Missional Canadian

Yeah, why do young people stay in church?

Yeah why do young people stay in church? When there is so much being written about youth drop out, a great question is, “why do so many stay?” I was grabbed by one particular answer John Bowen offers in his book “Growing Up Christian: Why Young People Stay in Church, Leave Church, and (Sometimes) Come Back to Church.” John is a former Inter-Varsity staff member who currently serves as the Associate Professor of Evangelism at the Anglican Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. He’s even spoken at Redwood Park in the past, although that was many many years ago! Hey John, it might be time to invite you back!

Okay, why do young people stay in church?? The answer that particularly grabbed me was the power of a mentor in the life of a young person. Close to 82% of the respondents to John’s research rated the impact of a mentor as critical to their ongoing commitment to faith and expressing their faith through a local church.

Like John I had expected to see the strong correlation between friends and staying connected to church: almost 81% rated that as critical. And yes that is almost as big of deal as a mentor. I just hadn’t expected mentors to be as big of a deal or even bigger! That thought grabbed me and challenged me.

However, it’s what rated as the number one reason for staying in church that I found particularly encouraging, namely God Himself! For almost 90% of those still involved in a local church, it was their relationship with God that kept them in church. Imagine that, a vital experience of God is the number one reason why folk hang in on church. Actually, I’m quite pumped to see that turn up statistically!

Now as I look at churches such as Redwood and so many like us, John’s findings are both encouraging but challenging. While mid-size to larger churches like Redwood do seem to be able to cultivate an environment that encourages a vibrant connection with God, can mid-sized to larger churches like ours also effectively provide quality one to one mentoring relationships to the many youth we serve? Do smaller churches do any better? It seems to me, no matter the size, we need to become a bit more intentional about one to one mentorship. And I suspect this would be true not just of youth, but for the faith journey of our adult community as well.

Earlier this year I read Aelred of Rievaulx’s classic “Spiritual Friendship.” He wrote it somewhere between 1147 and 1167 as he served as the abbot an English Cistercian abbey. It was a great read about the power of spiritual friendships and mentorship as one of the most effective tools we have for spiritual and overall life formation. What Bowen does is simply provide current evidence that one to one mentoring relationships are still one of the most effective tools we have to encourage spiritual growth with a missional focus.

As I read John’s book I found it paralleled my own experience. While friends have always played a critical role in my faith development, by far my reasons for being in church and in church leadership is the intimate experience of God Himself in my life, followed by a number of amazing mentors I’ve been blessed with over the years. “Growing Up Christian,” is a helpful reminder that I need to pray and work more intentionally at creating an environment where more and more in our church family have the opportunity to experience the quality of mentorship that I have over the years, as they experience God personally and vitally.

John’s book is not just about why young people choose to stay in church; it also looks at why many drop out. And while in many cases the leading causes are the opposite of the ones that cause folk to stay, I was again caught by one reality that I haven’t personally given sufficient attention to. John’s quotes Canadian sociologist Reginald Bibbey, who states: “every time people move, about half of them will stop attending regularly,” and shows how his research backs that up.

Now I’ve heard that over and over from folk from Redwood that they can’t find a church like Redwood when they move, and so many of them just give up on church. What I didn’t realize was just how universal that experience is. It’s not just that Redwood has a unique flavour, but every church community has a unique flavour that folk get used to with friends that mean so much to them, that the inability to duplicate that experience in a new city is a phenomenally huge stumbling block for so many. That raises all sorts of issues for the whole spiritual formation process that takes places in most churches, and certainly for Redwood. It also raises issues for how churches help “churched visitors” connect, which may be different than working with “unchurched visitors.”

So much more I could say about this great contribution by John to the literature currently out there on youth dropping out of church. Let me simply encourage you to get “Growing Up Christian” for yourself. There’s also a good summary of his findings at: http://ow.ly/5LJGb.

Before I sign off, a couple of quick disclaimers. John’s book is based on research of a fairly narrow band of respondents, namely young people who graduated form Inter-Varsity’s Ontario Pioneer Camps’ Leader-In-Training Program during the seventeen years John was a leader and teacher. He doesn’t pretend that his research provides definitive answers. Also this is a camp where I’ve previously served as a volunteer, a salaried Follow Up Coordinator during my seminary years, and later gave four years as it’s Administrative Director. All three of my children have almost been raised in this camp, at least during the summer, including its Leader-In-Training Program. And even as I write this, my wife Jane is there, serving as the Girls Camp Cook. My family and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the amazing leaders who have impacted our lives through this work of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship over many decades!!

John thanks for taking the time to study the impact that camp has had on a group of youth you worked with as they have moved into adulthood. You’ve left us with some good questions to wrestle through as we seek to develop effective ministry to future generations.

July 26, 2011 Posted by Doug Doyle | Life Formation, Local Church Thoughts, Redwood Park Church, The Canadian Scene | 1 Comment

In Defence of Youth Ministry

Recently on Facebook I caught a disparaging quote on the state of contemporary student ministry based on Drew Dyck’s book “Generation Ex-Christian.” It elicited several supportive responses. I chose to post a comment to the contrary. Let me explain …

Now I enjoyed reading Dyck’s “Generation Ex-Christian.” His writing style appeals to me, and more importantly he has a lot of good stuff to say about how we ought to be working with young adults. Anyone interested in wrapping their minds around today’s young adults will find this a very enlightening read. Let me be absolutely clear, I highly recommend reading “Generation Ex-Christian.”

But Dyck makes a few comments and hangs on to some statistics that I have intuitively and anecdotally reacted against. Quoting respected researchers like the Barna Group or Rainer and Associates, Dyck claims, “Young adults are fleeing the faith in record numbers.” We’re talking numbers like “70% of youth leave church by the time they are twenty-two year old,” or “80% of those reared in the church will be ‘disengaged’ by the time they are twenty-nine years old.” Those are devastating and sensational stats!!

Hey, it’s hard to argue with statistics, but in looking at the churches I know both locally, across Canada and those few that I connect with in the U.S., I just couldn’t see that drastic of a loss. Yes I do see loss, but not at that level. And the stories Dyck told of guys like his friend “Abe,” are stories I could tell from youth ministry over 30 years ago. I have always been amazed at the ability of some people to have such profound experiences with God, only later to totally reject faith. I’m not sure that’s that new of a phenomenon. Perhaps it’s happening at a greater pace than before, depending on what you are statistically measuring?

The Facebook post that got my attention was an accurate reflection but not a word for word quote from Dyck’s book: “(Over the past couple decades) the focus in youth ministry has shifted from spiritual growth to attracting large numbers of kids and keeping them entertained… (This move) has had some ugly unintended consequences. Today many youth ministries are practically devoid of any spiritual engagement.” (See page 48) (The words in brackets are those of the Facebook poster, the rest belong to Dyck.)

Wow, in my mind those are unfair comments. Dyck carefully qualifies the statement with the word “many,” but still it strikes me as more sensational than reality. To add to the sensationalism Dyck quotes Ed Stetzler, President of Lifeway Research as saying that most youth groups are “holding tanks with pizza,” and throws in a footnote about the evils of including Halo 3 in a youth ministry setting. Has anyone really done the research to back all that up??? Isn’t that the kind of sensationalism that turns the next generation off? Low blow and inaccurate from what I can see, at least in Canada. And Drew Dyck is a Canadian!

Looking back to when I was but a youth, mass rallies by Youth For Christ or Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship used the slickest of entertainment of those days and employed “forbidden rock music”. It was all about being relevant to attract large numbers of young people. In Toronto of the 70’s, Inter-Varsity’s Great Pumpkin Hunt was “the event” to go to. YFC’s Toronto concerts with their pre-concert “electric chair” stunts and the likes of Larry Norman singing “Why should the Devil have all the good music,” were amazingly! I don’t disparage those at all. They played a positive role in my spiritual journey. However my observation since my own experience as a youth in church and parachurch, followed by a time as a youth pastor, is that over the last several decades youth ministry has become far more focused and intentional in it’s approach to reaching and making disciples of students for Christ. Entertainment is certainly there, but no more or less than it’s ever been; and it’s used carefully and prayerfully.

And while I don’t necessarily fully align with the growing young reformed movement, I have a huge respect for its passion for student ministry that is deeply rooted in the Scriptures and deeply engaged with the life of Christ. And I see that kind of passion in churches all over the place, reformed or not. Even in my own city, I can point to multiple churches including my own, where youth ministry today is far more focused and intentional in terms of holistic discipleship than it was 20 years ago.

But can you argue with the stats? That’s when I stumbled on a great book by Brad Wright, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin who is also a believer: “Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites … and Other Lies You’ve Been Told”. Ironically Ed Stetzer writes the forward to this book!

Wright takes on the research done by Barna, Rainer and others head on and counters it with data from slightly more secular and potentially more scholarly sources like the Gallup Organization, the Pew Foundation, and the General Society Survey. He comes up with a bunch of contrarian findings that align more closely with what I’ve been sensing. (Not that “my sense” makes it better! ☺) His premise is that a lot of the bad news we’ve been hearing, a lot of the stats we’ve been using, simply are not true. Dyck also quotes the Pew Foundation but perhaps not as carefully.

On the youth ministry front Wright insists “the percentage of youth who attend church has held steady over the past twenty years.” This totally flies in the face of what evangelicals having been saying about themselves. Further Wright demonstrates that “the beliefs of young evangelicals over the past several decades have either remained stable or have become more in line with the church.” This is a surprising thought for many! But it does line up with the observation that youth ministry has become far more intentional over the years. What I see and find some support from Wright is that our youth grasp more clearly and hold onto more firmly a handful of key fundamentals. However I would suggest that the list of fundamentals they hold onto is shorter and they are much weaker at quoting chapter and verse of the Bible. I’m okay with that. I think that means we’re ahead!

Not that the news is all good. Wright is clear that “on the negative side, the number of young people who do not affiliate with any religion has increased in recent decades, just as it has for the whole population.” In other words, fewer folks hanging in the margins of faith are calling themselves Christians. It’s this reality that I think Dyck could have handled more carefully.

So I do wonder if guys like Drew Dyck who has so much good to say, don’t try to get our attention, as Wright would suggest, using sensational statements and scary statistics. It’s a good reminder to a guy like myself who loves stats and needs to get people’s attention when preaching, to be careful in their use.

And while it’s not very consoling to those many parents who have raised their kids in the church and are struggling with their current lack of faith to say that statistically it’s not a lot different than a generation or two ago, I am pumped to see some evidence that youth ministry has actually shifted towards a deeper experience with God and a greater commitment to a handful of key beliefs. So kudos to all of our youth ministry workers out there!!

I am reminded of a quote I have often used that is also found in Wright’s book from an Assyrian stone tablet that dates to 2800 BC, “Our earth is degenerate in these later days … children no longer obey their parents.”

July 15, 2011 Posted by Doug Doyle | Life Formation, Local Church Thoughts, Redwood Park Church, The Canadian Scene | 6 Comments