were raised are not safe and hospitable places to express doubts. Many feel that they have been offered slick or half-baked answers to their thorny, honest questions, and they are rejecting the “talking heads” and “talking points” they see among the older generations….Their judgment (is) that the institutional church has failed them.”
“I think this next generation is not just slightly different from the past. I believe they are discontinuously different than anything we have seen before.”
“Christianity is no longer the ‘default setting’ of American society.”
The above quotations come from a book by David Kinnaman (president of the Barna Group) titled You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church…and Rethinking Faith.19 Even if we do not believe the first two reflect our congregations, all of these observations let us know something about the storm raging outside. I recommend this book for several reasons:
1 It is based on research over a period of four years with thousands of young people ages eighteen to twenty-nine. (This age represents the black hole of church attendance. Kinnaman calls this age segment the “missing in action” from most congregations.)
2 There are many charts throughout the book labeled “In Their Own Words.” Every congregation with which I have worked as an interim minister wants desperately to reach this group but most have done little or nothing to engage in meaningful conversation with them. My thesis in attempting to reach young people (or anyone, for that matter) is that we need first of all to listen to them (whether we agree or not is beside the point).
3 A section at the end of the book is called The Research and defines the basic terms used in the studies, has a lengthy discussion on Methodology (persons surveyed, data collected, sample size, and sampling error), and concludes with information about David Kiennaman and the Barna Group (whose research is frequently cited in national publications).Most will turn immediately to the last chapter in the book, Fifty Ideas to Find A Generation which is divided into ideas for (1) everyone; (2) the next generation; (3) parents; (4) pastors, church leaders, and Christian organizations; and (5) supporters of the next generation. Kinnaman acknowledges that every idea will not relate to your particular situation and that the listing is not necessarily an endorsement. These ideas come from many different persons who are attempting to live with new realities.You can check out the book by visiting the website www.YouLostMeBook.org.
7 Jim Wallis, Call To Conversion (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2005), xiv.
8 Richard Blackburn, Leadership and Anxiety in the Church (Lombard: IL: Lombard Peace Center, 2007). From a 2011 workshop in Louisville, KY.
9 Bill Adler, Dear Pastor (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1980).
10 Walter Lord, A Night to Remember (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2005), 10.
11 Ibid, 12.
12 James Finley, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1978), 88.
13 Iona & Peter Opie, eds., I Saw Esau (Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 1992), 25.
14 James Finley, Merton’s Palace of Nowhere, 81.
15 Henri de Lubac, quoted in Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me (New York: Riverhead Books, 2008), 143
16 Tad Tuleja, Quirky Quotations, 59.
17 Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2006), 88.
18 Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture (New York: Hyperion, 2008), 116.
19 David Kinnaman, You Lost Me (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011).
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