Young Creatives Are Fleeing Evangelicalism

The Barna Group* has a new study out, and it shows that the future is bleak for the evangelical church in America. That’s because young, creative evangelicals are leaving the church in droves:

The results of a five-year study of the Millennial Generation—people born between 1982 and 1993—are in. Thanks to the Barna Group, a 28-year-old, California-based, Christian research firm, we now know that conservative evangelical churches are losing formerly–affiliated “young creatives:” Actors, artists, biologists, designers, mathematicians, medical students, musicians, and writers.

Some leave because they oppose the church’s doctrinal stance. Others are turned off by its hostility to science, and still others reject the limitations placed on permissible sexual activity. The report cites the tension felt by young adults who find it difficult—if not impossible—to remain “sexually pure,” especially since most heterosexuals don’t marry until their mid-to-late twenties. [READ THE REST]

This comes as no surprise. As I wrote last week, a significant impetus for the birth of the emergent church movement was to find solidarity with cultural creatives. At least at Solomon’s Porch, we’ve been successful at that.

HT: Rollie

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*I am always suspicious of research from the Barna Group. George Barna is not a neutral, disinterested pollster. He is an activist partisan who has written many books; he’s advocated for the demise of traditional churches and the rise of house churches; and he recently endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. He is the FOX News of polling; that doesn’t mean that he’s not accurate, it just means that he’s not neutral.