The Pew Study of Religion in America
Filed Under: General
The results of an important study of religion in America were released this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. You can read the full report here. I’ll share a few of the interesting findings in this post: 78.4% of Americans aged 18 and older claim to be Christians. Two out of three of these are Protestant. One in twenty people in America claim to be United Methodists - making us the third largest religious group in America after Catholics and Southern Baptists. The number of non-religious or strongly nominally religious people in America has grown from about 5% in 1972 to 16% today, yet one third of this group described religion as very or somewhat important to them! Only 1.6% of Americans identified themselves as atheists and 2.4% as agnostics. Among the interesting findings, but no surprise to most of us, 44% of Americans are not a part of the religious tradition in which they were raised. Most were Christians who changed from one denomination to another. Among Protestants the more education one has the more likely it is that they will be a part of a mainline denomination like United Methodism. 11% of those without a high school diploma are members of mainline denominations verses 23% of those with post-graduate degrees. Among evangelical churches the opposite trend prevails. 31% of people without a high school diploma are members of an evangelical church but that number declines to 16% of those with post-graduate degrees. A disturbing trend among young adults aged 18-29 is the turn away from churches - both evangelical and mainline - 25% of young adults are unaffiliated with a religious group compared with an average of approximately 14% of all other adults. I’ve been hosting focus groups this last week aimed at inviting feedback on several proposed initiatives we hope to pursue at the church in the coming years. Among these is a significant increase in our efforts to reach young adults. Finally, among the findings, and again no surprise, evangelical churches increased while mainline churches decreased over the last forty years. Our church is among many exceptions to this rule. Those mainline churches that have grown often integrate characteristics of some evangelical churches with what are characteristics of the mainline church. This includes, from the evangelical tradition, an emphasis on a passionate, personal faith in Christ, the need for conversion, a regular pursuit of the spiritual disciplines of prayer, scripture study and small groups coupled with, from the mainline tradition, an emphasis on the intellect, a passion for the social gospel, a broader perspective on many issues, and a valuing of the traditions of the church. Methodism, in its inception, was a church that brought together these two traditions. At our best I think we continue to hold them together. Here’s a question for those of you 18 - 29: What must church look like to reach your generation?
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nckwbc | Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
Long time reader…first time poster…
This is fascinating data.
If the nearly 80% of our Country claims to be Christian, why doesn’t 80% of our society’s actions follow suit? Why is it that 16% of non/nominally religious groups have such a loud and influential voice that moves our culture in a less-moral/less-Christian path? Is this 80% Christian count a soft count and wishful thinking among society? It appears that we want to SAY we’re Christian, but we don’t want to sacrifice our actions to BE Christians - clear discrepancy in “say” vs. “do”.
What’s the Church look like for a new the 30-somethings? Society wants quick, easy, convenient and so do I. But does having spiritual discipline include any of these things - probably not. There is, however, value in the convenience of a ML Church offering handy worship and modern communication channels. Why? Convenience is the hook that makes it easy to begin growing to be more like Christ for those of us who say we’re part of the 80% Christian Club, but like to practice situational Christianity.
The challenge becomes weaning situational Christians from the Convenient Church and transitioning our lives into worshiping and serving the Lord. When do we stop going to Church to because it is just part of our long task list, weekly routine or social network and begin being a light in the darkness?
I guess when we see more of us acting as small lights in this world; our culture will probably be very different.
Greg | Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
I’m 32, my wife is 29. We’re on the cusp of your age range. When I look around at my peers, I find many of them are committing to some type of life-long learning. This is typically in the form of returning to school, forming investment clubs or joining other types of groups that broaden their horizons.
Another trait that most of them have is skepticism/cynicism. Our culture is inundated with bad news from all types of media including television, print and the internet. People do not seem to be trusting of anything.
Taking from a previous sermon series, I think that people in this generation tend to “see gray” more readily than other generations. Perhaps this is more related to age than a generational phenomena.
Finally, I think that most people in this age group are actively looking for meaning in the things that they do in their day-to-day lives. This likely explains the two observations outlined above.
So, what make a church attractive to this crowd? My take:
-Services are educational
-Church plans/budgets/activities are very transparent
-Church worship services, members, and staff are open-minded
-Church service provides a link between spirituality and life with a family, career, peer group, etc.
I think that by continuing to keep these values in mind, COR will continue to attract young members.
Michelle | Feb 27, 2008 | Reply
I’m 23, and a 9 year member of COR. I’ve grown up in the church and loved being part of the youth ministry programs. When I graduated high school, I assumed it would be easy to move into a young adult program. This was not the reality. As my friends went off to school, I watched as so many of them lost their faith, and felt like they had no where to go. Even now, after I have graduated college, I still feel that there are few places for young adults to go. So what must church look like for my generation?
I want to come to a place where I can worship the Lord; where I can sing and pray; where I can participate in mission projects and weekend retreats; where I can fellowship and learn practical things to apply to my life; where I can challenge my faith. I don’t want to enter a room and feel like I’m there to find my soul mate. I want to find community.
At COR we have awesome kids programs, and awesome youth programs. I think the young adult program should be another step up. When children grow up at the church, they go through KidsCOR and then RezLife, but then what? We desperately need that next stepping stone.
worldtenor | Feb 28, 2008 | Reply
I’m 24 and a 13 year member of COR. In the past 4 years I have led and organized college Bible studies both in the United States and Europe. After spending time speaking with peers who span the spectrum of dedication to Christ, there are certain characteristics and concerns that come to the surface.
We want to be challenged intellectually. Not in the same way college challenged us, because a healthy portion of our generation has received plenty of “college time.” “Seeing the Gray” is a huge step in this direction. It breaks down the barriers of what we understood church to be (i.e. close minded, unwilling to accept new ideas, etc…) and hence challenges us to go deeper in understanding what a relationship with Christ really is.
We need a community–a place to go where we enjoy spending time and speaking with others. Where we are learning things to change our lives and those around us for the better. Young adults are just that “young” adults. Since the financial statuses, family backgrounds, and commitments to Christ are extremely varying, we need communities in which we are observing and speaking with those who have been successful spiritually at this stage in life. Bible studies are important as well. We want to talk with others and realize they are going through the same struggles and that we can pull together and make it through these transitional times.
Our generation (contrary to popular belief in many “cutting edge” churches today) is not scared of traditional elements of worship. Pop culture can be taken to an extreme and when church looks like everything else that we see around us on a daily basis, it becomes less special. I’m not advocating fully traditional services with liturgy and the whole works. I simply mean incorporating things like traditional music every now and again. Our culture likes being diverse and experiencing a bit of everything.
This may be a bit out of context but it’s a call for you to train young adults to come over here to Europe. There is a crisis concerning the younger generation. The church does not reach out to them at all and does not even know where to begin. The younger generation, therefore, does not exist in the churches here. Last week I spoke with a young group of girls who was going through confirmation. They have no required Bible reading, no one is guiding them through the foundations of our faith. They have never talked about nor understand what sin is. Between the ages 12-35, the church is completely dead. We have a hungry generation who is open to anything and we need to reach them with Christ before they choose something else, because they certainly are. Anyway…that’s for another post. Apologies, but it is still an issue in reaching the young generation world-wide.
Tom | Mar 1, 2008 | Reply
I did scan the study. I found it interesting. The church as with every other institution in America is at a cross roads, what way shall it take to go into the future. Shall the church be a “rock” like Peter or shall it be something else. The rock would be an isle of stability for people to build upon. The church calls for people to adhere to a higher standard, the standard Jesus lays out in the bible.
I use the word something else as a catch all for actions, policies, and programs meant to attract people to the church. They want to reflect the culture as to make it comfortable. That is defined to those urging the something else option as having entertaining programs, facilities patterned off of the health club, not cathedrals, doctrines contrary to the bible that says any thing goes, and messages which entertain but don’t offend our of fear of chasing away the revenue stream.
There are consequences to all decisions. Will people look back in 50 years and see a dynamic church changing hearts and minds through the gospel or will the church be merged with the health club on the corner. The future awaits our collective answer.
egsy77 | Mar 2, 2008 | Reply
I am a graduate student of age 23. Being involved with a campus ministry I have done some research on the basic characteristics of our generation, the Millennials.
There are several things of note which help many people of my generation connect and feel welcome. The first thing is everyone our age wants to connect to individuals not institutions. If there are people who they like at the event which make a purposeful effort to connect with them; they are much more likely to return and to enjoy the experience. A second major difference from previous generation is we do not care for political correctness. In fact, if you want to pray in school or go to church as long as it makes said individual happy the rest of the people are okay with it. The third thing I know about our generation is the hatred of hypocracy. Anything that is or anyone who is fake is immediately tuned out. When many of the “educated” young people feel the church is hypocritical they dismiss it.
I hope this has maybe shown a little light into the minds of a younger generation adult. I am assuming that you already knew the above but I cannot reiterate enough how important it is.
pulp | Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
I’m an active member of COR, 26 years old. I’ve been a Christian my whole life, but I definitely see our flaws as a collective group.
Soren Kierkegaard, 19th Century Danish theologian and Existential philosopher, has a quote that I think really sums up what a lot of young adults are needing right now:
“What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough — but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening.”
Kierkegaard also said “Truth is subjectivity.” This does not mean that we can choose what we want to believe–that’s a rather shallow interpretation of this concept. Instead of a measure of preference, subjective truth is a measure of the impact that objective truth has made in our lives. I can know something is true; but until I actually change my life accordingly, it’s not my truth. So it’s not “It works for me, so it’s my truth”–it’s “I work for it, so it’s my truth.”
All that to say, I think young adults are looking for some authenticity. I think they need to know that there are other people out there who are struggling with what they’re doing with their lives, with knowing who they are and why they’re here. Young adulthood is a much more turbulent time than anything previously encountered for most of us, so we need guidance, but we also need to know that we’re doing alright.
I don’t want to discount the importance of teaching. I myself am a huge fan of your teaching, Adam, as I’m sure many young adults are. I think more than teaching, though, young adults need to be able to look at a leader and think, “I think this guy could actually understand me.”
Adam | Mar 4, 2008 | Reply
Great comments! Thank you for your thoughts and reflections on the Pew study and what young adults are yearning for!
Adam