Over this past weekend, I had the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day with my family in Southern California and wife, who is due to give birth to our first child in the next seven months. Before we actually went out to dinner like most families in America, I attended church earlier that morning. Like most Mother’s Day in various churches across the country, the attendance at church increased tremendously because this was one of the three days out the year where people who never attend church seem to make it a point to visit the church on this special day of each year for mother’s.
As I sat in church listening to the amazing music and powerful sermon, I began to wonder why many young men and women believe in God, but fail to attend church regularly and volunteer with their local church as much as they do with other social causes within their community, nation, and world. I wondered if it was hypocrisy in the church, busy schedules, different attitudes about church than previous generations, or just a lack of desire to really help out with the local church in their community.
As I continued to ponder on this thought during service, I stopped focusing on Generation Y for a minute and asked myself a simple question, why do I love God, pray frequently, attend church almost every Sunday, but still fail to really serve in the local church? While I thought about that question personally mixed in with my thoughts about Generation Y and Religion, I developed four key reasons why I believe less young people are engaged with church than in previous years:
New Attitude About Church: The first reason why I believe less people from this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past, is because their attitude about church has changed. For instance, instead of believing that attending church regularly gets you to heaven, more and more young men and women are realizing that it’s a personal relationship with God that’s most important and with this new understanding comes the notion that you do not need church to get close to God.
Lack of Programs that Interests Generation: The second reason why I believe less people from this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past is because there are very few programs created to really attract the younger demographic. For example, we have our monthly and quarterly events geared toward young adults, but rarely do we see programs that are out the box and geared specifically at the younger audience within our communities.
Leadership Development: The third reason why I believe less people in this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past is because of a lack of leadership development amongst young men and women in the church. For instance, as a speaker I have the opportunity to attend several leadership conferences/trainings held by major colleges and corporations for college students and young professionals, but rarely do I see these types of programs offered in the church. Personally, I believe if more of these programs were offered in the church, we would see increase in the church immediately.
More Creative Outreach Programs: The fourth reason why I believe less people this younger generation are engaged with church than in years past is because the outreach programs are not creative enough. For example, I understand the importance of evangelizing, feeding the poor, and offering counsel to the needy in church, but I believe that if we created other projects that interest this younger generation outside these main outreach programs, we could still fulfill the great commission and draw more people into the younger people into the church.
These four reasons are not the only solutions to this problem in the modern day church with young men and women from this younger generation, but they are key steps of action that I believe the church can take right now to really get more young adults involved with their local church.
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