Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Why They Go
Christian Post carries as story on why young people leave church. Really it is a battle of competing studies.
I am struck by the fact that there are limits to what a tool like these studies can accomplish. Short multiple choice answers to deep, complex and very personal questions are a bit of a blunt instrument. For example, young people leaving church may have nothing to do with church at all and everything to do with parents. How do you "correct" a study for that? - no mention.
But if you read all the data and looks for simple trends, it seems obvious to me. Kids are entertained, kids are kept busy, kids are sent to camp, kids are taught lessons, but they are NOT FORMED. Processed like cars on an assembly line the are never formed into people who have Christ at their soul.
They leave church because they know that either 1) there is a lot more to this Christian thing than they're getting, or 2) the whole thing is a self-perpetuating lie.
The answer to that cannot be found in a study or a programmed into a group. The answer to that is love, expressed often and in a deeply personal fashion.
I am struck by the fact that there are limits to what a tool like these studies can accomplish. Short multiple choice answers to deep, complex and very personal questions are a bit of a blunt instrument. For example, young people leaving church may have nothing to do with church at all and everything to do with parents. How do you "correct" a study for that? - no mention.
But if you read all the data and looks for simple trends, it seems obvious to me. Kids are entertained, kids are kept busy, kids are sent to camp, kids are taught lessons, but they are NOT FORMED. Processed like cars on an assembly line the are never formed into people who have Christ at their soul.
They leave church because they know that either 1) there is a lot more to this Christian thing than they're getting, or 2) the whole thing is a self-perpetuating lie.
The answer to that cannot be found in a study or a programmed into a group. The answer to that is love, expressed often and in a deeply personal fashion.
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