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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Why Are So Many Young Christians Leaving the Church?


The search for ways to connect the 60% who are unreachable with the attractional model is an important part of my mission and certain books offer clues that are clearly part of the hunt. One of the most recent entries in the collection is You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church…and Rethinking Faith by David Kinnaman. New from Baker, if you recognize Kinnaman’s name, you might have read unChristian, published in 2007 (with Gabe Lyons).

Kinnaman is the president and majority owner of the Barna Group, known for its body of research. You Lost Me is based on a study of young insiders, “young adults who once thought of themselves as Christians–who have left the church and sometimes the faith.” A series of national public opinion surveys conducted by the Barna Group for the You Lost Me project between 2007 and 2011, along with the findings from two decades of prior national studies, form the basis for the conclusions reached in the book. In “research tailored to understand eighteen to twenty-nine year olds,” participants were asked “to describe their experience of church and faith, what pushed them away, and what connective tissue remains between them and Christianity (p. 21).”

Packed with stories from survey interviews, You Lost Me is very readable and at the same time will call to mind conversations you’ve had with young adults who attend your church (or used to). The book also includes a steady supply of charts, graphs and references to the actual questions that formed the basis of the interviews. To read more, click here.

Related article: Connecting the Widening 60% (who are unreachable by the attractional model)

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