Reason #1Choice Anxiety
Well here we go, in no particular order, reason number one why Young Adults are leaving the church. Ladies and Gents introducing…(drum roll please)…Choice Anxiety.If you live in the West you are rich, not just financially, but you enjoy an affluence of options and choices.
On one hand this is fantastic, we have access to millions of opportunities and experiences that our forebears could never dream of. But the flipside of this abundance of choice means that we become paralysed in the face of a million possibilities, choices and variables. Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice notes that the more choices we are given, the more our well -being and happiness deteriorates. Why? Because whatever choice we make we are always comparing our decisions to the myriad of other possible choices. Thus we can never be at peace with the paths that we take, we are always comparing and fretting, we are stuck with a constant gut level anxiety or angst over our choices.
Add to this the fact that daily we are confronted with thousands of advertising messages all of which are designed by experts and marketing psychologists, and each has the purpose to make us feel discontent with our lives in order to make new purchases, and you can see why we are stuck in choice anxiety.
Churches are now seeing a similar marketing driven form of choice anxiety. As churchesstruggle to make inroads missionally in Western cultures, churches are becoming more and more sophisticated and competitive in their marketing to believers, thus many churchescontribute toChristians feeling less satisfied where they are. Iremember catching up with a Young Adult pastor of a large and successful young adults ministry. He was absolutely beside himself with worry over a rumour thatwell known church wasgoing to plant in his suburb. He told me that he estimated that if this happened he could losehundreds of his young adults.
How does this play out in the faith lives of young adults? Christian young adults are stuck with a constant splinter in the mind, the never ending nagging feeling that they might have made the wrong decision. Maybe they have chosen the wrong church to attend? Should they be at the hip contemporary mega-church down the road? Or maybe they should try the small emerging church in the next suburb? Or should they rejoin their friends and family at the traditional church that they grew up in? Did they even makeright choice in following Christ?Maybe they should move Cities, States, Countries? Should they change partners, careers, lifestyles, ethics?
All of these factorscreate a constant and nagging feeling that young adults must leave their churches in order to find fulfilment. However as soon as you move and set your tent down, that nagging feeling returns. Sadlymore andmoreyoung adult believers areexperiencing aharried, exhausting and restless spiritual homelessness.
Any thoughts on Sayers views? (by the way Sayers is an Australian)
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Great article. Looking forward to the next one!
ReplyDeleteJust one question... what are we supposed to DO about it. Maybe I'm getting it all wrong, and we're not supposed to do anything, but surely there is some direction for the church here?
I completely agree with Sayers proposition. I have a mate who is a furniture salesman. He says that people have too much choice when they come into his store, so the first thing he does is narrow them down to just 3 options. Otherwise they will never make a decision.
Interesting... though the Baptists down the road do have a great kids club! (Kidding!!)
Good stuff to be aware of, but as copland said, I hope we get some ideas re options for response.
ReplyDeleteWhile the threat is real, and GenY has challenges, it is not all doom and gloom. A community of believers being real in worship and displays of love for one another do continue to draw. We belive in the prevenient grace of God going before our efforts and (still) drawing people to Himself.
p.s. knew copland was kidding: baptists and a great kids club???...come on!!
hey guys,
ReplyDeleteHow do we respond?
Good point tim about displaying love draing people, i guess the next step is to make sure our we and our 'people' are displaying that Love not simply for one another but for those around them outside of the church.
Baptists...Ha!....well the one i attended while at college had a great kids club! Howver, we never used it :(
The challeneg is for us to realise WHY people are leaving and then work out how we can best address those issues and be intentional about finding ways to engage them...i guess if Sayers new the answers then he would have made millions and there would be no need for us to ask the questions and work through the issues....
Peace!
WHY people are leaving?
ReplyDeleteMy church experience (12 years) it is more of an issue getting them than keeping them.
Once in, I do believe the love on display is effective. While comprehending Sayers list of issues, I don't personally see them being relevant IF the core is right. These reasons seem to have socio-cultural/ philosophical implications and there is the spiritual aspect to that as well; what is God doing in the heart and mind of the believer( of any age/ background).
Re response: I just want people like Sayers who promote issues & problems to also have a stab at solutions; that's what I'm about.
i don't think it is healthy just to do what he says, but give some stuff to think about beyond the negative. Anyway, it is interesting
reading.
Re the leaving issue: jobs, changes in family & location, varying needs in a church community, spiritual lapses etc have all played a part in farewelling someone from our fellowship.
God has a sense of humour though.
When I arrived at Gawler, it took one year for the first person to leave; we had got too noisy.
And then within a month, the next person left; we were not charismatic enough. I learned we would not be able to please all the people all time, but we did need to be true to ourselves and what God was revealing to us. The issue with some GenYers may be less tolerance for that journey of discovery.
Blessings