We’ve all read the numbers. We all get a little panicky when we think about how many students are walking away from church. If the numbers are true, we’re facing a very serious problem because what we’re doing as parents and youth workers is not working. We must grapple with one very difficult question: why are students walking away from church after high school?
Maybe I’m over simplifying the issue but I think the answer is very easy. Students aren’t walking away from church. It’s not that the statistics are wrong. Barna and Fuller have their numbers right. That isn’t it at all. And yet, I believe that students aren’t walking away from church. They never belonged to church in the first place. They’re walking away from something else entirely.
WHAT IS CHURCH?
What is church? That’s a really good question. Personally, I think it’s best to define church by what I read in the New Testament. Church is the Jesus community. It’s a people bonded together by the presence, love and mission of Jesus.
The church is marked by the presence of Jesus. There is something to be experienced in the church that cannot be experienced anywhere else. The experience is different because Jesus is Immanuel. The presence of God is with us. Lives are being transformed. Light is shining into darkness. Life is breathed into death. Hope is breaking forth in the midst of tragedy.
The church is defined by love. The Jesus community shocked the world and overthrew an empire with love. The Jesus community transformed the world in a few short centuries through inclusion, radical service, and care for the oppressed and forgotten. Where the Gospel is preached and lived the world can never be the same.
The church is defined by the mission of Jesus. The church is inviting people to follow Jesus. It’s not asking people to join a club. It’s not trying to fill seats in a building. It’s inviting people to follow the most compelling person who ever walked the soil of this planet. The church is inviting people into the restoration of the world through the Gospel of Jesus.
WHAT ARE STUDENTS WALKING AWAY FROM?
This is the church. Students aren’t walking away from this. People don’t walk away from the church. It is far too magnetic. The true church—defined by the presence, love and mission of Jesus is incredibly compelling. It transforms lives, communities, cultures and nations. Our students are walking away from something else entirely.
Maybe the problem is not that students are walking away. In fact, they might be doing us a favor by pointing out the real problem. Perhaps the problem is that we aren’t being the church. Maybe we as parents, pastors and church leaders need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some hard questions. What exactly are we doing anyway?
