Before we dive in, I want to thank you all for offering helpful feedback during this series. Through Tweets and DM’s, comments and texts, emails and phone calls, my thinking has been tremendously shaped by people interacting with my posts.
I suggested in my last post that what we’re talking about here is largely (though not exclusively) a white problem. Instead of adding the word “white” to everything I say, though, I’ll just stick to the terms “Millennial” and “church” with the understanding that what we’re talking about may not apply to churches made up of racial minorities.
I guess this could be subtitled “part 4” of my current series. But since I’m shifting gears a bit, I decided to let it sit as a stand alone, yet related, blog. After reading my first post in the series, my friend Derwin Gray Tweeted me a message saying that the flood of Millennials leaving the church is largely a white problem.
Millennials are leaving the church for all sorts of reasons. And as I showed in a previous blog, there are different types of Leavers. However, after combing through various books and studies on the topic, all of which consist of extensive surveys and interviews of people who have left, I’m struck by the common reasons that keep popping up.
In my last post, I pointed out that millennials (18-29 year olds) are fleeing the church. Again, it’s not that I’ve based this on a few anecdotal stories. It’s not that I’ve read one or two surveys that have argued this. The evidence is overwhelming,
There’s no dispute. There are no conflicting reports. They all independently show—and anecdotal evidence confirms—that millennials who grew up in the church are leaving the church in droves According to Rainer Research, 70% of youth, who were active in youth group, leave the church by the time they’re 22 years old.
I want to talk about why millennials are fleeing the church in droves. But first, let’s circle back around to a question I raised at the end of a blog last week. Regarding discipleship, I said: “I wonder if we’ve elevated certain pet aspects of personal morality over communal and social action.”
