Young People in the Church

What it comes down to: many young people aren't in the church. This is a concept that has been on my heart for quite some time now, a concept that's been nagging at me at least since the time that I entered my church's youth program. It was only last night that I was posed with the question as to why my own church can't manage to get youth involved. And just this afternoon, these articles came to my attention:

• "Reaching Out to Young Adults Will Screw Up Your Church"
• "Young People Should Be More Committed to the Church"

I don't even necessarily feel that it is simply an issue of young adults but youth as well. In my own community, I have watched as youth groups have fizzled out. Being a part of Concordia's Outreach Ministry, I watched as even larger communities struggled to get youth to come to lock-ins led by college students, who are generally seen as "cool" by teens. This is a problem that needs to be addressed. And I feel like I can't let it go anymore.
I'll admit, I cannot be unbiased to this issue because I've lived in it. I've experienced the lack of relevance, belonging, value, and respect I've felt as a youth and young adult in the Church. I've seen it even more in my peers. Though I attended a Lutheran college where many of my friends came from faith backgrounds and held a belief in God had become disenchanted with the Church which they had come to see as judgmental, hypocritical, and irrelevant. Even I, with a solid faith foundation, have found it increasingly difficult to live my faith daily. But I rest easier with the assurance that I know that God loves me no matter what and that He will be beside me throughout my life, whether I acknowledge his presence daily or not. But what saddens me is that many youth and young adults don't know the same, and unless we find a way to reconnect them with faith communities, how will they ever know?


Where does the problem begin? Often from the time students enter the "youth" age group, particularly confirmation-age in many churches. From the time I entered junior high, I felt like I had no value within my church. Sure, there were people who valued me and my peers, but the congregation as a whole didn't value the youth, at least not in their actions. We were consistently judged, patronized, belittled, and disrespected as a group. I was lucky enough to have a solid foundational faith family to look to for encouragement in my faith. Not all of my peers were so lucky - I don't blame them for not wanting to come back.  One of the highest needs of my generation and the ones that follow is a need for belonging, and I know plenty of youth who haven't found that in the Church, especially as faith communities tend to be just as clique-y as middle schools and high schools.
Another of the great needs of my generation and those that follow is a need for relevance. Just as questions of "When am I ever going to use this?" abound in my classrooms, the question of "How can I use this in my life?" abounds in the heads of youth and young adults when they go to church, whether it's in worship or in small groups. But for whatever reason, the abstract concepts of being "Christlike" are never made all that applicable to the lives of youth and young adults. I sit in sermons where examples, particularly meaningful ones, related only to adults who are middle aged or at least who have children. Occasionally a shallow example gets thrown in for us youth and young adults, usually pertaining to school. Newsflash: youth and young adults are more than just students. Youth and young adults desire something more than that.
We desire to learn in ways that are relevant, authentic, and deep. We want a place where we can grow, explore, and question. We want to belong. We want relevance. We want to connect with God but struggle to do that in the Church - so where are we supposed to go?