It’s a lot more simple than you’re making it out to be: Adults do not share their faith with other adults like they do with youth. If they did, many more people past the age of 24 would self-indicate a change of affiliation. Whom to blame this on?

Hard to say. The most active adult evangelists were trained and discipled in our best youth ministries: CCC, IVCF, the Navs. So either all their efforts aren’t enough to blip the screen, or the methods learned are counter-productive among adults.

You make my post sound like one of those weightloss advertisements where I have to add the disclaimer, “Your experience may vary.”

I generally had good experiences with Campus groups and so I put them forward as a possible solution, you obviously did not. I don’t have statistics to say one way or another which or our experiences is more typical.

Probably among by best experiences were in the IVCF chapter in my first years at University, and in the summer group I started because no other groups were meeting.

That being said, my first University had 11 different groups, most of which were much more conservative that the IV group I attended.

It was in that IV group that I learned:
1. That yes, Christians could dance and have fun
2. There were many different types of Christians out there, who all seemed to have a pretty good grasp of their faith.
3. Pentecostals were not all that scary.

When I was at Cal Poly Pomona in the late Seventies, the Navigators had the rep of being the most extreme Uber-Christians with the highest burnout and flunkout rates. J Michael Jones was in over his head with them during that period and has a lot of horror stories on his blog, Christian Monist.

Ironically, my spiritual development was greatly enhanced by my non-Christian (Atheist/Agnostic, Muslim, etc.) friends – the types of people who were supposedly the “enemy”. — Rampancy

Speaking of “the enemy”, I was an SF litfan and D&D gamer. You learn very quickly to compartmentalize your life and get very familiar with the concept of Friendly Fire.

I tried going to Campus Crusade but they alarmed me with their almost militaristic language in how they were going to take over the evil, immoral university for God…somehow I got the image in my mind of them charging the administrative offices with guns and the like. — Rampancy

Campus Crusade varies from campus to campus, though even the rather mellow Cal Poly Pomona chapter seemed a bit clueless and insular (though nowhere near the level of the Navigators). The Cal Poly Pomona chapter was where I first heard of the live role-playing game “Killer” (AKA The Assassination Game); it was a common game played by the staff.

In complete contrast, the CCC chapter at Cal State Fullerton (at the other end of Brea Canyon) was so tight-assed they could have been “discipled” by Fred Phelps. (I could easily see them charging the administrative offices with guns.) I played D&D on Saturdays at Cal State Fullerton (we met in the administration building), and the local CCC had us in their sights for Witchcraft (TM). We were on constant alert for CCC “sheep in wolves’ clothing” trying to infiltrate and Wretched-urgency “Save” us, including security measures such as routing newbies past this one BS artist who could put on an act of being Aliester Crowley II. (Fortunately, the campus cops were on our side after we fingered a local arsonist who was torching trash cans in the building.)

By all means do so.

Just remember that I have presented more problem than solution, so others may have different ideas of what that solution may look like.

thank you very much for your helpful and meaningful insights. my wife and i head our children’s ministry. we discussed your findings in part 1 of your post. i have been waiting anxiously for this part 2. your post has confirmed what we have been discerning and praying about for quite awhile. the number of kids in our ministry has grown significantly. i empathize with a lot of the commenters re the neglect most churches have for children. we have been trying to fight off the notion that sunday school is a baby-sitting ministry so that adults can better worship God. one progress we have made, i believe, is that we let the children, especially the “tweens” to join the congregational praise/worship singing. we also plan to have, at least once a month, to have a children’s worship service. our ideas re the teens having a part in the sunday service is worth considering and plan to suggest this to our sunday service committee.i think the best way is to show them that indeed they are part of the covenant community. an integral part of which Jesus Himself has mentioned specifically in the Gospel accounts.

i ask permission to distribute your post and insights to our church council for an evaluation on how we can better serve God and discuss ways to have them firm in their faith before the age of 24.

thank you very much

alvin

If that makes sense.

Examples: God created the world in 7 literal days, and if you don’t believe it that way, you aren’t a true Christian. God wants men to be in charge of women, and if you don’t believe it that way, you aren’t a true Christian. Etc, etc, etc…

Instead of thinking in terms of both/and, we present our precious truths in an either/or frame, and so when the kids become young adults and begin thinking for themselves, they soon realize they are backed into a corner by the teachings they’ve grown up with.

For example, there’s no room to wonder if a person is born gay or chooses it—they’ve already been told what and how to think about that issue, and they know that if they think the “wrong” thing, they aren’t a true Christian. In fact, if they choose to be a true Christian, they’re not allowed to think about the “wrong” thing, at all, as a matter of fact.

After a while, it seems like the question isn’t whether or not to be a Christian, but rather whether or not to use one’s brain.

Because to be a Christian, they’ve learned, involves shutting the brain OFF and unquestioningly accepting the pronouncements of their particular brand of Christianity. This is not the way it should be. But this is the way it often is.

Our young people encounter a Christianity that has a lot of things tacked onto Christ. Many of them that turn away aren’t rejecting Christ—they’re rejecting the “prerequisites” we’ve tacked onto Him, the (separable) things we say are inseparable from Him.

This isn’t their problem. It’s ours.