Graduating Church? (6/15/2011)

Weekly Pulpit -- Warren Sentinel  -- June 15, 2011

High school graduation is a bittersweet rite of passage. Academic achievement is celebrated. Futures are anticipated. Family and friends prepare to say good-bye to graduates. Parties are held. Plans are made. Bags are packed. Jobs are started (or at least sought). And most churches begin to see a mass exodus of their youngest adults.

Studies indicate that between sixty and seventy percent of high school graduates who regularly attend church will stop doing so in the years following graduation. Around a quarter of them may eventually return when they marry and have children. Still others may return in moments of crisis. But many will never return.

These same studies indicate that most graduates don't plan on leaving church. But every year the exodus begins again. This doesn't mean that they have abandoned their faith, their churches, or their families. But I do believe that it means that they have lost an important point of connection in their lives. Or maybe it reflects that this point of connection wasn't all that important after all. It certainly means that churches have lost one of their greatest assets.

Some blame the exodus from churches on colleges or universities. But the church dropout rate isn't statistically higher for those who attend college. Others blame the media's coverage of the scandals of prominent church leaders. But relatively few of those who leave churches report that they did so because of this either.

Sam Rainer, co-author of Essential Church, writes the following: “This age group gives a variety of reasons for the departure: They wanted a break from church. They didn’t connect with the people in the church. They perceived existing church members as out of touch with current reality. The results boiled down to one simple reason: Church was not essential to them.”

What a tragedy! The reality is that many people – not just graduating seniors – no longer see church as an essential part of their lives. And who's to blame? I am. How have I helped others see that being an active part of a community of faith is essential? How have I shown that it is essential to me? And so I must ask myself, how will I live and parent and pastor in ways that will communicate that being part of a church is essential? And how will I seek to help engage youth – even my own children – in the life of a church so that they will come to see it as essential?

I am struck by Ecclesiastes 12:1, which reads, “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, 'I find no pleasure in them'” The sad reality is that churches seem increasingly composed of the youngest and oldest among us and are less vital as a result.

My plea to our graduates is that you stick with your church or join another church if you move away. You are essential to your church. Its very future depends in great part on you! May God bless you as you celebrate this important milestone in your life and may God guide you as set forth on the next part of your journey.