was voted best dressed. That was mainly because I had some ways to make money, which most of my classmates probably didn’t have. In the months leading up to Christmas, I worked in the woods on Saturdays cutting Christmas trees. My other income source was the rock grouip I belonged to. We held dances once a month and the pay was pretty good. Being able to wear really nice clothes gave me a huge amount of confidence and popularity in the school.

Across the nation, in every secondary school there is sense among young people what is cool and what is not. Young people are extremely sensitive about being popular, or being “in” with their peers. Being teased about not wearing the right clothes, or having the latest smart phone, or the wrong brand of tennis shoes is probably a young person’s worst nightmare. Peer pressure for a young person is huge.

This conversation is leading to a vital question, possibly the most important question that can be asked if you are at all concerned about our nation, the safety and quality of our lifestyle and where all of that is going.

The question is this: Why has the church lost nearly the entire youth population?

If you were to ask this question of pastors everywhere, most of them wouldn’t be able to give a good answer. They don’t know. Even the “experts” on the subject don’t have a clear answer. Actually, the major authors I am familiar with, all have different answers. They don’t seem to know, or at least there is no clear consensus.

After producing large youth events for five years, most of which broke attendance records in their prospective cities, I discovered some alarming revelations about the youth culture. Though we had huge numbers of young people come to our events, and very large altar calls of those dedicating their lives to Christ, the churches of the area did not grow at a rate even vaguely encouraging.

Part of the reason is that the follow-up is poor, as every evangelistic organization reports. A new believer needs to be followed up in the first 24 hours and systematically after that until they are firmly rooted in a church. These two things are almost never done . . .because so few want to put in the time and energy to do them. This is an unfortunate reflection on the spiritual depth of the average believer. The average believer does not want to be bothered with mentoring a new believer, or many times refrains from doing so because he or she thinks they are not qualified.

How did we lose our young people? To me, the answer is very simple.

However, too many pastors and church leaders across the country seem to be totally stumped.

I have read most of the books written by the researchers on how our young people have exited the church. They all have different solutions to the problem. There is no consensus on an answer to the problem. The indication seems to be that they, too are at least somewhat stumped.

Why the confusion? The answer is as plain as the nose on our faces.

Young people have left the church because it is no longer relevant to them. The clture of the traditional church is way behind the culture of today’s youth generation. The youth culture is moving at warp speed, and the church is moving at the speed of a slow turtle. We, the church, are stuck in the past. Our music is outdated. Our churches are filled with old people who still think there is something really wrong with the youth that they don’t like our churches. Two thirds of church attendees are over 50. Too often, the attitude of condemnation is prevalent. If any young person would venture into a church, too many times they might sense animosity.

Young people are super-sensitive to peer pressure. The worst thing they can imagine is to be spurned by their peers and not accepted into the “in” crowd. The youth culture is shaped by Hollywood and by the social media. Young people get hours and hours of current media on their smart phones every day. They are saturated with “pop culture.” To go join a church where the culture is anything but cool would be unthinkable.

So, how do we reach them? We can’t expect them to join our outdated adult churches. Wake up older Christians. That’s never going to happen! So how do we reach them?

What we need is to build youth churches . . . churches where everything in the service is in step with their culture.

It’s not going to look anything like a traditional church and most older people will not like it.

Will it work? Of course, it will. To illustrate my solution, let me introduce you to a youth church I attended for abouit three years, Substance Church in Minneapolis. Substance Church was founded by Pastor Peter Haas and his wife, Carolyn. Pastor Peter was a pastor in Wisconsin when he read about the low attendance of the age group 35 and under in Minneapolis, something like one percent. He was shocked.

“Carolyn,” Pastor Peter said, “we have to do something!”

So they moved to Minneapolis and started a church on the University of Minnesota campus. The never intended to have a large church, but Substance grew to 3000 on its tenth anniversary. Seventy percent of the congregation was at that time 40 and under.

Why the success?

Simple . . .t in principle, at least. Everything in the service is designed for young people.

The music, the graphics, the language of the messages, the dress . . . everything in the service is designed for young people.

It goes without saying that a crowd of young people excited about serving Jesus will attract more young people, so once the nucleus was established the church grew steadily.

Substance is not a shallow church, whose activity is just fun and games. Not at all. Pastor Peter’s sermons are deep, Bible-based, and delivered with an abundance of excitement and energy. Neither are the attendees at Substance spectator Christians. Eighty percent are involved in some ministry within the church.

Substance was not built by taking sheep from other congregations. Forty percent of those who attend did not attend church two years ago. The present national statistic is that 95 percent of church growth is transfer growth, that is to say, these churches are just taking people from other churches. The huge mission field of 194 million hardcore unchurched in America is not being dented.

This is about as successful a church as one can imagine when it comes to attracting young people.

So why are we not duplicating this kind of youth church all across America? It beats me. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why we are not planting youth churches like there is no tomorrow. Yet, the concept has not been picked up by traditional churches. They just keep scratching their heads, doing church the same way they have always done it, and trying to figure out why they can’t attract young people.

It would appear that there is a tremendous lack of knowledge in the typical American church to what is really happening. I have spent ten years researching the demographics and attendance habits in the churches of America, and to me the ignorance is mind-boggling

My new book, Is This The End . . . Or Just The Beginning? was just released in the last couple weeks. The main objective is to inform the reader of the true condition of the church, hopefully shake him up to the point he rethinks his Christian walk. Hopeful then he will become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. I urge you to get this book.

You can find it in the store on our website gerogeandlorraine.com.

If we will get off the sidelines and into the game, together we can change America.

Photo taken by Lorraine