Let's do a survey...
1. How large is your church?
2. How many 20 somethings do you have attending "church" regularly?
3. What happens to your children and youth when they graduate from high school with reference the your church?
posted by Bob Carder @ 10:30 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
1. Sunday worship attendance is 160+ men, women, children, and chia pets.
2. Probably around 18-20 Twentysomethings. We had several more, but have launchd them into a disciplemaking movement among college students and others in that age group.
3. In the past, we've seen some who have drifted away after high school (many move out of the city or out of state to attend college). Others did not know where they "fit". (Most of our small groups were/are intergenerational, and this age group did not flock to those gatherings!) We've taken steps to provide a small group setting that would allow them to stay tied in. This was missing until a couple of years ago, and is sort of sputtering right now. There seems to be a big difference between the married 20's and those still free agent status.
Leadership does not see this just as a youth fallout problem to be addressed. We think that a true revival/reformation of biblical Christianity in the USA may take place not with we more mature types, but within the youth of today... teens and twenties. We are trying to lay a foundation... Keeping with that, we were excited to be able to send ou a few key young people with their merry band of disciples in a disciplemaking movement/non-"church" looking church plant.
1. Sunday attendance fluctuates between 500 & 600.
2. Probably about 30% of attendance
3. An unusually high number leave for the mission field. Some marry and continue on in the life of the church. Some move away for college, career, or the military. Some just disappear.
1. 40-50
2. 40-50
i used to talk about wanting to start a national ministry to help churches reach post-high young adults and keep them in church through/after college.
1. About 120
2. About 80%
3. Not sure.
Why are you asking?
I'm try to get the church to admit there is a problem. So far it looks like there is no problem from your comments. However, don't be surprised if people do not share the negative truth.
Hey Bob.
I have no problem talking about the negatives. Actually, I'm probably guilty of focusing too much on the negatives and not celebrating the positives.
The one negative I can think of amongst our 20-somethings is that we don't seem to be doing a good job of creating missional pathways for them here at home. I think that's why so many of them leave for the overseas mission-field because, perhaps, we have not battled effectively against the lie that the only way to be missional is to do missions among the heathen in lands outside of the empire.
We're addressing this issue now with some pretty exciting organic stuff on the horizon locally.
I love the thoughts on developing missional pathways here at home. We need to expand on that discussion together sometime.
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