The “de-churched” demographic

I grew up in a suburb of Richmond, VA where my family attended a local church. I was involved from the moment I left the nursery, it felt like, and I continued to find any way possible to serve until I left for college at age 18. I was a part of a youth group that went through 3 youth pastors in the course of my high school career. In the midst of all of this, the youth group stayed rather large, which was surprising both to us students who were involved and to the leadership of the church. The youth group was one the the most exciting things happening at the church with it reaching, weekly, between 70-120 students.

The problem with most American church-goers is that from the numbers I stated above, they would automatically think that it was a healthy high school group. What is it with the Church in the Western world that we are so obsessed with numbers and then turning around and assuming the quality of the group? When did quality become a result out of quantity?

The current statistics out there by the Barna Research Team is that 86% of high school students involved in a church will have walked away from their faith completely before graduating college. Now the youth group I grew up in produced some pretty awesome students. One is getting ready to go out on the mission field to Somalia where you can count the amount of missionaries on one hand. Another student just graduated from Virginia Tech after being highly in the campus church there, and is now headed to an engineering job in Virginia Beach. He led small groups, led a worship band, and even considered full time ministry before feeling called by God to serve in the workplace. On and on I could go, but I honestly don’t think I could go to 14. Fourteen percent represents the ones who are still faithful after college. Now I believe I had one of the best youth pastors in the world, Dave Simiele, who is now serving at Christ Fellowship in West Palm, Florida. But even with Dave, or the countless other great youth pastors out there why only 14 out of a 100?

[lcf] recently flew out a member of the board for Ecclesia (see our partnership page under about) at the end of April to do an assessment of our church community here at LC. One of the things we learned in this process is how [lcf] is reaching these de-churched students. Even though we knew that these students were our target audience I didn’t realize how much. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term “de-churched” let me define it this way: anyone who has had some level of christian or church exposure in their childhood and adolescence experience but now wants nothing to do with either.

My experience with almost all of the students that are at Lynchburg College is as I described above. How do we reach these students? What pushed them away from the church to begin with?

I am very proud of our community for a lot of reasons, but one of the most important reasons is because they live what they say. One of our mission statements is to “embrace everyone” and our community lives this out better than any I have ever had the chance to see. With all kinds of agendas, t-shirts, and beliefs being thrown in your face from the moment you walk onto a college campus until you leave, it is hard to embrace and accept everyone you come across. We believe that you don’t have to believe everything someone says or stands for or even be accepting of their way of life in order to embrace them and accept them as image-bearers of Christ. This profound approach to people is what allows us to have an impact on the students at Lynchburg College. It is nothing new. Jesus lived this way. How often does the church walk out judgement prior to offering a hand? Is there a reason why Jesus saved some of his harshest words for the Pharisees and the disciples?

My prayer is that our community will continue to love everyone it comes across. My prayer is that the Church will love people and embrace them as image-bearers of God.

Join with me today in prayer for both the Church and those who have walked away because of the Church.

God, Savior, Master, and Daddy,
We pray today for the Church around the world.
We ask that you teach us all how to imitate Your Son in all that we say and do.
May we be a Church that embraces everyone we come in contact with.
May we be a body of believers that are seeking to bring Your kingdom to earth.
Cause us to see people the way that you see them, and for our hearts to beat the way Yours does.
Cause us to be a missional community of people wherever we are that are more interested in people than our buildings.

God today we pray for those who have chosen to walk away.
May You place us in their paths to share with them your true gospel.
May we live in such a way that our actions and language reflect Your Son.
We ask today for those friends and family members in our lives that have walked away from the church.
We ask for forgiveness for those times we have not lived or responded according to Your Scriptures.
We ask for forgiveness for the times we have hurt those that has walked away.
Cause us to be the Church you want us to be.
Amen.

- Philip Watkins