Recently, Ed Stetzer gave a presentation at the International Christian Retail Show on some of the research he’s doing at LifeWay. He shared the top reasons they’ve found that young adults are dropping out of church these days. Among the reasons:
1. They simply want a break from church (27%)
2. They felt church members are judgmental and/or hypocritical (26%)
3. They moved to college and didn’t find another church (25%);
4. They have work responsibilities that keep them from attending (23%);
5. They moved too far from church (22%)
6. They just got too busy, even though they’d still like to attend (22%)
7. They didn’t feel connected to the church in the first place (20%)
8. They disagreed with the church’s political/social stance (18%)
9. They decided to spend more time with friends (17%)
10. They were just going to church to please their parents (17%)
Hey…these statistics are mentioned in that book, Already Gone, that I was telling you about. You should read it.
Don’t be discouraged parents/friends/brothers and sisters in christ, for the word of God says: Train up a child in the way that they should go, so that when they are old they will not depart from it–Proverbs 22:6. Also noted in the word of GOD, that his void will not go out void, it will accomplish that which it is set out to do. Now they may not be hearing the word at the present time; but, that which has been planted will spring up and often time, when those individuals go out to do something that they know go against the word of GOD…I know that the word will come into them say: thus saith the LORD. Although they may sometimes ignore it, it does come up before them.