There was an article earlier this month in USA Today that I suspect most people missed, since it was buried in the back pages of the Life section. But it caught my attention and I thought it worth sharing.

The article was titled “Young People Aren’t Sticking with Church,” and it highlighted the startling statistic that 70% of Protestant young people (i.e., those between the ages of 18 and 30) had stopped attending church by the age of 23. This includes both mainline Protestants and Evangelicals.

More alarming still is the fact that 34% of this same group had not returned to church, even sporadically, by the age of 30. In other words, the old argument that “they will come back to the church when they have children of their own to raise” is no longer holding true. Simply put, one out of every four has left the church for good!

That’s rather sobering news, to say the least. Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow summed up the situation pretty well when he said, “Unless religious leaders take younger adults more seriously, the future of American religion is in serious doubt.”

I had come across statistics like this before, and my hunch was always that the younger generation was turned-off by the typical mainline worship service—finding it to be dull, uninspiring, and hopelessly disconnected from their lives. However, according to this article, that’s not the main reason that they are staying away.

To be sure, there are some that have become disenchanted with 18th century hymns and obtuse sermons. But for the most part, these folks have simply found themselves another church.

Those that dropped out altogether cited a different reason for not returning to worship. Of those surveyed, 51% said that they experienced the church as being “judgmental,” “hypocritical,” and “uncaring.” Ouch! Now that hurts … but it may also alert us as to what people are really looking for from a church.

Please don’t misunderstand. We still need to do everything we can to make our worship services more inspiring and relevant for younger adults. But whether you are young or old, the main reason people come to church is to experience God’s love. If they don’t find that in worship, then it doesn’t matter how contemporary the service is. If they somehow get the impression that the church doesn’t really care about them, then they are not likely to care much about the church!