{"id":7698,"date":"2011-10-09T19:18:29","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T23:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=7698"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:36:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:36:54","slug":"you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/","title":{"rendered":""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church — UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service <\/a><\/strong> and the Barna Group:<\/p>\n

Why do young Christians leave the church?<\/p>\n

New research by the Barna Group finds they view churches as judgmental, overprotective, exclusive and unfriendly towards doubters. They also consider congregations antagonistic to science and say their Christian experience has been shallow.<\/p>\n

The findings, the result of a five-year study, are featured in \u201cYou Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith,\u201d a new book by Barna president David Kinnaman. The project included a study of 1,296 young adults who were current or former churchgoers.<\/p>\n

Researchers found that almost three out of five young Christians (59 percent) leave church life either permanently or for an extended period of time after age 15.<\/p>\n

One in four 18- to 29-year-olds said \u201cChristians demonize everything outside of the church.\u201d One in three said \u201cChurch is boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clashes between church expectations and youths\u2019 experience of sexuality have driven some away. One in six young Christians said they \u201chave made mistakes and feel judged in church because of them.\u201d And 40 percent of 18- to 29-year-old Catholics said their church\u2019s doctrine on sexuality and birth control is \u201cout of date.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

UPDATE: <\/strong>Marcel over at Aggie Catholics<\/strong> <\/a>has a great post on this topic, with his own insight into the issue, based on his experience.\u00a0 Check it out. <\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New research by the Barna Group finds they view churches as judgmental, overprotective, exclusive and unfriendly towards doubters. They also consider congregations antagonistic to science and say their Christian experience has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[903,960],"class_list":["post-7698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-people-in-the-pews","tag-young-people","tag-youth-ministry"],"yoast_head":"\n"You Lost Me": Why teens leave church -- UPDATED<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church -- UPDATED\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-09T23:18:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T21:36:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/10\/young-woman-praying-in-church.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/\",\"name\":\""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church -- UPDATED\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-09T23:18:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T21:36:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church — UPDATED\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church -- UPDATED","description":"Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church -- UPDATED","og_description":"Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2011-10-09T23:18:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T21:36:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/files\/2011\/10\/young-woman-praying-in-church.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/","name":""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church -- UPDATED","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-09T23:18:29+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T21:36:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"Some sobering food for thought on a Sunday night, courtesy Religion News Service and the Barna Group: Why do young Christians leave the church? New","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/10\/you-lost-me-why-teens-leave-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":""You Lost Me": Why teens leave church — UPDATED"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}