Lost or Let Go – It’s not about guitars and drums

The teaser on the news page first caught my attention, “The last generation to go to church on a regular basis…” The story (told just slightly differently here) reported an address given to a large gathering of Presbyterians by the vice-moderator of our General Assembly, Pastor Byron Wade.  I have been impressed with Byron since his election. He has been a winsome, candid and faithful voice during his almost completed two years of service; refreshingly honest and orthodox in situations often controlled by the bureaucratic spin doctors.
 
So Wade is talking to the assembled Presbyterians and asks for a show of hands for those born prior to 1970. That’s when he told them, “You are the last generation to go to church on a regular basis.” I wish the news stories, or Byron himself, had provided a reference or a footnote to offer some data or research to verify his contention, but we really don’t need it. It makes sense. It’s intuitively and experientially apparent. And if you’re wondering, here’s a good starting point: Mark Roberts at Beliefnet summarizes what we’ve been hearing increasingly clearly for the past decade or so. The church has lost the younger generation – and this is about much more than kids “taking a break from church” during college and for a few years afterwards.  “They’ll come back when they start having kids,” we try to kid ourselves into believing.  But they don’t and they won’t. And, by the way, it is not just those in the Millennial Generation – our own studies show that LPC people are almost exactly typical of those in a huge national survey, attending worship 23-28 times per year. Half-time is the new full-time. Continue Reading »