Generations

“Disaffected young evangelicals and those who left the church describe an out-of-touch institution not in line with their political beliefs, a scholar found” - RNS

“The fact that there is a ‘generation gap’ within biblical fundamentalism should not be a surprise to anyone. This is what generations do: gap. The main issue is to determine the best way to bridge the gap. Humility must be exhibited by both the ‘younger’ as well as the ‘older’ ” - P&D

“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.

“Establishing a foundation in apologetics early may also help guard against the church drift experienced by many young adults who grow up in church. In a 2017 study, LifeWay Research found that young adults who drop out of church are less likely to say, ‘The student ministry taught me how to defend my Christian faith’ ” - BPNews

“In a report released Thursday, Pew found that 80% of evangelicals surveyed had a teenage child who shared their religious identification; 81% of Catholic respondents reported the same. However, mainline Protestant respondents … 55%.” - C.Post

“All that said, teens appear to be very critical of those with strong traditional religious beliefs, with about half of them thinking they are too intolerant of others.” - Church Leaders

“…church leaders recognize they are losing coming generations and that the church is not impacting the culture as it used to. So they think more music and performance will attract these younger generations back to church.” - Ken Ham

“Larger churches will have a more difficult time staying larger. At least, that is my postulate according to our early research. And to be clear, I am defining a larger church by the size of its largest worship service, not by its total attendance.” - Thom Rainer