Tuesday, 20 September 2011
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Why College Students Leave Church
By David MillerStudy found on TheWashingtonPost.com about why college students are leaving church. This is just the start of the conversation. Love to hear what other ministries are doing out there with this information.
PASADENA, Calif. — Millions of college freshmen are overwhelmed right now trying to make new friends, adjusting to more rigorous school work and learning to live away from home. Whether they also find time for church during their first two weeks on campus will set the mold for the rest of their college years, according to new research.
These findings come from a six-year study of approximately 500 Christian youth group members, conducted by Fuller Theological Seminary’s Fuller Youth Institute in Pasadena, Calif.The study’s results will be released Sept. 17 in “Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids.” The book examines why, according to a 2006 report by Christian research firm Barna Group, 61 percent of 20-somethings who regularly attended church as teenagers later left the pews.
The study implies that parents and church leaders need to do a better job preparing high school seniors to maintain their faith.
Only one out of every seven students surveyed said they were well equipped for college, and less than 50 percent of seniors with doubts talked about them with others, said Kara Powell, executive director at Fuller Youth Institute, and co-author of “Sticky Faith.”
by Piet Levy (Religion News Service)
Read more HERE
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About the Author
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- From: davidmiller
- Name: davidmiller
- Location: Long Beach, California, United States
- About Me: Married to my best friend (@ashleywmiller). Student Ministries Pastor for @Parkcrest Christian Church. Learning how to better love Jesus and love people. http://www.davidmillerblog.com He’s passionate about inspiring The Church to stand up and become an influencing force in our culture.
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Comments (38)
I'd go to church, but Sunday is the only day I can generally sleep in. I need my rest sometimes.
I stopped going to my old youth group in college because it was really hard for me to fit in. My family background, my income, my style of worship, my interests, and my major were different from those of the majority of the people I met. I felt as though each group welcomed me at first, but forgot about me later. I really wanted to be part of the group, but there wasn't an awful lot of interest in a poor engineer who watches anime.
For me, at least, that's why I stopped going. I didn't feel like I was really accepted.
Because they didn't get saved when they were going to church, so they no longer see a purpose for the church when they are in college.
I continue to worship and attend church as an undergraduate. However, I know many people who stopped once they started college. As religion is a very personal part of a person, I have never felt comfortable asking why. As for myself, the Church is my safe haven away from the chaoticness of my undergrad obligations.
@MagisterTom@xanga - That's not necessarily true. I pray and remain religious in my own way. Just because I don't have time to church doesn't mean that I don't believe in God.
@anchoredreams@xanga - I didn't say they don't believe in God. I said they didn't get saved. They've never been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and repented of sin and trusted in Jesus.
I'm not saying this is the case with you, I hope it isn't. But, I think in general this is the biggest cause. Instead they've been lead to believe that being Christian means to be nice, to be good, and to pray, which is far from the truth.
Maybe church attendance dropped because parents were forcing them to go to church and now there is no parental force involved.
We should offer more opportunities for non-religious people to enjoy the benefits of church in the absence of faith.
It seems obvious that once out of the clutches of adults who have dominated their thought development since birth, adolescents grow more independent minded. It would appear to be the nature state, for the young to rebel to some extent.
@snarkius@xanga - That's how it was for me. My parents made me go to church until I finished high school, and I never particularly liked it. So once I was 18 and on my own, I realized I didn't have to anymore. And I wanted to try out other belief systems, or just being without a belief system for awhile. I guess I never really felt like I had a choice in what to believe, and it was so nice finally having that choice.
Yes and yes, going to a church where you have little or no social connection is very hard and in addition to all the other stress involved in transitioning to a new environment trying to become part of a new church community in some meaningful way can be exasperating. Add to that a fair number of college freshman probably don't have vehicles which depending on the circumstances where they go to school could greatly limit their ability to be part of a spiritual community. I suppose choice and social pressure also play a role but I don't believe someone would go to church regularly through out high school if they didn't feel any spiritual connection
@EccentricSiren@xanga - That's exactly how it was for me.
@brokenleaf@xanga - What are the benefits of church in the absence of faith?
Many Universities have an anti-Christian bias, but there's good news at UW Madison where courts are forcing the University to treat a Catholic Student group fairly, as other campus groups are treated. If you come to my site, you can read more on the story, and how the UW has to pay them $500,000.
This shift, if it goes national, could boost student attendance at Church. And it shows that the legal system sees religion as real even if many professors are blind to this fact.
I loved my faith, but regardless, Freshman year I stopped going to Mass every week. I guess the people at Church were just different and I wanted to sleep in. After the first semester I realized how cranky, impatient, and just plain mean I was becoming, and I associated it with my deteriorating relationship with Christ. I started going again, then at the end of my Sophomore year I met someone who was seriously against my faith. It made me search for some answers, and for the first time, really "own" my faith. I better understood what I believed in and knew how to better stand up for it. Then by Senior year I was going to Mass almost daily and became an assistant Religious Ed teacher.
I think faith, and acts of faith (such as going to Church) is something people need to figure out and discover for themselves. People go into college meeting people of different beliefs, and maybe even get challenged in some of their classes to second guess their religion. If they don't dig deeper, if they don't look for answers (in their own faith or in other faiths) they have the potential to drop spirituality completely. For me, my college experience strengthen my faith and I even brought people to Church with me who either no longer go, stopped going, or never went.
The only way I was "better prepared" for college was that my mom is a strong believer (in a firm but not forcing way), I was involved in religious formation in HS, and I guess it was never a matter of faith as it was laziness.
@democrab@xanga - I had the same experience (I didn't really fit in), but I stuck with it for about two and a half years. In the end, I was so turned off of being involved in any church group I stopped going to church regularly for several years and still feel put off today.
As a part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, we try to get other students involved within the first four weeks of classes, before they get set in a schedule, then we try to plug them into a local church as well. During and after that, we seek others out who perhaps don't know Christ or are still not plugged in, then we love on 'em...
I left waaay before college.
Most leave church because they were never regenerated believers to begin with. "They went out from us because they were not of us" 1 John 2:19
@MagisterTom@xanga - I was wondering the same thing!
I stopped going to church because the campus church loved to remind me that I would go to hell for not washing my dishes, not liking my roommate's dog, and having a job. I guess I'm going no matter what.
Enough with the stupid cop-outs already.
I go to a group every wednesday and a littler group on thursdays. and I go to my home church on sundays. I'd say it's increased my chances of going and meeting other Christians...
Though I do have this urge to just have a vehicle and go there on my own accord. Because I love church but I don't always feel like I'm able to actively choose it.The issue, which most parents and churches don't want to accept, is that the majority of those students never really believed it to begin with. Church was something that their parents forced them to do and after they're not longer under their parents control, they stop going. That's true of 95% of the people I know who stopped going to church after they graduated high school and the other 5% stopped because they had other stuff going on during the week.
I've actually wondered a lot about this topic. I was really involved in my home church when I was in high school, and it was during my junior and senior year that many of my friends left. And these people were people I thought were really rooted in God's word. I think it made me feel very discouraged and very disconnected with my church. I'm currently a senior in high school, and it took me about two years to finally find a fellowship that made me feel comfortable. I used to come back home and hear "so did you find a fellowship?" and have to say no, whereas my peers found where they fit in right away and would become so involved with ministry that I felt jealous.
And seeing many of my friends fall away from Christ made me put God in the backseat. I really wish my home church would acknowledge this, but sadly our group just gets smaller and smaller. I don't even feel comfortable there anymore. :/