What keeps them in the pews?
TORONTO, ON—During the course of 16 summers at Ontario Pioneer Camp, John Bowen has discipled more than 1,200 young Christian leaders. Looking back, he often wondered what happened to their faith. So he asked.
"As I had a sabbatical coming up, I thought maybe I could do some research," says Bowen, director of the Institute of Evangelism at Wycliffe College. "As the results came in, it became clear that this stuff would be interesting for all who wonder, 'What will become of our Christian young people in 10 or 20 years?'"
Bowen has now published the results of his research in a new book entitled Growing Up Christian: Why Young People Stay in Church, Leave Church and (Sometimes) Come Back to Church.
The book takes an in-depth and brutally honest look at the reasons 333 people in their 20s and 30s gave for why they either stayed in church, switched churches or left church altogether.
What he found surprised him. "I'm slightly embarrassed to say I was surprised to find the main factor that was keeping people in their faith was their actual relationship with God," Bowen says. Friends and mentors tied for the second reason people gave for keeping the faith.
Bowen says he came away from the research with the realization that one of the best investments church leaders can make in the long term spiritual health of young people is to help them learn personal spiritual disciplines for their own faith journey.
"I say in the book that it's good to teach kids about the dangers of sex and alcohol," Bowen says, "but that's not going to be enough to help someone maintain a healthy Christian faith for the rest of their lives. The question should be, 'Are we teaching them how to know God in an intimate way that will sustain them long-term?'"
While 75 per cent of those interviewed still considered themselves Christian and were actively involved in church life, the second highest percentage, 17 per cent, were Christians who had given up on church altogether.
"I think this category is an unstable one," Bowen says. "I'm glad that they still consider themselves Christians, but I am concerned because the Christian life is not a private individual endeavour; it is a social thing. So I do wonder how long someone can maintain a private Christian faith without relating to other Christians.
Bowen also says the proportion of respondents who have been burned or disillusioned by church "frighteningly high."
"I am very sad when people who were bright, passionate, joyful Christians turn away from the faith. How could I not be? I am even more saddened when it is because of the failures of the Church, the very Church that was supposed to nurture them.
"The plea I hear from young people is let the Church be the Church. The things that they are asking the Church to be are not rocket science. They are not inappropriate in saying that churches should be places where truth is pursued, where there is passion around justice, where people act out what they say they believe."
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