I recently asked which ones of my papers from this past semester people would enjoy, so I will start with some causes for college students leaving the church. This really is a serious problem in our culture, and I hope that all my young friends will become stronger in the Lord and stay in the church. Once we leave the church, we open the door for Satan to deceive and destroy.
I know the essay is a bit long, but bear with me!
The Growing Trend of Going
Away
He came from a Christian, home
schooling family in rural North Carolina, went to a very
conservative, family-integrated church,
and went to Bob Jones University for his first year in
college. He confessed to be a Christian
himself, but as college years wore on, he began to go to
church less frequently and began to
question the church, the Bible, and finally, God. Within ten
years of finishing high school, he was
an out-right atheist, completely denying Christ. The whole
case was no surprise to God, and sadly,
it is becoming a more familiar story in the United States.
College students are leaving the
church. According to Ham (2009),“61% of today's young adults
who were regular church attendees are
now `spiritually disengaged.' They are not actively
attending church, praying, or reading
their Bibles”(p. 24). Many “Christian” college students are
dropping out of church. The question is
not if it happens but why it happens. There are many
possible reasons for this growing trend
in America and Europe. Some may think church is
boring, others would say there are too
many hypocrites in the church, while still others are not
even Christians themselves, and finally
there are some who do not see the importance of church.
First of all, college students may
be leaving the church because church services are not
entertaining enough for them. Although
they may not outright say it, they think church is
boring. Lifeway did research for why
people leave church, and they found that 12% leave
because of a “boring service”(Ham,
2009, p. 29).They grew up going to church, but most of their
childhood years they were in Sunday
school and youth-group. When they left for college, they
realized real church was dull. They may
have a right to accuse churches of this, for it is true that
many churches are nearly dead, with
only a few older people still attending. One man wrote
of his experience at one such church,
“I am ushered into the small foyer area where around 30
chairs are set up and where I join a
handful of elderly people with their heads bowed” (Ham,
2009, p. 9).Although many churches are
still full of life, a college student may not be able to find
such a church near his or her college.
It seems that too much entertainment for children and
youth is actually a problem for young
people. As Ken Ham noted, “Sunday school is actually
more likely to be detrimental to the
spiritual and moral health of our children” (Ham, 2009, p.
38). Although good, gospel-centered
Sunday school can be a help to children, many Sunday
schools or “children's churches”
take away the true meaning of the Bible and set up young
Christians for not wanting to be in the
real service. Some may object that Sunday school can
actually be a great benefit to children
in drawing them to God. This is very probably true, but
that only further shows the fact that
every child is different, and Sunday school is definitely not
always the answer.
Another explanation for why
college students leave church is that they think there are too
many hypocrites in the church, and they
do not want to be associated with hypocrites.
Westerholm (2014) stated, “And when
the leaders are not as perfect as they appear, worshipers
(especially the young) leave the church
devastated” (par. 5). Possibly these young people had
dads as elders or deacons, and they saw
the gritty workings of the church. They saw the real
lifestyles of people who acted very
spiritual in church but were worldly during the week. The
young man in the opening story of the
essay was among this group of church-leavers. His father
was an elder of their church, and he
saw things that made him disgusted with not just those he
would call “hypocrites,” but the
whole church in general. He, like many others, had resentment
toward the church because of growing-up
experiences. The sad thing is that the accusation is
quite true. The church is full of
people trying to look good and make a name for themselves, but
they do not truly love God. Many people
will go to church on Sunday, but the rest of the week,
they live worldly: drunk at the bar
Saturday night, praying at church Sunday morning. However,
hypocrisy can show up much more slyly,
such as gossiping (which so many Christians are guilty
of), complaining, being self-centered,
telling crude jokes, and using bad language. Of course,
some will bring up the fact that not
all church members are hypocrites. True, not all church
people are hypocrites, but the fact
that there are some at all can be reason for a young adult to be
disgusted with church in general and
leave. It only takes one rotten orange to spoil the whole
batch.
The third and possibly biggest
reason that “Christian” college students leave the church is
that they are not really true
Christians themselves. As author of Growing Up Christian, Karl
Graustein (2005) put it, “Because we
do the things Christians do and we are surrounded by
Christians, we tend to assume we are
Christians, too. But just as standing in a wheat field doesn't
make someone wheat, being raised in a
Christian environment doesn't make someone a
Christian” (p. 33). In the same way,
many college students grew up in the church, but they never
actually surrendered their own lives to
Christ. Very probably, they were living as hypocrites
themselves. Of course, only God can
know the heart, but Christians should be able to see the
fruit of others who call themselves
Christians, and when no fruit or “evidences of grace” are
noticeable, one will wonder if that
person is truly saved. Especially when one actually calls
himself an atheist (as in the opening
story), it seems that he or she was never a Christian. Some
may argue that people still go to
church even when they are not Christians. While this may be
true, many will leave when they are
away from their parents. When one is not truly regenerated,
he or she will not be interested enough
to stay in church for very long.
The fourth and final reason is
also perhaps the most startling. Some college students are
leaving the church because they do not
see the importance of it. David Kinnaman (2011) writes
of one young woman, “She told me, `I
never lost faith in Christ but I have lost faith in the
church'” (p. 26). Like many other
young Christians, this woman still confessed to be a Christian,
but she seemed to be sickened with the
church for whatever reason. The fact is, the church has
indeed become very polluted. This
pollution can be seen in the hypocrisy already discussed,
focusing on a larger congregation
instead of the spiritual growth of the members, and a focus on
fun to attract the unsaved. There have
even been pastors who were not Christians themselves.
Young Christians may think that they
can live more righteous lives just staying away from the
church. They have concluded that church
is not important to their faith, especially if it is so
corrupt. What these Christians are
forgetting is that man did not institute the church, God did.
While it may be true that it is not a
good reason to leave the church (as some may object), it is
nonetheless a real reason, and it
should make the church consider how they are representing
the body of Christ.
Many young people are leaving the
church for various reasons including church services
being boring, false believers in the
church, not having a saving faith themselves, and not seeing
the importance of church. If people do
not realize these problems in the church, there will likely
become even a worse issue in years to
come. As David Kinnaman (2011) said, “The church is
not adequately preparing the next
generation to follow Christ faithfully in a rapidly changing
culture” (p. 21). If, however, the
church addresses these reasons for why people leave and begins
to make changes in the way she does
things, the next generation could be a turn-around of the
present trend. That one young man may
have left , but there is hope that the next will stay.
References
Graustein, K. (2005). Growing up
Christian. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing Company.
Ham, K. (2009). Already gone. Green
Forest, AZ: Master Books. [Google].
Kinnaman, D. (2011). You lost me.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. [Google].
Westerholm, M. (2014, April 6). Serving
appetizers: Worship services that keep their promises.
Desiring God. Retrieved
from http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/serving-appetizers-
worship-services-that-keep-their-promises
This is an old church we drove by in Pennsylvania.
Elisabeth
