Six Reasons Young People Leave Church

A new book by David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith, explores Barna Research findings about young Christians abandoning church. The project included eight national studies comprised of interviews with teens, young adults, parents, youth pastors, and senior pastors. It focused on people who attended church regularly during their teen years but disconnected after age 15. The research uncovered six themes why nearly three out of five young Christians (59%) disconnect from church life after age 15, either permanently or for an extended period: · Churches seem overprotective. · Teens’ and twentysomethings’ experience of Christianity is shallow. · Churches seem antagonistic to science. · Young Christians’ church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental. · They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity. · The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt.