Measuring Success in Youth Ministry

According to a study by The Barna Group (Ventura, California), 81% of American teens are engaged in church for an extended period of time yet only 5% hold to even the most basic of historical Christian beliefs.

Other unpublished research of which I am aware, suggests that in a typical large evangelical youth group only about 5% of the teens are genuinely living devoted Christian lives while the other 95% are to varying degrees living "intentionally deceitful dual lives" – in essence putting on a show for parents, teachers and church leaders while living dramatically different lives beyond their view. This same research suggests that there is significantly more pressure to drink, do drug, and have sex within the youth group than among peers outside the youth group. A similar situation seems to exist in Christian schools compared to secular schools.

These findings and others like them beg the question: What's really going on inside our youth groups? What does the make up of our group really look like?

One of the challenges of the Jackson Youth Initiative has been to figure out how to answer these questions.

Visualizing the Situation

The Graph below (Figure 1) represents what many might consider the ideal youth group. You have a few kids who extremely passionate disciples on one end and a few lost people on the verge of becoming new believers on the other and the vast majority are in the middle… beyond new believer but moving toward becoming mature disciples.

 

Figure 1– Ideal Distribution Graph

The same data might be represented by a circle graph(Figure 2) in which the Leader is at the center with the most devoted disciples close to the center and the level of devotion decreases as you move out from the center until you have a few non-believers on the fringes. The arrows represent new people trying to enter the group. Some will be turned away immediately. Those who continue to press in beyond the outer layers of the group will find genuine Christians who can lead them the Christ or to a deeper walk. Those who press in more can find genuine devoted disciples.

 

Figure 2 - Ideal Distribution Circle

I suspect that most youth ministries would say that these graphs are more or less representative of their group. But what if they are wrong?

Left Shift

What if, as some studies suggest, that distribution is shifted farther to the left? (Figure 3, Figure 4)

Figure 3 - Group Distribution Graph Shifted Left


Figure 4 - Group Distribution Circle Shifted Left

In this situation, the Leader is still at the center surrounded by the most devoted of the group. But, the level of devotion decreases dramatically as you move out from the inner circle and a large percentage of the group is comprised of non believers. The arrows still represent new people trying to enter the group. Some will be turned away immediately. Those who continue to press in beyond the outer layers of the group will find that the average person in this youth group is no different from them. Only those who truly press in can even find genuine Christians and even then they may not find devoted disciples.
This group is much different from the ideal group. The entire dynamic has changed. A group like that would need to be ministered to in a different way from one that looks like the ideal group.

Shallow Group

Perhaps the group is not a heavily dominated by unbelievers as represented by Figures 3 and 4. Perhaps it is one that fits the often used phrase "a mile wide and an inch deep." What would that look like? (Figure5, Figure 6)

Figure 5 - Group Distribution Graph – Shallow


Figure 6 - Group Distribution Circle – Shallow

This situation is more similar to the Left Shift group than the ideal group in many ways. While this group is not dominated by strong nonbelievers, it is also not dominated by strong Christians. In this situation, the Leader is still at the center surrounded by the most devoted of the group but this is a group of weak believers. The level of devotion decreases as you move out from the inner circle and a large percentage of the group is so shallow as to be virtually indistinguishable from of non believers. The arrows still represent new people trying to enter the group. Some will be turned away immediately. Those who continue to press in beyond the outer layers of the group will again find that the average person in this youth group is no different from them. Only those who truly press in can even find genuine Christians and even then they may not find devoted disciples.

It seems to me that it would be very important to know which of these groups you were dealing with as a leader and as a prospective group member. It would also be important if you were a parent. How many parents think they are sending the kids to a group that looks like the first one when in fact they are sending them to one of the others?

But how do you know? To my knowledge, no one does an assessment of group distribution like those represented here. If someone were to do such a thing, I think the key would be how do you 1) define and 2) measure the scale (Figure 7)

Figure 7 - Scale

If anyone knows of a scale or measurement system like this, please let me know.

Gracefully Passing the Baton by George Barna

Gracefully Passing the Baton by George Barna

Hey, fellow Baby Boomers. Can we talk?

For many years, we have sweated, argued, fought, manipulated, analyzed, partnered, prayed and strategized to get our own way. We wanted the nation’s values to reflect our own. We wanted to have our fair share (or more) of the decision-making authority. We wiggled our way into key positions as soon as possible. After a period in which we said the system was the problem, we took over the system. Today, we are the system, and there are two generations following us who see that as a serious issue.

For whatever reasons He may have, God has pretty much granted our desires. We have wrestled control of the levers of power and authority away from our predecessors earlier than usual and have wielded that power with more glee than grace. When you examine the ranks of the nation’s corner offices, you find Boomers dominating the positions of CEO, COO, CFO, board chairmen, and corporate president. We have held that sway for the better part of the last decade. The only positions we have largely abdicated are CIO and CTO – the top-dog information and technology posts that rightfully belong to Busters. After all, they understand the digital revolution – we just figure out how to make money off it.

Even within the local church, Boomers rule the roost. Today, 61% of Protestant Senior Pastors are from our generation. Among the current lay leaders, 58% are Boomers. And if money talks, then we have the floor: 50% of the money given to churches last year came out of the pockets of Boomers. (That’s more than double the amount given by any other generation.)

Unfortunately, we are not good at sharing. If we are the richest generation the world has ever encountered, we are also its most selfish. And we are driven by the one value that defines us and on which we are willing to squander our money: power. We believe so deeply in our decision-making capacity, and we enjoy the control and perks of calling the shots so much, that we have no intention of relinquishing that power, regardless of traditions, expectations, reason or future interests.

If you think America’s war against al-Qaeda is a tough, uphill battle, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Take a look at the transition of power that is – well, should be – happening within churches.

Here’s the bottom line: our generation’s time on the throne is quickly coming to an end. In 2011 the first Boomer will reach age 65. By 2015, 15 million of us will be 65-plus; by 2020, 31 million; by 2025, the U.S. will harbor a mid-sized nation within its borders of 65-plus Boomers (an estimated 48 million).

If all went according to plan, we’d be hard at work implementing the world’s most sophisticated and superbly executed transition plan to install the new strata of leaders. We are brilliant strategists and tacticians – just ask us. No generation has ever risen to the heights of excellence that we have, when we put our minds to it. The Builders were a can-do, get-it-done generation. But the Boomers are the ultimate take-no-prisoners generation when it comes to shaping society – and, in some cases, the world.

But where is that transition plan? Who is working it to perfection? When are we planning to hand over the keys to the kingdoms we have built these last several decades? Who are the successors we are preparing to stand on our shoulders and build on the foundations we have laid – as our fathers did with us?

You’d think that since we are the richest generation in world history, and we have acquired more toys, amenities, comforts, security mechanism and pleasure options than we can even quantify, we’d be excited about helping our children to follow in our footsteps.

It makes sense. But it’s not happening.

The sticking point is our core value: power. We love power. We live for power. Power lunches, power ties, power suits, power offices, power titles, power cars, power networks. Whether it is because of an unhealthy desire for control, a reasonable concern about maintaining quality, a sense of exhilaration received from making pressure-packed, life-changing decisions or due to other motivations, Boomers revel in power. The sad result is that most Boomers – even those in the pastorate or in voluntary, lay-leadership positions in churches – have no intention of lovingly handing the baton to Baby Busters.

In self-defense, we may point out that Busters are not poised to lead effectively. They whine and they lack the ferocious work ethic that allowed us to reign. They are not as good at analysis and prescription. They lack the vision to see beyond incremental gains and thus fail to motivate people to pursue grand dreams. They refuse to sacrifice their own resources to make the kill. Often, they don’t even respect the notion, much less position, of leadership.

And how many of us have tried to mentor them, only to experience their tepid commitment or an outright rejection of our efforts because they don’t like our values or tactics? When we have tried to frame reality for them, they waved their postmodern views in our modern faces.

However, this is more rationalizing than wise, strategic, fruitful, biblical thinking. Busters are not the perfect successors we wish they were – just as we were not the perfect successors to our accomplished, world-changing Builder predecessors. My advice to us: get over it.

So here’s what I see coming down the line. Conflict between the generations over position and authority. Widespread Buster flight from the institutions and movements we have labored for so long to build up. Classic damage control by Boomers, positioning us as the saviors compensating for a younger generation of irreverent and incompetent wanna-be’s. And, ultimately, the further dilapidation (and, in some cases, collapse) of the local church as we know it today. There are many churches where this scenario is already staging Act 1, Scene 1.

There are four things that we probably need to do regarding the integration of Busters (and even some of the younger Mosaics) into the positions of power and authority within our religious institutions.

First, Boomers have to graciously and joyously let go of the reigns. We have had our chance and we made the best of it. It was a privilege to lead God’s people and to challenge society to join Him in His ways, but it was a privilege granted, not earned, and which now rightfully must be passed on to the next generation.

If we can objectively examine the big picture we will realize that our efforts cannot bear the maximum return on our investment until we enable those who follow us to embrace and enhance what we developed.

As self-absorbed people, we struggle to acknowledge that the Church – and, for that matter, life – is not about us. The purpose of our leadership is not to magnify self but to be used by God in the furtherance of His kingdom. Insistence upon continued control is a clear reflection that we do not understand God’s purposes for us, and that we have misled the community of believers. As an act of Christian stewardship it is our responsibility to pass on the baton with grace, love, hope, excitement and joy. This is not a “sacrifice” on our part: it was God who allowed us to lead, for a season, and it is His prerogative to usher in a new cadre of leaders to pick up where we left off.

Second, let’s use our world-class giftedness to create a plan for the transition. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of seeing weak-kneed, dump-and-run transitions where the Boomer arrogantly and self-righteously leaves without setting the table for the Buster who follows. If people take their cues from leaders, what message does such behavior send? Besides, Boomers have achieved numerous breakthroughs during our tenure by planning our actions and carefully executing the plan. Handing off the baton demands the best plan we have yet crafted. The plan must establish the timing of your departure and the process for preparing your successors to succeed. Where’s your plan?

Third, we must allow – and even encourage – the emergence of new models of ministry that either improve or replace what we introduced and nurtured. Just as ministry models such as seeker, praise-and-worship and even multi-ethnic ministries were our refinements of or responses to Builder institutions, we must anticipate and support such progress even if it is not what we might have done. Scripture gives them, as it gave us, abundant leeway in methodology. Let them put their fingerprints all over the model they develop.

Keep in mind that a great leader is defined not by the methods that he/she deployed but by their commitment to the vision that God has entrusted to him/her. Even in exiting, your responsibility is to make sure the vision is championed after you leave. So build bridges with your predecessors to ensure the vision lives on, and allow them to build on the vision in ways that respect the vision but reflect the evolving context. Busters will use different language, different symbols and icons, and different procedures. So what? If you have shared God’s vision in a way that they, too, treasure and commit to it, then you have done your job. Move on.

Finally, spend hours of time in prayer to honestly seek God’s guidance in this transitional time. The fact that you are reading this probably means you have some type of church leadership role. Consider what you are doing to facilitate an appropriate transition of power to the next generation. We do not want to be “the old farts hanging on to positions of power, reveling in their past glories.” (Does that sound vaguely familiar – perhaps as something you and I might have said 25 years ago when we were scheming to grab the power and positions held by our parents?) Let God speak – and listen carefully to what He is asking us to do with the gift of responsibility that He entrusted to us for a season. Never forget the Genesis 12 principle – you have been blessed to be a blessing. How does the Lord want you to bless – rather than bully and block – the generation of leaders who will inevitably replace you? What can you teach them about the heart and the character of God through the way you welcome them into leadership?

Hey, we’re just Boomers, not the “old farts” we once saw as the threat to our own self-realization. I bet you’re not ready to be put out to pasture just yet. You have a lot to give to many people – and a lot of joy to receive from imparting your years of experience-based wisdom. Show that wisdom by championing the rise of a few young leaders today. It’s a win-win strategy.

http://www.barna.org/component/wordpress/archives/77

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Forrest Berry

Report Examines the State of Mainline Protestant Churches

Report Examines the State of Mainline Protestant Churches

Ventura, CA - December 7, 2009 When Baby Boomers were born, the Protestant landscape of America was dominated by the six major mainline denominations. (Those bodies are typically considered to be the American Baptist Churches in the USA; the Episcopal Church; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; the Presbyterian Church (USA); the United Church of Christ; and the United Methodist Church.) Since the 1950s, however, mainline churches have fallen on hard times, declining from more than 80,000 churches to about 72,000 today. The growth among evangelical and Pentecostal churches since the 1950s, combined with the shrinking of the mainline sector, has diminished mainline churches to just one-fifth of all Protestant congregations today. In the past fifty years, mainline church membership dropped by more than one-quarter to roughly 20 million people. Adult church attendance indicates that only 15% of all American adults associate with a mainline church these days. A new report issued by The Barna Group focuses upon changes in the mainline churches during the past decade. The report examines shifts in both the adults who attend those churches and the pastors who lead them. Congregant Statistics Over the course of the past decade, the number of adults who attend a mainline church on any given weekend has remained relatively stable, ranging from 89 to 100. The current median is 99 adults. One reason why that average has remained steady has been the population growth of the United States, with the mainline churches attracting just enough newcomers to maintain attendance levels that are similar to the years when the nation’s population was considerably smaller. The current attendance figure is lower than the norm during the heyday of the mainline bodies. Demographics suggest that the mainline churches may be on the precipice of a period of decline unless remedial steps are taken. For instance, in the past decade there has been a 22% drop in the percentage of adults attending mainline congregations who have children under the age of 18 living in their home. Also, the proportion of single adults has risen, now representing 39% of all adult attenders. That has been driven higher by a rise in the number of divorced and widowed adherents. The numerical decline is also related to the relative difficulty that mainline churches have experienced in attracting young adults. For instance, young adults (25 or younger) are 6% of the national population, they are just one-third as many (2%) of all adults attending mainline churches. At the other end of the age continuum, the statistics show that about one-quarter (27%) of American adults are 60 or older, but more than one-third of mainline attenders (35%) are 60-plus. Another hurdle for the mainline bodies has been attracting minorities. These churches struggle in reaching Hispanics and Asians. While Hispanics make up 16% of the US population, they are only 6% of the mainline population. Asians represent 4% of the American public, but only half that proportion among mainline congregants. The failure to add substantial numbers of Hispanics is especially significant, given both the rapid increase of the Hispanic population as well as the outflow of Hispanics from Catholicism to Protestant churches in the past decade. Most of the Hispanics leaving Catholicism for another faith community are settling into evangelical or Pentecostal Protestant churches. There is a behavioral reason for the decline of mainline churches, too: just one-third (31%) of mainline adults believe they have a personal responsibility to discuss their faith with people who have different beliefs. Commitment and Loyalty Sometimes money can mask a serious problem. That may be the case within the mainline community. Cumulatively, these denominations generate more than $15 billion in donations each year. In fact, during the past decade the median church budget of mainline congregations has risen substantially – up 51%, to about $165,000 annually. As positive as that sounds, though, chances are good that the upward pattern will not continue. One reason is the relative decline in the household incomes of mainline adherents. During the past decade, the educational achievement of mainline congregants has plateaued while the median household income level has suffered. In 1998, the median income was 12% higher than the national average, while in 2008 the median among mainline households was 2% lower than the national norm. Money may be the least of the mainline’s challenges, though. A bigger worry is the decreasing engagement of congregants with church life. As noted earlier, weekly attendance figures have remained stable, but that hides the underlying problem of softer commitments. For example, adherents attend church services less frequency than they used to. Volunteerism in these churches is down by an alarming 21% since 1998. Adult Sunday school involvement has also declined, by 17% since 1998. The tenuous ties that millions of mainline adults have with their church are exemplified by their willingness to consider other spiritual options. Just half (49%) describe themselves as “absolutely committed to Christianity.” Slightly more (51%) are willing to try a new church. Two-thirds (67%) are open to pursuing faith in environments or structures that are different from those of a typical church. Almost three-quarters (72%) say they are more likely to develop own religious beliefs than to adopt those taught by their church. And nine out of ten (86%) sense that God is motivating people to stay connected to Him through different means and experiences than in the past. Evidence of waffling commitment is found elsewhere, as well. A minority of mainline attenders are presently involved in some type of personal discipleship activity. Less than half contend that the Bible is accurate in the life principles it teaches. Only half of all mainline adults say that they are on a personal quest for spiritual truth. And when asked to identify their highest priority in life, less than one out of every ten mainline adults (9%) says some aspect of faith constitutes their top priority. Mainline Pastors The nature of those who lead mainline congregations has been rapidly changing, too. One of the most telling findings in the Barna study was the aging of mainline pastors. A decade ago the median age of mainline Senior Pastors was 48; today it is 55. That represents a shockingly fast increase, representing a combination of too few young pastors entering the ranks and a large share of older pastors not retiring. Another study by Barna found that an unusually high share of Boomer pastors are refusing to retire or plan to retire in their mid-sixties, and that succession planning is a glaring weakness in most Protestant churches. To read more about the imbalance between younger and older pastors, click here. The percentage of mainline Senior Pastors who are female has risen dramatically, from 15% to 21% in the last 10 years. Oddly, while the education level of mainline pastors has dropped a bit – 82% have a seminary degree, down from 90% in 1998 – compensation levels have jumped substantially, rising by 40% in the last decade. Currently, senior pastor compensation packages represent one-third (33%) of the typical mainline congregation’s budget. One of the enduring idiosyncrasies of mainline churches is the brief tenure of pastors in a church. On average, these pastors last four years before moving to another congregation. That is about half the average among Protestant pastors in non-mainline churches. Equally significant is the fact that 93% of mainline senior pastors consider themselves to be a leader, yet only 12% claim to have the spiritual gift of leadership. George Barna, the researcher who analyzed the data for the report, commented that mainline Protestant churches seem to have weathered the past decade better than many people have assumed, but that the future is raising serious challenges to continued stability. He identified the quality of leadership provided – especially regarding vision, creativity, strategic thinking, and the courage to take risks – as being the most critical element in determining the future health and growth of mainline congregations. He also indicated that the approach that many mainline churches take toward some current social issues – e.g., environmental challenges, poverty, cross-denominational cooperation, developing respectful dialogue, embracing new models for faith expression, and global understanding – position those churches well for attracting younger Americans. About The Barna Group The Barna Group, Ltd. (which includes its research division, The Barna Research Group) was started in 1984 by George Barna. It is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization that conducts primary research on a wide range of issues and products, produces resources pertaining to cultural change, leadership and spiritual development, and facilitates the healthy spiritual growth of leaders, children, families and Christian ministries. Located in Ventura, California, Barna conducts and analyzes primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each new, bi-monthly update on the latest research findings from The Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website (http://www.barna.org%29/. Additional research-based resources, both free and at discounted prices, are also available through that website. About the Research This report is based upon several national telephone surveys conducted by The Barna Group. The surveys among mainline adults in 1998 included 267 adults; in 2008, there were 1,148 mainline attenders interviewed. The surveys among pastors involved 492 mainline senior pastors drawn from random samples of Protestant churches. The range of sampling error associated with the sample of 267 adults is between ±2.7 and ±6.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The range of sampling error associated with the sample of 1,148 adults is between ±1.3 and ±3.0 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. These allowances do not include other types of error (known as non-sampling error) that can occur in surveys, such as errors arising from question wording, question sequencing, and the recording of responses. © The Barna Group, Ltd, 2009. Copyright Disclaimer: All the information contained on the barna.org website is copyrighted by The Barna Group, Ltd., 2368 Eastman Ave. Unit 12, Ventura, California 93003. No portion of this website (articles, graphs, charts, reviews, pictures, video clips, quotes, statistics, etc.) may be reproduced, retransmitted, disseminated, sold, distributed, published, edited, altered, changed, broadcast, circulated, or commercially exploited without the prior written permission from The Barna Group, Ltd.

http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/17-leadership/323-report-examines-the-state-of-mainline-protestant-churches

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Forrest Berry

The Hypersocialized Generation

This is an excellent blog by Al Mohler regarding HyperSocializing which Ligon Duncan reposted in his church newsletter (The First Epistle).

http://www.albertmohler.com/2009/11/06/newsnote-the-hypersocialized-generation/

NewsNote: The Hypersocialized Generation

Jeffery Zaslow of The Wall Street Journal opens his article with the story of a 17-year-old boy sent to the vice principal's office after being caught sending text messages in class. The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy to pay attention to the teacher, not to his cellphone. Even as the boy nodded politely, Gallagher noticed something amiss -- the boy was texting about his discipline for being caught texting.

"It was a subconscious act," said Gallagher. "Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's compulsive."

Zaslow calls the lifestyle of these young people "hypersocializing." As he observes:
Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing—accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites—there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook?

There is an argument to be noticed here. Some assert that this generation of teens and twenty-somethings has developed an invaluable ability to multitask, to frame arguments with few words, and to stay constantly connected. Some, like Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies, go so far as to argue that these young people are so skilled at "multimedia socializing" that their social skills are superior to previous generations, rightly understood.

Others, noting the time spent obsessively checking digital devices, see a loss of community, a fog of constant chatter, and, for both employers and educators, a massive volume of lost time. As P. M. Forni at Johns Hopkins University observes, "There is a lot of communication going on that is futile and trivial."

Consider what this means for educators:

Educators are also being asked by parents, students and educational strategists to reconsider their rules. In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are adept at texting with their phones still in their pockets, says 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, the vice principal, "and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones."

As Gallagher concludes, asking students to separate themselves from social media for the school day seems futile. "It's like talking to kids about why they don't need air."

Jeffery Zaslow's article, published in the invaluable "Personal Journal" section of The Wall Street Journal, is directed mainly to the business community, where executives are hard pressed to know how much they should (or even can) restrict social networking among younger employees. But the issues he addresses go far beyond the business context. His article should be read by parents, pastors, teachers, and anyone who cares about the minds and souls of young people.
One thing is clear -- Zaslow is not exaggerating. Almost every parent of a teenager or twenty-something will recognize the truth of his diagnosis of "hypersocializing" among the young. If anything, the issues range beyond the concerns he identifies. Business executives are concerned about the financial costs and economic impact. Educators are rightly concerned about distractions from the learning process. But what does this hypersocializing do to the souls of young people?

As prophets of technological pessimism from Jacques Ellul to Neil Postman have reminded us, every technology comes with an effect on the soul. How does this digital revolution effect the souls of young people who quite literally sleep with cellphones on the pillow, lest they miss a text message in the night? What space is left for the development of flesh-and-blood friendships? How are they related to people who do not have access to text messages? Is their communicative ability now limited to 140 characters in a burst?

Among young Christians, what space is left for the development of a devotional life? Do their lives contain any space for extended quiet and reflection, for prayer, or for reading anything longer than a text message?

This is precisely where evangelical Christians need to invest serious thought and reflection. We should all be concerned when Steve Gallagher laments that these young people think they need constant access to social media the way they need oxygen for breathing.

Then again, maybe the real problem is much worse than Zaslow and Gallagher acknowledge. Is this phenomenon limited to the "hypersocialized" young? In the spirit of personal confession I must admit that I turn on my iPhone the moment the plane hits the tarmac on landing. I feel irresponsible if I do not post regular Twitter updates and check email and messages constantly. Colleagues, friends, and constituents expect "hypersocializing," and they now range across the age spectrum.

There is no going back -- at least not in terms of retreat. The social universe is a fact of life, and a missiological challenge for the Christian church. We are all Facebookers now.

The hypersocialized generation of teenagers and young adults needs to learn limits. Parents must provide those limits for their children and encourage them in older offspring. Educators and executives cannot ignore the challenge, but there is as yet no mechanism for determining proper balance in a world growing more hypersocialized by the day.

We are all looking for someone to figure this out and find the responsible boundaries. When this happens, let's hope they send a text message to the rest of us.
_____________________________
Jeffery Zaslow, "The Greatest Generation (of Networkers)," The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, November 4, 2009.

Undefined Problems

There is an old engineering adage:


"The probability of obtaining an answer to an undefined problem is zero."


How you define the solution to today's youth issues depends on how you define the problem.

Josh McDowell’s personal notes on Teen Statistics

The following is an excerpt from Josh McDowell’s personal notes on Teen Statistics posted on his website sometime back.

“Spirituality”

• “One-third of all teenagers (34%) as born again – unchanged in several years. (2000)”

• “The most common church affiliations among teenagers were Catholic (22%), Baptist (16%), and mainline Protestant (19%). Only 4% usually attend a charismatic or Pentecostal church. (2000)”

• “In 1997, 88% of teens say they are Christian. This number dropped to 82% in 1999.”

• “Of those who call themselves Christians, 26% said they are ‘absolutely committed’ and 57% said that they were ‘moderately committed’ to the Christian faith. (1999)”

• “Almost two-thirds of teens (62%) believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all of its teachings. (2000)”

• “Almost two-thirds describe themselves as ‘religious’ (64%). (1999)”

• “Three out of every five call themselves ‘spiritual’ (60%). (1999)”

• “Three out of five say they are ‘committed Christians’ (60%). (1999)”

• “One out of every three teens (33%) is born again. (1999)”

• “Only 4% of U.S. teens are evangelicals (1999)”

• “28% of teens feel a personal responsibility to tell others about their religious beliefs (56% of born again Christian teens feel this way). (1999)”

• “56% of teens feel that their religious faith is very important in their life. (1999)”

• “Two out of three teens (65%) say that the devil, or Satan, is not a living being but is a symbol of evil. (2000)”

• “Three out of five teens (61%) agree that ‘if a person is generally good, or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in Heaven.’ (2000)”

• “Slightly more than half (53%) say that Jesus committed sins while He was on earth. (2000)”

• “30% of teens believe that all religions are really praying to the same God, they are just using different names for God. (1999)”

• “In total, 83% of teens maintain that moral truth depends on the circumstances, and only 6% believe that moral truth is absolute. (2001)”

• “When it comes to believing in absolute truth, only 9% of born again teens believe in moral absolutes and just 4% of the non-born again teens believe that there are moral absolutes. (2001)”

“Religious Activities”

• “Nearly 9 out of 10 (89%) teens pray weekly. (1999)”

• “Over half of teens (56%) attend church on a given Sunday. (1999)

• “38% of teens donate some of their own money to a church in a given week.” (1999)”

• “35% of teens attend Sunday school in a given week. (1999)”

• “35% of teens read the Bible each week, not including when they are in church. (1999)”

• “More than seven out of ten teens are engaged in some church-related effort in a typical week: attending worship services, Sunday school, a church youth group or a small group. (1999)”

• “32% of teens attend youth group, other than a small group or Sunday school, each week. (1999)”

• “29% of teens attend a small group each week that meets regularly for Bible study, prayer or Christian fellowship, not including Sunday school or a 12-step group. (1999)”

• “18% read from a sacred text other than the Bible in a given week. (1999)”

(“Teenagers,” Barna Research Online, www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageCategoryID=37)

(For more information about the held perspectives on moral truth, see the February 12, 2002 Press Release article titled "Americans Are Most Likely to Base Truth on Feelings.")

Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it.

 

The following is an excerpt from  We Must Reclaim the Church Before We Can Even Begin to Reclaim the Culture by Brannon Howse.

Ken Ham has written an excellent book with Britt Beemer and Todd Hillard entitled, Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. Ham worked with a professional pollster to survey those who went to church every week or nearly every week and they deliberately polled conservative congregations, not liberal ones. Let me share some highlights from their book that confirm that the church needs to be reclaimed before we even attempt to reclaim the culture.

• A mass exodus is underway. Most youth of today will not be coming to church tomorrow. Nationwide polls and denominational reports are showing that the next generation is calling it quits on the traditional church. And it's not just happening on the nominal fringe; it's happening at the core of the faith.
• Only 11 percent of those who have left the Church did so during the college years. Almost 90 percent of them were lost in middle school and high school. By the time they got to college they were already gone! About 40 percent are leaving the Church during elementary and middle school years!
• If you look around in your church today, two-thirds of those who are sitting among us have already left in their hearts; it will only take a couple years before their bodies are absent as well.
• The numbers indicate that Sunday school actually didn't do anything to help them develop a Christian worldview...The brutal conclusion is that, on the whole, the Sunday school programs of today are statistical failures.
• Part of the concern is that the mere existence of youth ministry and Sunday school allows parents to shrug off their responsibility as the primary teachers, mentors, and pastors to their family.[1]

The answer to this crisis is Biblical worldview and apologetics training. The church in America has had billions of dollars at their disposal in modern times, with which to fulfill the Great Commission-making disciples of Jesus Christ. Training and equipping adults and students in apologetics and a Biblical worldview is how this is accomplished. Yet, with all their billions of dollars, the modern-church has largely failed. Untold billions have been spent on buildings and entertainment. This news report details that one church denomination has over 7 billion in their annuity fund. I mention this just to back up my claim that the modern church has had billions and billions at its disposal by which to aggressively teach a comprehensive Biblical worldview yet surveys reveal that only 1% of adults have a Biblical worldview, only 51% of our pastors have a Biblical worldview and our teens are leaving the church in huge numbers because of lack of Biblical worldview training.

What do you think?

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[1] Ken Ham & Britt Beemer with Todd Hillard, Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it (Master Books, Green Forest, AR., 2009) p. 22, 33, 41,

Eastern University :: Major in Youth Ministry

Eastern University :: Major in Youth Ministry: "Eastern University Department of Youth Ministry"

I ran across a Bachelors program in Youth Ministry at Eastern College. I don't know anything about the school or the program but it might be worth investigating.

I ran across this program while researching Duffy Robbins, the author of a very good series of articles entitled: "How to Evaluate Your Youth Ministry—Part 1" (follow the links on the article for parts 2-3)

Listening to Students About Leaving the Church, by Jeff Schadt

 

While doing this study, we found that many individuals, churches, and ministries are already actively engaging the Church Dropout problem. I think you will see many similarities between the Church Dropout Study LifeWay Research released this week and the experiences of Jeff Schadt from Youth Transition Network. We at LifeWay Research were encouraged to find so many diverse ministries working together to address the transition issue.

Meet Jeff and then visit the Youth Transition Network:

Over the past 18 months, the Youth Transition Network has held open forum discussions with over 500 high school students from across the country and interviewed 140 college students about their transition from high school to college.

This article will review the most frequent and compelling lessons learned from our interaction with these students.

High School Students
First, most high school students were not planning on leaving the church; second, few had given any thought to finding a new ministry home upon graduation. It was simply not on their radar screen.

In our sessions with the high school students, they have echoed each other when asked why they believe so many leave the church. The transparency of their answers has been both heartfelt and alarming. These discussions with them have resulted in between 20 and 25 reasons each session, with answers ranging from busy-ness and priorities to guilt and hypocrisy.

The top responses include:
• Sex
• Guilt
• Judgmental
• Hypocrisy
• Strict environment
• Freedom
• Deceptive dual life culture in the youth group
• Lack of a safe place to address failure

The story that has emerged from these sessions, which has been confirmed by taped follow-up interviews, has a similar pattern. It goes like this:

“We entered the youth group with a moderate faith. We enjoyed the program and the leader and found it fun to be involved in our youth group. Yet the messages we heard were primarily focused on sin avoidance, which we perceive as sin intolerance, leaving little room for failure.”

“Then we discovered that the subculture among the upperclassmen was unhealthy and alluring. The obvious hypocrisy of seeing the upperclassmen singing and going on mission trips and, yet, leading this hidden life was disillusioning.” (In the sessions they define this as an intentionally deceptive dual life, one that youth leaders and parents often have no idea is occurring, according to the students.) “Eventually we gave in to the subculture, resulting in guilt and a sense of being unacceptable to God.”

In these sessions high school students consistently said that they cannot share their failure with parents or youth leaders. Parents will punish them and they have seen such information leak into their youth ministries, resulting in significant social ramifications for students within the church.

Once participating in the subculture in their youth ministry, they find it hard to escape because it keeps pulling them down. They helplessly try to extract themselves from the situation by themselves, while being told they should be able to avoid sin. The level of defeat that results, leads many we have encountered to say that, they “never feel successful in their faith”. In our sessions we have asked the students to estimate the percentage of students from their own youth group that are leading this intentionally deceptive dual life. At Urbana, a national mission conference, high school seniors started their estimates at 75% and ranged to 95% as they reflected upon the students in their youth groups!

High school students also report that as they look forward to graduation. They do not expect they will encounter anything different in college, career or military ministries, leaving little motivation to seek them out.

College Students
Our interviews with college students who have made the transition, some successfully and many through the fire, give more room for hope that something can be done. In these interviews, students consistently brought up three main issues with transition.
1. Aloneness
2. Making friends
3. A desire to find a church, but not knowing how

The relational connection is critical as students are separated from many of their anchor points: friends, parents, their church, and their own room, resulting in a heightened need to fit in, be accepted and be loved. Many college students have told us that the result of this stress for them was that they bonded to the first group that accepted them on campus. This could mean at a party, a boyfriend/girlfriend or a ministry.

In fact, in our interviews we found that only 7% of college students knew the name of one college ministry before arriving on campus. 93% did not know the name of any of the college/career ministries, creating a credibility problem for the college ministries. These ministries are desperately trying to find the freshmen before they get sucked into the black hole of collegiate culture. This desperation has led ministries to more overt tactics to identify Christians during the first week of school. In the eyes of our high school students just arriving on campus, they perceive these tactics as strange or aggressive, since they do not know the names and, thus, do not perceive them to be reputable. In some instances, this actually causes our graduates to avoid the very ministries we hope they will connect to.

The consequences of taking a break from the Lord in college are significant, as it is during these critical years that students will set their life trajectory apart from their parents’ influence. In these years they set their lifestyle, career and often find their spouse. Doing so, apart from the Lord, often has life-long consequences.

For those that did connect to a college or military ministry, they give three reasons why being involved in a college ministry was different from their youth ministry.

1. All the students who come want to be there!
2. The leaders want to help with the real issues you are struggling with.
3. The ministries care about you, will disciple you and are not concerned with how cool you are.

We can influence the course of our graduates during their junior and senior years, given that many have not consciously decided to walk away from the church. Helping them understand the challenges, stress and loneliness they can face when leaving home and educating them about the ministry options can go a long way in itself. Further, students who have participated in “Be Prepared” sessions and watched the consequence video produced by YTN reported a significant increase in their desire to connect with a college/career ministry, find Christian roommates and to continue walking with the Lord. One high school senior summarized it well when he said, “Up until I watched the video, I had not even thought about connecting to a ministry when I got to campus. Now it is my top priority before I leave home!”

The Youth Transition Network is a coalition of our nation’s denominations, youth, college and career ministries working together to motivate, prepare and transition our youth to their next spiritual home. The coalition includes: Baptist Collegiate Ministries, LifeWay Research, The Assemblies of God, Campus Crusade for Christ, Youth for Christ InterVarsity and the Navigators, along with many more. YTN has assembled two sites to aid in the preparation and transition process: one for leaders (YouthTransitionNetwork.org) and another for students (LiveAbove.com), which has 5,400 ministries on over 3,000 campuses for students to connect with before they leave home. Preparing our youth for the future and connecting them through LiveAbove.com will help the middle 50% of youth group students that have not set the course of walking away, but are vulnerable without a relational connection in transition.

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2007/08/listening_to_students_about_le_1.html

College Attrition

I just spent two days meeting with Jeff Schadt, Executive Director of Youth Transition Network (www.YouthTransitionNetwork.org   and www.LiveAbove.com )  discussing these issues. Jeff has done a great deal of research on the subject and the issues are much deeper than those revealed by the Lifeway Study on which Thom Rainer's book was based.

According to Jeff, unless college freshmen (who were church going high school students) plug in with a local church or campus ministry with 72hrs of arriving on campus they will probably fall away. Without this connection, the loneliness and desire to fit in is so great they these freshmen quickly fall in with the wrong crowd. Subsequently, peer pressure leads them to do things which they swore they would never do and it is the resulting guilt which keeps them away from God.

He has created a ministry (Youth Transition Network www.YouthTransitionNetwork.org)  which provides materials to local youth groups (www.LiveAbove.com) to prepare students for the transition to college and to connect them with campus ministries/churches before they arrive on campus. This program was first tested at Arizona State University which saw campus ministry participation almost double after implementing this program.

I highly recommend ordering his DVD to share with your youth group.

If you are part of a college ministry, I highly recommend you review his materials and perhaps partner with his ministry to help connect with teens before they reach college.