Young Adults Leaving the Church: Not only Sociological, but Philosophical

The reality of youth leaving the church upon their high school graduations is disconcerting, namely to those within practical theology and church ministry.
There are a lot of people in the world of practical theology and church ministry writing and talking about why youth are leaving the church after they graduate from high school. Many of the books and much of the research that has been done is very helpful for those, like me, in full-time youth ministry. In fact, while I was at Fuller Theological Seminary, I had the opportunity to hear some of the essential research being done by the Fuller Youth Center and what became known as “Sticky Faith.” Based on those conversations at Fuller, I developed a Senior Transition class at my old church and am now facilitating one at my current church. The other day I began questioning, does this have way more to do with a philosophical shift than we would like to admit?

Let me back up, while I was on Facebook a couple weeks ago, I noticed that a few of my junior and senior students who had not come to church that morning “checked-in” at another local church. I have to admit, his disheartened me a little bit and I began to wonder, why aren’t these students coming to their home church?

That morning my wife had been sitting in a classroom at our church waiting for the 9:30 Bible study class to start. She overheard a conversation regarding some things happening in our church community when one person made this statement, “We keep wondering when they are going to do away with the choir and leave us behind.”

While sitting on Sunday night after hearing about this conversation and seeing students “check-in” on Facebook, I started thinking, what if something deeper is happening? Something not only sociological, but philosophical?

A Philosophical Shift

The study of theology is not required to acknowledge that something within our culture has changed. We have moved from a “modern” to a “late-modern” or “postmodern” world. What some have failed to realize is how much our philosophical understanding of the world around us affects the way we worship and connect with God.

Today’s Christian church has become saturated with modernism. In the book, Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, James K.A. Smith makes the statement, “One of the reasons postmodernism has been the bogeyman for the Christian church is that we have become so thoroughly modern” (23). Everything that happens within thousands of churches across the country is plainly modern, and for good reason. The church became modern to reach moderns.

While modernism emerged as a result of the enlightenment, what most forget is that the Reformation also occurred amidst this earlier shift. During the Reformation many of today’s churches built and established their confessions and theology. Therefore, we must assume that the majority of current practical theology was created in a modern context, and, therefore, speaks most readily to a modern audience.

Now jump ahead with me six hundred years to current society: There is a new philosophical shift happening in the world, to postmodernism. Everyone between the age of 25 and 45 was most likely raised in a blended version of modern meets post-modern world. A world where a modern understanding was on its way out and a new philosophical mindset was on its way in.

Today’s teens are not being raised in such a world; they are being raised in a completely postmodern world. This world does not speak modernism and does not communicate in a modern way, with the exception of the church. Every week the church asks teens to cover their postmodern eyes with modern glasses so that they can “worship God” through modified lenses. I find myself asking: Would God require that? Or would God meet postmodern thinkers were they were at?

Taking it Back to Church
This reality hits close to home. I am a part of a very modern mainline church. I weekly ask teens to come and worship God in a modern service that has yet to ask teens how they connect with God.

I agree with and love all of the research that is being done regarding why young adults leave the church, but there must come a time when we admit that things must change in our churches if we ever plan on keeping postmoderns around. As David Kinnaman proclaims in his book You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church…And Rethinking Faith,

…the Christian community must rethink our efforts to make disciples. Many
of the assumptions on which we have built our work with young people are rooted in modern, mechanistic, and mass production paradigms…We need to renew our catechism and confirmations—not because we need new theology, but because their current forms too rarely produce young people of deep, abiding faith” (12-13).

The church is not producing what Kinnaman calls, “deep, abiding faith” within young people because it is not taking the philosophical shift seriously. Instead it is asking students to become modern to worship God.

Please do not hear me saying we must do away with all “modern” forms of worship, in reality that would create a whole new problem. At the same time, I do not think the answer is to create a new service for postmoderns, as many churches have done. What needs to happen is reformation, reconciliation, and the development of hybrid services in order to include all members.

When Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the church he did not want to divide the Catholic Church, he wanted to reform it. However, the leadership of the Catholic Church at the time had other ideas. The essential question is, what will the leadership of our churches do? Will they create a split or will they create conversation? Will today’s denominations and church leaders look to bridge the gap of modernity and postmodernity, or will they look to split the church? Or most unfortunately, will leaders allow churches to die with modernity?

I have a friend in seminary on the East Coast. The last time I spoke to him, he shared that he was interning at a mainline church of less than 100 people who were all on their to meet the LORD. Every Sunday the church sings hymns and goes about things the same way they always have. In reality this church is dying. This church will not be around in twenty years. Why? Because they will not change to meet the changing culture around them.

The reality is that this is going to be a messy process. People will be emotional, angry, and misunderstand what is happening. There will be those who choose to hold tight to their idols of preference and personal demand. While these people may die with these held close, we must not allow the church to die with them.

What do I do?

To be honest, I am still developing my answer. The only idea I have is to start creating conversations, made up of young people, old people, and everyone in between. These conversations should be made up of people in different places and of different mindsets. I know it will be messy, I know it will be hard, but I think it is the best place to start.

The goals of such conversations need to be twofold: listening and then speaking. Every person must be heard and understood. Only after people understand each other can we move forward.

If you have other ideas, I would love to hear them. If you disagree, I would love to hear why.

So with that, I offer the church peace, discernment, and wisdom.