Note from the Pastor, March 31, 2013

Hemorrhaging Faith - Part 1

  At Hope Fellowship we are blessed to have many teens and young adults as active and regular participants in church life. I’m excited about and grateful for that! I love hearing young people say “we’ve got a great church!” That being said, it is likely that you are aware of the fact that within Christian churches throughout Canada teens and young adults are dropping out of church life at a very significant rate. Within mainline Protestant churches the number is around 80% and for evangelical Protestant churches the number is around 50%.
  Hemorrhaging Faith: Why and When Canadian Young Adults Are Leaving, Staying and Returning to the Church is the result of a study sponsored by Youth for Christ, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. This very professional and thorough analysis is based on the results of polls administered to young adults by Angus Reid Public Opinion. In this and the next issue of the Hope Fellowship Sun, I hope to summarize some of the main findings and glean from the advice in the study as we strive to bring our teens and young adults into a “living relationship with Jesus Christ.”
  The Canadian cultural context in which young people grow up provides a powerful and challenging landscape. Our post modern society is cynical and skeptical of truth. Truth is considered to be relative and individually determined. Religion is often characterized as “organized coercion,” particularly when churches make restrictive demands of their members. The years between 18 and 29 are called the stage of “emerging adulthood” -- a time period of few rules when young adults engage in self exploration and construct their own identity. Canadian young adults “believe that religion should support and help the individual: religion is therapeutic.” Since religion exists to support individuals, there is no need for a single and coherent package of beliefs and lifestyle. Religion is viewed as unnecessarily restrictive. These emerging adults are bombarded with new information and technologies, live under great deal of time pressure, and often go through many significant transitions in their lives.
  When are those who grow up in the church leaving? Whereas previously “dropping out” of church occurred after high school, the numbers are now highest during the teen years, a highly stressful time for many teens. Males are more likely than females to quit attending church. Males are also more likely to reject the faith, while females are more likely to become “fence sitters or wanderers.” Many teens and young adults just slowly wander away. Faith life is placed on hold.
  Why are those who grow up in the church leaving? While reasons given by the participants in the study are varied and challenging to sort out, they include the following:

• They did not experience authentic and caring role models. 
• They described the faith experience within their families as superficial. 
• Many did not experience a sense of belonging and community in their churches. 
• Their church experience included criticism and judgment. 
• They were never fully engaged in the life of the church, but lived church life on the fringes. 
• They did not experience the love of God and answered prayer. 
• Church was not a place where their tough questions of life were faced. 

  At Hope Fellowship we experience a great deal of blessing through the lives of our young people and young adults.
  In Two Weeks: Encouragement, Comfort and Challenge as we seek to bring further blessing in the life of our church.
- Fred S.