Youth and church: Beyond tradition
Published 11:24 am Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Loyalty to hometown churches shifts as young generations view faith differently
As generations pass, churches find themselves entangled in a growing issue: a competition with technology for America’s worshippers.
Younger generations are on the move and often go to church for different reasons than their parents or grandparents. Changing culture is affecting people’s views on church.
“The idea of loyalty in our culture has diminished,” said Pastor Mike Sager of Faith Evangelical Free in Austin. “As a culture, we’re just more individualistic, and we’re much more mobile than we used to be.”
For a long time, loyalty to a church has been a confusing situation. Some church-goers go to their churches because it’s family tradition. Some stop attending because they don’t know why they are going. Others try to find churches that fit their lifestyles, and some try to find churches that help build faith and relationships.
Following tradition
The trend of following parents and grandparents to church may be wearing off. If people follow others to church, don’t know why they’re attending or don’t have strong beliefs, society is more likely than it used to be to pull people away from church, area ministers said. There’s so much variety outside of church for people, which means those who aren’t strong in their faith can be easily pulled away.
Greg Atkins, Faith Evangelical youth pastor, and Sager both described church as “more than just a building.”
“People just going to church because it’s Sunday … pretty soon other things are going to compete with that,” Sager said. “If there’s not the loyalty, then that church just tends to age.”
For people who fall into that demographic, not returning to church is an easy option. That has some churches losing members as decades pass. Though the losses haven’t been extreme in Mower County, Sager said some of the old, mainline churches such as small Methodist, Lutheran or Baptist churches have shrunk throughout the nation.
Our Lady of Loretto Catholic Church in Brownsdale has declined in the past decades.
“It is smaller, there’s no question about that,” Father Dale Tupper said. Though he said the church isn’t in any harm, he tags the decline in congregation to Mower County’s small town demographics.
“There’s far more funerals than there are baptisms — usually,” he said. “At least that’s what we notice.”
For younger people who leave churches, whether his church or any other, Tupper agrees with Sager and Atkins: It’s about the way America’s culture has changed.
“The word is culture,” Tupper said. “It’s pretty easy for a young person today to think they can make it without God.”
A consumer’s market
Perhaps more than ever, people are shuffling from church to church. Though many live hectic lives and are often on the move, some people choose their churches for the wrong reasons.
Pastor Bernie Boldt of Oakland Baptist church sees this trend. It’s what he and others compare to a consumer’s market.
“I think that the mentality that we have today is the dollar menu mentality … where you get to pick whatever you want and walk away happy,” Boldt said. “I think people are trying to put that into their understanding of what church is. There’s so many around that you just pick one, you don’t like it, you leave and find a another one.”
Instead of trying to find themselves or God, many people are trying to find churches that allow them to live their lifestyles. According to local pastors, one might seek entertainment value or a church that allows for freedom every other day of the week.
“A lifestyle connected to Jesus isn’t just a Sunday thing,” Atkins said, and added technology now allows for people to complete week-and-a-half church or download sermons on the Internet. “There are churches solely on the Internet that don’t meet as a congregation.”
As more generations become technologically savvy, churches can try to draw members back in, or they can wait.
“Church can’t compete with today’s technology,” Sager said. “If I’m just coming to be entertained, I’m going to find much better entertainment elsewhere.”
Sager and Boldt both implied it’s awkward to draw members to a church, too, as it has to be the individuals’ choices; and it has to be for the right reasons.
“We are not here to encourage consumerism,” Sager added.
Churches that try to fit their congregations’ needs are most likely to lose members. Instead of sticking to their doctrines, those churches flip-flop, add entertainment value or appeal to newcomers. To Boldt, that’s dangerous thinking. Even though some churches are shrinking, those churches shouldn’t use appeal to draw members because they could sway from the truth.
“The word of God needs to be a major part of the local church; and if it’s not, then you’re going the wrong direction,” Boldt said. “…When we wander, that’s when people leave.”
Social issues dictate where some people go to church, too. Now churches must take stances on issues like gay marriage; and if they don’t, they could lose members.
“Those things have really challenged ministries,” Sager said.
Regardless of a church’s stance, Sager said many people will hear what they want to hear about today’s social issues.
Finding the right church
Even for those who shuffle among churches, or those who’ve given up attending church, there are ways to find the right church, faith leaders said. People are looking for answers, but today’s generations approach things differently.
Tupper said people used to hang onto faith, but now more people are seeking for it. Sager grew up as one of those seekers; he was without religion until he was 22 years old.
“I wanted to know why I was here on this planet, and I didn’t know what that was,” he said. Some people who have moved or left their former churches feel a need to find the right church for themselves.
“For somebody who’s moved away form their family, it’s a place where you can feel like you’re belonged,” Atkins said about finding a new church.
To Sager, Atkins, Tupper and Boldt, seeking a church for a sense of belonging isn’t enough, though. Relationships within the church are important, but the church needs to stick to its word if it’s preaching the truth. The church and its people should drive newcomers to be better than they are.
“It’s going to provoke me to do better; and if the church is going to come down to my level, the church isn’t provoking me to do better,” Boldt said. “I think the desire for the local church is to provoke people to grow, and if we are just trying to make things the same all day long, whether you are home or at church, (people) don’t see a difference and they don’t feel a need to go.”
According to Atkins, the relationships with church officials and members can help members build their faith. People need to be with others who have strength in the same faith. That’s what brought Atkins into the ministry.
“What kind of called me into ministry is knowing that somebody is going to be sitting in my seat someday, and it’s not going to be me,” he said.
As a youth pastor, Atkins wants members to grow within the church and become more involved. That’s why he enjoys helping with Faith Church’s youth programs. Last week, Faith Church had 93 students participating in Survivor Island Bible School. At that youth camp, kids got to learn about God through hands-on activities that helped them bond with each other and their leaders.
“What really keeps a church together is the quality of the relationships within the people,” Atkins said, and added a church needs to be a leader of those relationships. “I think that if we as pastors and ministries are looking to lead on the next generation, we need to be authentic with our relationships with people and authentic with our relationships with God.”
Another way members of Faith Church build relationships is through mission trips. Instead of segregating themselves, Faith’s leaders and followers meet people from new congregations while helping others around the world. Members of Faith Church, including many high-schoolers, have served missions in the U.S., Haiti, Jamaica, Thailand, Poland, Mexico and other places. They don’t hear hard lectures about scriptures or sin; they get to experience religion in a new way. Helping people first hand gives Sager’s members something reading the bible or seeing the inside of a church can’t.
“They’re not just going overseas; they’re actually learning what it’s like to serve God,” Sager said.
Mission trips could be a good start for some prospective church-goers, too. Sager said the trips are not just vacations. For people who believe what they want to believe, mission trips could persuade them to think more of others instead of themselves. Furthermore, newcomers can build trust with new people in a new environment. That trust is a key ingredient to keeping them there.
“When we are able to love them and give them a sense of security, then that’s when I think they are going to be drawn back into the local church setting,” Boldt said.