Most People in the US identify themselves as Christians -78%. Only 1.7% are Jewish and less than 1% were Muslim or Buddhist. Overall 84% of American adults claim some kind of religious affiliation.
Protestants are still a majority (51%), but not for long, according to Pew and CBS.
The real news in the survey is that more than one-fourth of adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion. When swapping one brand of Protestant for another, the number rises to 44%.
Catholics have lost the most in the religion swaps - 10% of Americans are ex-Catholics. But the declines in Catholic church membership have been offset by Hispanic immigrants. Nearly half of all US Catholics under 30 are Hispanic.
The largest segment claiming no religious affiliation is young adults -- 1 on 4 of those ages 18-29 identify with no religious institution.
The last statement is what concerns me most. What are our churches doing to run off these young people or burn them out on church? What are our churches doing to reach this age group?
4 comments:
Just to be clear, is that age group claiming no spiritual affiliation either? Being a part of this age group, I have found that a lot of people my age will claim spiritual affliation (Christian spirituality) but have been very disillusioned by the religious institutions of their faith.
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller is worth a read. I know that their are tons of books on the subject, but that is one that opened my eyes. As with every book, there is good and bad...but it was worth reading. Would you mind if I bring you a copy on Sunday?
Bring it on.
I've worked in two churches that wanted young adults, but only if they dressed like they dressed, talked like they talked, listened to what they listened to, and became volunteers for their programs.
In college myself and a group of Campus Crusade for Christ buddies started attending a church. We were on fire for God and willing to serve and do anything, but the church didn't have a clue of what to do with us. At one point we had over 60 college students attending this one church. But eventually students disappeared and sought other churches to attend because the church didn't know what to do with us. We didn't overload their facilities (they had plenty of space for us), but it was a church who had a few teenagers but most were 45+ in age and then came us.
If you can figure out the answers to those two questions, Andy, there will be pastors from all over the country banging on your door. It is the age old dilemma.
I am interested to know how many of those 18-29 year olds RETURN to church once they settle down and start having their own families.
That is what happened with my husband and I. We both had doubt nagging in the corners of our minds and needed to just hang back. It's not like I can say we were "searching" for something more or different or "trying to find ourselves".....we were simply self involved and wanted to be in charge of our own lives. THANK GOD we got over that!
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