Young Adult Attendance Decreasing: Is A Comeback Possible?

[tjrevelations]

Those are some really good insights dragonfox.

I've seen some of the children's classes at a few churches and it's often a very loud, chaotic, unruly situation. It's really tough to get the kids to focus and I can see how it could be stressful for the instructors to maintain control.

Young adult couples do attend my current church, but they are generally not regular attendees.

I can certainly understand how churches might struggle to integrate young singles. From what I understand, at my previous church, those participating, especially the men, couldn't really focus on the message and were too focused on trying to find dates.

The corona scare threw a huge wrench into the works, but you could see the cracks emerging well before then.

I want to stay optimistic but ongoing corona propaganda, technology addiction, and the "unusualness" of attending church among young adults likely mean things have changed fundamentally.

 

[bèlla]

The digital economy and infrastructure is designed to appeal to millennials and Gen Z and the latter is the target. You’ll see a large increase in virtual gatherings and events.

In person bible studies are being replaced by apps and online small groups. You can find similar options for prayer, ministry, and accountability.

Women are very involved. I know several leading the charge who teach and instruct others desiring to follow suit. It’s a small group on steroids.

There’s no going back.

 

[lismore]

One antidote I think is this:

1 Timothy 5:1-2 Treating people of different ages as family

The church is a family, different ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, one family together.

God Bless

 

[hedrick]

It doesn't apply to this one, but many formerly very active and popular forums have declined very sharply in usage in the past 5 to 10 years.

Instead, you have platforms like twitter and instagram and alas, tik tok. Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and even complete sentence or even phrases are being replaced by emoji's.

Tech companies push these trends relentlessly or just follow the curve sometimes but in every case they are destroying IRL communities everywhere.

It does affect this one. The forums for church groups are falling into disuse or have only a couple of posters. CF is turning into a political forum.

 

[bèlla]

It does affect this one. The forums for church groups are falling into disuse or have only a couple of posters. CF is turning into a political forum.

You’re correct. The site lost a lot of members when Facebook grew in popularity. A former moderator acknowledged it.

 

[angelsaroundme]

I assume the connection between a decline in marriage and a decline in adults attending church is a huge factor. Politics is another major one. The more political the world gets, the more preachers feel the need to respond, and whichever side they land on will alienate some. I just saw on Facebook a person I went to a Christian school with reposting a religiously contextualized political statement.

 

[lismore]

It does affect this one. The forums for church groups are falling into disuse or have only a couple of posters. CF is turning into a political forum.

Hello! I think maybe denominationalism is falling out of fashion, many Christians now seem to base church preferences on things like musical style, preaching style, social events, presentation over content. Commitment replaced by consumerism. Theology not so much, preaching content not so much, this will filter into online interactions too.

Politics seems to have become a hot potato, especially in the USA over the past few years as many evangelical leaders made sweeping statements, claims and prophecies in support of one presidential candidate over others. IMHO this may prove to be a mistake. Jesus said his Kingdom was not of this world.

But I think forums like this are very useful for many reasons, not least because we're speaking with Christians we wouldn't otherwise meet this side of eternity and benefiting from it. Often it's good to have our ideas challenged, rather than living in some kind of echo chamber. Iron sharpens iron. God Bless

 

[tjrevelations]

The church is still the single largest gathering place on a weekly basis in many small to mid sized cities.

With the bottom falling out of young adult church attendance, what are young adults doing? I suppose they are just diffused out into the myriad activities available in any given community on weekends.

My guess is that a lot of this activity is going on line and then once people find someone they can date longer term, they more or less function as an isolated couple without taking part in larger social circles.

 

[bèlla]

They’re spending time with friends and doing things they enjoy. Dating doesn’t change that.

They spend time together as a couple, with friends, pursuing interests, and gathering as a group.

 

[tjrevelations]

They’re spending time with friends and doing things they enjoy. Dating doesn’t change that.

They spend time together as a couple, with friends, pursuing interests, and gathering as a group.

I was referring more to what single young adults are doing in lieu of church attendance. As in, the ones who used to attend.

 

[bèlla]

I was referring more to what single young adults are doing in lieu of church attendance. As in, the ones who used to attend.

That’s what they do. The church isn’t the primary social network for most; young or old. The majority of their close relationships are outside its walls. That’s why the cessation of attendance or limited involvement doesn’t impact their connections.

 

[RDKirk]

Yes these do not hold the fear of The Lord in their being... I never thought I would hear the president of the US say we are no longer a Christian nation BUT I did -Obama-

The US was never a Christian nation. It was a nation that had a lot of Christians in it. But the character, actions, and intentions of the nation were never Christian in character, action, or intentions, any more than were the character, actions, and intentions of pagan Rome.

 

[tjrevelations]

It's a tricky balance. Trying to ignore 'political' issues can lead to concerns or accusations that the church is unresponsive to important issues of the day. Addressing them explicitly can also be a challenge. For instance, we had a guest pastor recently who was parroting mainstream media silliness about Russia and the Ukraine. It was kind of pointless and off topic.

The lead and assistant pastors are clearly struggling with how to address some of the talking points in the news, especially the corona paranoia. They acknowledge their struggles however so I can at least appreciate that. The former church's lead pastor was clearly being duplicitous in many ways regarding the paranoia almost to a laughable degree. He would give hints though that he considered it all a silly scam but could not bring himself to say so openly.

This is getting far adrift from the original topic however: young adult church attendance. I don't know if or when young adult participation will rebound. I have heard that young adults have fled the local area over the past 2 years in large numbers and that's something I can believe based strictly on foot traffic in most parts of the community.

 

[RDKirk]

Years before covid, our pastor was already making a dramatic move to be relevant to young and single people. The pastor had a teaching that for many people, the single life was the preferred life. He has an entire line of teaching of Christian singlehood as "the preferred life." That's one of the major things that attracted me to the congregation.

Years before covid, the pastor was also already making maximum use of the Internet as an outreach platform.

When covid hit, the congregation was prepared to pivot to online services. The technical staffs were already in place. The equipment was already in place. The YouTube channel and Facebook groups were already there. There was already even a church Roku channel. The major shift was merely going to live services online rather than previously recorded serviced online...a difference of proportion, not kind.

There has been a benefit of enlarging the Internet outreach, which had been essentially local before to those who knew of the congregation locally, but is global now. And those global members are contributing members.

As covid restrictions have gradually lifted, the congregation had to actively restrict the numbers of people who have wanted to return to the pews. We had to apply online for a pass so that social distancing rules could be followed...and people were actually turned away or had to do "parking lot" attendance (which was never hampered in Texas). But the point is: The number of people eager to return to the pews had not diminished.

Nor do I see a diminishment of generation Z or Millenials since covid. Before the covid lockdown, the youth ministry was literally bursting at the seams. The youth building could not hold them all on Sunday morning. During the covid lockdown, the church build a huge new youth building--two stories, classrooms galore, a gymnasium, a cafeteria, a new auditorium twice as large...and it's already just as crowded on Sunday morning.

 

[tjrevelations]

I have been attending the second service but far fewer people attend. The earlier service is the "main" service. There are more single young adults (not many and a little cliquey). Also, it's clear the small groups are a major focus on church socializing and activity so it's good to be a part of that, too.

I think I'll switch it up next time.

 

[enoob57]

The US was never a Christian nation. It was a nation that had a lot of Christians in it. But the character, actions, and intentions of the nation were never Christian in character, action, or intentions, any more than were the character, actions, and intentions of pagan Rome.

yeah that is why we still have in God we trust on our currency... it is not about numbers but how our country was designed on Biblical principles from the very beginning! When the christian people let God be kicked out of our schools and the lie of evolution take it's place sodom started taking root in the land...

 

[RDKirk]

yeah that is why we still have in God we trust on our currency... in not about numbers but how our country was designed on Biblical principles from the very beginning! When the christian people let God be kicked out of our schools and the lie of evolution take it's place sodom started taking root in the land...

The US did not have "In God We Trust" on coins or currency until gradually after the latter 1800s, so if that is the evidence, it certainly didn't happen "from the beginning."

 

[DragonFox91]

I think it's self-defeating throwing hands-up in the air & saying 'churches are a thing of the past because times change'. There's always been other social circles. There's always been distractions. The church has lost the youth, folks. Millennials & younger who attend church (or even participate in online church-like activities) are a unicorn. If the youth flat-out don't have the desire to go to church, what is ruling their lives?

 

[DragonFox91]

The church is still the single largest gathering place on a weekly basis in many small to mid sized cities.

With the bottom falling out of young adult church attendance, what are young adults doing? I suppose they are just diffused out into the myriad activities available in any given community on weekends.

My guess is that a lot of this activity is going on line and then once people find someone they can date longer term, they more or less function as an isolated couple without taking part in larger social circles.

Yes they are online dating. Yes, it's a myriad of activities the youth are doing instead. No, young couples do the myriad of activities as well.

 

[tjrevelations]

I think it's self-defeating throwing hands-up in the air & saying 'churches are a thing of the past because times change'. There's always been other social circles. There's always been distractions. The church has lost the youth, folks. Millennials & younger who attend church (or even participate in online church-like activities) are a unicorn. If the youth flat-out don't have the desire to go to church, what is ruling their lives?

It seems like churches can hang onto the youth until middle school. From high school onward, there is a huge drop-off. Clearly, academic pressures and extracurriculars take up a huge amount of time.

College aged onward has been almost completely lost, for now. They have been subject to a lot of propaganda and many/most are still complying with the strangest and strictest of "measures" on their campuses.

Even at my current church, one of the few young adult get togethers "required" masks on a cold evening outdoors, placed all chairs at least six feet apart, discouraged handshaking, it was so pathetic. No wonder so many were alienated!

There are still some states left which respect freedom, but I've lost so much respect for so many churches in the past two years, I've never seen such capitulation to stupidity.