Dechurching

“After their sweet sixteenth birthday 73% of eventual church dropouts attend regularly, compared to 79% of those who stayed in church. By 17, the divide grows (64% of dropouts are attending versus 78% on non-dropouts). At 18, less than half of those who drop out are regularly attending (48%)” - Lifeway

“I started to wonder whether religion itself—or at least the kind of Christianity that showed up in the slogans all around me—might really be about something else: southern culture or politics. If so, I thought, that would mean that Jesus is not the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but a means to an end.

“One of the trends I’ve noticed when it comes to matters of faith deconstruction is that many of those who talk about their deconstructions have deconstructed from the worst parts of Christian subculture, and rightfully so.” - LifeWay

“When research looks beyond affiliation, the move away from religious institutions becomes more nuanced.” - C.Today

“According to Pew Research, four in ten Americans between the ages of 23 and 38 now say they are religiously unaffiliated. This is the biggest drop in religiosity between generations ever recorded.” - BreakPoint

“ ‘What do we do about our kids?’ The group of parents sat together in my office, wiping their eyes….they weren’t talking about 16-year-olds drinking and partying. They were talking about youth church attendance.

“The problem with Millennials dropping their church affiliation began with their parents, with most drop-outs being seldom taken to church as children.

“Traditional churches tend to hold onto their attendance numbers better than most. Young adults in search of a moral foundation want theological consistency, and they’re drifting toward churches that can offer both.” - Washington Examiner

New Barna Research: “Forty-seven percent of respondents with some connection to Christianity say they feel the Church ‘cannot answer their questions’ or spiritual doubts. According to the study, one in three young adults (32 percent) said ‘hypocrisy of religious people’ causes them to doubt things of a spiritual dimension.