How to Address the De-churched?

It might come to a surprise to people that the Barna Group found that around a third of people who are churchless are ones who previously attended church but decided to no longer attend. Without doing a statistical study, I would guess that a large percentage of this 33% is college students who grew up in the church but drifted away during their college years. This time is understandably a time of increased responsibility for people when more life decisions are being made by themselves instead of with help from their parents. From the friends in this demographic I know, the main sentiment seems to be the feeling of “not getting anything” out of church. Perhaps some churches need to focus more on building personal relationships between members of the church as well as presenting more applications of what is taught.

We’ve discussed in class the issue of churches sometimes having trouble reaching a wide range of demographics with their preaching. A younger generation should not be taken for granted as permanent members of the church community. There is definitely some in the church who mistakenly assume kids are Christians if their parents are. Since it isn’t always feasible to always target this demographic that is leaving the church at an increasing rate, some of the responsibility to reach out should be placed on the individual. Some might feel left out if a church is focusing on a different demographic. A younger generation not seeing the benefits of church should be seen as an opportunity to serve and not a lost cause.