Haemorrhaging Faith

At the start of March 2015, I attended a conference in Melbourne dealing with the issue of youth and young adults leaving the church. This was reflected in the title of the conference – Haemorrhaging Faith.  It’s a weird name, but fitting. If the title had a part two, it would be “Transfusing Life”.

The basis of the conference was a report from Canada which revealed what we already know – young adults are leaving the church in droves. Dave Overholt, a pastor from Canada, and his daughter Kara were the key presenters at this conference.

What did we learn?

In Canada, 70% of people who have grown up in the church will leave by the time they are 30! And if they haven’t returned by the time they’re 35, they probably won’t return at all. (Evangelical churches are doing better, but still losing at least 30% of their youth.)

The 30% who stay in the church are known as Engagers. Over 90% of them say they have experienced God’s love and answer to prayer. It makes sense then that they stay connected to a place where God is worshipped. Interestingly, but perhaps not surprising, the vast majority – 70% - are female. (So, if you’re looking for a Christian wife, Canada might be the place to go).

Those who have left the church can be divided into three groups – Fence-sitters; Wanderers; and Rejecters.

The Fence-Sitters are the largest group. These are people who have experiences of God in their past, but now find God irrelevant in their lives. They believe that Christianity over promises and under delivers. This means that the church talks about a God who answers prayer and makes things better, but these people haven’t found that God answers all their prayers. Or perhaps we promise a warm welcome to people who visit, but deliver something much colder.

For them, attending church would be hypocritical, so they don’t come. They also believe that the church is out of touch and cannot answer the questions they have. Which should lead us to ask, “What are the questions that you have?” And the only way we can find out those questions is to talk with them.

The next group – the Wanderers – don’t call themselves Christians, but they don’t hate their past. They like what the church does, like feeding the poor, but they don’t believe the teachings of the church. What is your church doing to serve your community? Can this be a link to re-connect these people?

The final group are the Rejecters. As the title suggests, this group have completely rejected everything about Church. Their past might be in the church, but they would want to keep it in the past. Unlike the Fence-sitters and the Wanderers, the people who made up this group have a definite reason for leaving the church. It may be that they prayed for someone to be healed who wasn’t, or they were treated badly in the church, (abused), or that nobody could answer their questions.

We can still connect with these people, and in many ways they are easier to reach than the wanderers. But the important thing for me is to ensure young people have no definite reason to leave the church. Treat them well. Answer their questions. Be their friend. It’s not that hard!!

When do people leave?

The research showed that people often leave the church at times of transition. This is particularly clear when people move from Primary school to Secondary school, then again when the move is from school to University. A change in leadership of a youth ministry is another transition that can mean losing a number of young people. In fact, while at the conference I spoke with one lady who had this experience at her church – when a youth leader left to study full time, all the young men stopped coming to church too.

Can we do anything about this? Yes! If we know that there are times of transition coming up, help to prepare the way. Try to work out how you can build the relationships to keep connected with young people as they enter into high school, and again when they enter into University.

I’ll add a word here of my own thinking – making people leave youth group when they finish high school is, in my mind, a bit dumb.  They are about to go through one of the biggest transitions they have ever experienced by leaving school and connecting with a whole new group of people at Uni or at work. Why not give them at least one group of people they know and can continue to be a part of for another year or two? I think having a youth group of 12-21 year olds is a good thing. In the post-school years, people will begin to either stop attending or will step into a leadership role. They will continue to mature and find their own identity in the church as well. Keeping the invitation to youth group is a way to lessen the impact of this transition.

If you are a youth leader, and you know that you will be leaving that role at some point, what are you doing to prepare the group for that? If you leave and the group collapses, what does that say about your leadership? Please help to prepare the way for someone else to come into that position. And help the youth to be ready for that new person.

If you would like to listen to the presentations, go to haemorrhagingfaith.org.au/