Church Drop-outs: Why They Leave the Church, Part 4

How can we keep young people in the church?

Seems to me this is not precisely the right question.

The better question is how we can help young people love God and grow into their "true selves."

A happy by-product will be their faithfulness to the church.

Here's a start:

Teach kids to engage in productive faith.

In his two books Culture Making and Playing God author Andy Crouch talks about productive faith (my phrase) as living out our true calling as image-bearers.

Image-bearers: human beings reflecting God in creativity and productivity (among other things).

Thus Crouch: "The human quest for meaning is played out in human making: the finger-painting, omelet-stirring, chair-crafting, snow-swishing activities of culture." *

So I say, teach a young dancer that God loves her dancing, and that her calling is to create wonderful dances for human audiences but ultimately for a delighted audience of One -- God himself -- and she is likely to grow into her true dancer-self, in love with her craft, in love with her God.

This faith will endure.

* * *

Next week: Why the church usually doesn't teach productive faith.


photo credit:Korean dancing shoes
*Andy Crouch. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, p24.

Church Drop-outs: Why They Leave the Church, Part 3

Last week I gave the example of Caleb, an archetypal teenager who falls in love with cars and the race track -- not Jesus -- and gradually drifts away from the faith.

Could this "leaver" have been kept in the fold somehow?

Yes, I think so.

No guarantees, of course, but I have a suggestion:

What if we brought God to the places where Caleb hangs out with his buddies: the garage and the speedway?

What if we moved God out of church and into the workplace?

Yes, I understand God is omnipresent and doesn't need to be "brought" anywhere. But I'm talking about God being recognized inside the essential processes of repairing and rebuilding cars.

Now you may be thinking this idea reduces to a certain activity, such as this:

On occasion one of the gear-heads in the shop opens a Bible and everyone drops their wrenches for a short interlude of prayer and Scripture.

Not a bad idea but I'm thinking of something different.

I'm thinking of God actually meeting Caleb under the hood. 

I'm thinking of Caleb sensing the approval and affirmation of his heavenly Father when he restores order to a disordered machine in a broken world.

Track star Eric Liddell said, "God made me fast . . . When I run I feel his pleasure."

Average-kid Caleb might similarly say, "God made me mechanical. When I work on cars I sense his approval."

Call it a "productive" faith. It means that one of our jobs as image-bearers is to create as God creates, produce as he produces, work as he works, rest as he rests.

Maybe such an understanding of God would have kept Caleb coming to church, fusing together his faith and main hobby.

Unifying his life.

* * *

Next week I'll talk about what author Andy Crouch says about the topic of productive faith in his two fine books:

• Culture Making
• Playing God

Your assignment, then: by next Monday, read both books . . . .   :)

Church Drop-outs: Why They Leave the Church, Part 2

Imagine a 16-year old named Caleb who grew up in the church but within a couple of years will leave, perhaps permanently.

Caleb is fascinated by the world of cars, racing and engines, and wants to go into auto mechanics.

At church Caleb experiences worship, community, Bible teaching. All good things. He learns about morality, God's love, salvation, prayer. He's a little bored but he'll get through it.

He attends Sunday services and youth group regularly, cracks his Bible on occasion because he's supposed to do his devo's.

It all seems other-worldly to Caleb. Necessary, yes, like eating your vegetables, but not relevant to his main interest.

In fact, nothing in the Christian culture of his boyhood connects with Caleb's primary love: cars. Under the hood (or behind the wheel) of an automobile he feels alive and authentic to his true self.

Soon, Caleb's real community is found not so much at church but in a local garage with his gear-head buddies. Then, the race track -- including Sundays.

Goodbye, Caleb. Hope to see you in church again someday, perhaps after you start a family in about eight years.

What could have convinced Caleb to stay in the church?

I have an idea. Call it productive faith.

The idea is to produce something that is actually sanctioned by God -- something good and rewarding that makes the heart glad. Something that calls out the essential self in each of us. Something that resonates in Caleb's soul.

Next week: I'll expand on the idea of "productive faith" and suggest how it might have changed Caleb's whole narrative.


graphic credit: http://www.hdcargallery.com/muscle-cars-pictures-wallpaper-2891.html 

Church Drop-outs: Why They Leave, Part 1

David Kinnaman

Recently a concerned mother approached me at a church where I'd spoken and told me a story, versions of which I hear often:

"My son announced that 'he can no longer believe in the Christian God.' He's walked away from the faith. He used to be involved in youth group, a worship band, family devotions, Christian conferences, evangelism . . . Now he wants nothing to do with it."

According to various reports and studies, young people are leaving the church at higher rates than ever before.

Just Google Christian leavers or Ex-Christians and you'll find plenty of troubling material.

Or read books and studies by Kinneman, Dyck, Campbell/Putnam, Clydesdale, Smith, Wright and others who document the "leavers" with extensive personal interviews.

So why is it happening? Why are so many young people dropping out, walking away, de-converting?

Conventional wisdom would say "moral compromise":

Sarah went off to college and started partying. Feeling guilty and hypocritical, she "changed her creeds to match her deeds." She no longer believes because faith in Christ doesn't fit her lifestyle.

And maybe that's part of the answer.

But according to a Christianity Today article* by Drew Dyck, many folks in their 20s and 30s leave the faith due to factors inside the church. 

He summarizes: "Most leavers had been exposed to a superficial form of Christianity that effectively inoculated them against authentic faith."

I agree with this assessment, and next week I'll offer my own theory on the matter.


* Subscription required to see the whole article

Equipping Teens for College: Part 6: Social and Racial Justice

I'd like to review my hopes for the "standard equipment" of first-year students when they arrive on campus. Ideally, they'd have these tools in the toolbox:

1. A big-picture overview of the Bible.
2. Inductive Bible study skills.
3. A basic gospel outline they can share with nonChristian friends.
4. A beginner's apologetic (see last week's post).
5. An awareness of social and racial justice.
   
   

This last item gets dicey because many evangelical churches are still under-developed on issues of race and justice.

Ironically, young people themselves often take the lead in this area, and it's the older generations -- say, 50 and up -- of which I'm a member, that are the true students (or at least we should be) of such matters.

Bottom line: I'm never surprised when a first-year college student demonstrates a basic intuition for issues of justice and race. It's in the DNA of this generation.

What does surprise, me however, is the occasional 18-year old student who arrives on campus with a theology* of justice and race in their toolbox. Now that's rare, indeed, and much to be prized.

+++++++++++++++++

** Meaning, a broad biblical understanding of the topic. 

Equipping Teens for College, Part 5: A Beginner's Apologetic

On rare occasion a first-year student will bring to college an ability to articulate a basic "apologetic" for Christianity.

This is helpful not only for maintaining faith in a challenging collegiate environment, but for sharing faith with others, perhaps along these lines:

1) Origins: Why Christianity, not atheism, provides the best explanation for the origin of the universe and human life.

2) Gospels: Why the Gospel accounts of Jesus' life can be trusted.

3) Religious Pluralism: Why multiple religions cannot all be true in the same respect.

How to actually train kids in apologetics?

I have some practical ideas that I'll share some other time.

For now, I just want to get parents and Christian educators thinking about providing teenagers with some basic apologetic tools.

And when they arrive on campus for the first time, hand them off to a campus ministry such as Chi Alpha, Cru, Campus Outreach, the Navigators or InterVarsity.

We can take it from there.

* * *

Starter books in apologetics:

• Letters from a Skeptic by Greg Boyd
• Handbook of Christian Apologetics by Kreeft and Tacelli 
• Faith is Like Skydiving (my book)

All available on Amazon.com.

See you next week.

I am at InterVarsity staff training in Madison, WI this week.