Everybody you know should know these stats
If this doesn’t get you worked up and ready for action, I don’t know what will.
- 88% of children raised in Christian families leave church at the age of 18, never to return (SBC).
- A majority of adults no longer consider Christianity America’s default faith (Barna).
- 64% of decisions for Christ are made before the age of 18, and 77% are made before the age of 21 (Barna).
- An estimated 4% of the “bridger” generation, or Gen Y, will be Bible-believing Christians when they reach adulthood. Their grandparents’ generation: 65%. Their parents’ generation: 35%. (Bridger Generation by Thom S. Rainer).
Four percent. Four percent!!
We can’t sit back and watch this generation be stolen out of our own churches and homes. We must take action, and we must do it now, before they reach the pivotal age of 18 and make decisions about what they believe that will last for the rest of their life.
If you know anybody that needs to hear this, please pass it on. This is bigger than any of us alone, and by God’s grace, we all need to work together and rally around our young people–starting today.
These statistics are a wake up call that we can use to make people aware of the crisis that is already all around us. Let them inspire us to prayer, and to building deep, personal, and meaningful relationships with students.
Nathaniel Dame is a youth pastor coach and youth culture expert. His passion is to equip youth pastors to be the leaders that God has called them to be, and to have a deep, lasting impact on their students. He is the founder of Called to Youth Ministry and blogs at Effective Youth Ministry.
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Hey God bless you i see that this blog was long time ago… but i agree !! there is lots of work to do… i am working with a group of youth and its getting difficult becuase many are turning to the world and no taking things seriously… do you guys have any ideas???
You sure are right Zack!!! I’m praying for great things.
Interesting stats. The Church has it’s work cut out for it in the up-coming. It’ll be exciting to see how God will work in America in the coming years.
Well, then they’re not worth our time. But what grabs my attention here is that multiple studies are pointing in the same direction: Fewer and fewer people in America, particularly young people, have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
I sure hope things have changed in the last few years since the Bridger Generation book. Have you seen anything more recent?
But what if the stats aren’t true?
On the foundation I definitely agree with you. Our focus needs to be scripture and the call of Christ.
But I also think it’s important to realize the reality of what we’re dealing with. We are in the midst of a crisis of beliefs with our young people. They’re falling away from the truth of scripture and the reality of Jesus’ love–or maybe many of them never even knew God’s love, even after growing up in church and Christian homes. I’ve seen it many times with my own eyes, and to me the stats just confirm it’s a big trend, not just isolated incidents.
My prayer is that stats like these would draw us back to our own walk with God, and also draw us further into meaningful discipleship relationships with students. Someone else also mentioned this recently, and I wonder if I should have emphasized that more in the post. Thanks for bringing it up.
Dude, I love your heart. I think you’re dead on that we need to be very serious about reaching kids today.
My caution is your use of these soundbyte stats. A lot of the research there is pretty old. (5 years or older) Rainers book was originally published in 1997!
I think my caution is really about using stats as a motivator at all. I think it’s good to see where we could improve. But I want people to be motivated by Scripture to reach this amazing generation of students. They are the most activist and educated generation in the history of the world.
They will change our world, I think it’s our role to step into their lives and encourage them to make their cause Christ. Let’s end global poverty, lets end human trafficking, lets compels them to seek justice… but do it in Jesus’ name.
Truth is important. Stats really don’t mean jack.