Why Youth Avoid Christian Churches?

What causes a young person to avoid Christian churches? The given excuses range from being bored to being too busy, but the blame is always laid on a secular source. In reality, youth are deterred by sources from inside churches, just as much as by outside sources. The blame cannot be placed solely on the world, although it contributes, but must also be shared with churches. Nevertheless, youth contribute their evasiveness to a number of reasons that seem to pile up until they reach a single critical point.
Commonly, youth complain of the lack of entertainment in church services. “Church is boring,” and oftentimes it really is. But not every service is “dead,” rather the problem is that young people “[…] are lacking the character and discipline today to sit still, listen and learn[…] If they are not entertained, they are bored” ( Kohl ). With all of the T.V. s, movies, video games, computers, and other time-sucking devices in this world, it’s no wonder that youth can’t just sit and listen to a preacher, or even a teacher. Many youth, when given the choice would much rather be at home playing a video game or watching a movie, than attending church for an hour and listening to a sermon. As Pastor Art Kohl states it, “[…] being entertained has become a life-style”( Kohl ).
Typically, a young person won’t say, “I don’t want to go to church because I don’t want to be different from my friends,” but the excuse still exists. Peer pressure is a major player in a young person’s life because friends decide the majority of his/her actions. Abraham Lincoln once said, “You’ll be the same person you are a year from now except for the people you meet and the books you read” ( Kohl ). The statement, “you are who your friends are,” rings true in this generation, and if a person’s friends don’t go to church, he doesn’t go to church. The fear of being a social outcast is not the only effect of peer pressure. If youth aren’t going to church on Sundays, they are obviously doing something else, and the possible churchgoer wants to be a part of the action. Young people not only want to be accepted by their friends, but they also want to be involved in whatever is happening, even if it conflicts with a church schedule.
The most frequently used excuse is, “I have other things to do.” Many youth have work on Sundays, a circumstance that some can’t change without being hurt financially. Yet there are others that don’t need overtime, or even a full 40 hours a week. For many teenagers that still live with their parents, a job is more of a luxury than a necessity, and a paycheck is only a chance to blow their money on whatever they please. Admittedly, there are other young people with college tuition, car payments, and rent to struggle to pay every month, while working only before or after classes, and on the weekends, but most denominations have Wednesday night services. Another distraction from church is sports. U.S. citizens seem to be obsessed with sports, and the sports, in turn, take over their every free moment. Between NFL Sundays, gymnastics and baseball championships, or soccer tournaments, there is hardly a free Sunday left for the sports fanatic. Other “busy Sunday” excuses include things such as time to catch up on homework, the only family time available, or even just a day to get some sleep, yet none of these reasons seem to be quite adequate coverage for an hour sermon in the morning or an hour at night.
The desire to be different is an excuse not often mentioned, but definitely thought about. A survey by B’nai Brith Youth Organization showed that 68% of youth said they would “[…] prefer a less conventional way to do so [express their religion]” ( Deseret). Many young people want to just be different, whether from other youth or from older generations. An unconventional way of attending church is through the internet. “Teenagers do just about everything else online, why not religion?” ( Deseret) The problem with internet churches is that it is impossible to do what the Bible teaches, even if it makes attendance easier. Many people like going to church online because they can work church into their schedule, and don’t have to worry about not being able to do the other things they want to do, plus, if they don’t show, nobody will notice anyway. Other youth crave attention and find that being Muslim, Buddhist, Gothic or even Atheist makes them “out of the norm” and draws the attention of others. Some youth even change their religious practice as a form of rebellion against older generations, or even those who raised them.
This generation of youth is almost totally separated from their parents. Young people just do their own thing and only see their parents for brief moments throughout the day, and when they need a place to sleep at night. Youth do so little with their parents these days that it would be very unusual to see a young person attend church with their parents. Many youth wouldn’t even think of going to a service, only because their parents go.
Still other youth avoid church simply because they don’t believe. In 1996, a study by NCLS, showed that 37% of weekly Mass attendees, between ages 15 and 39, didn’t even accept the central article of their faith ( Gilchrist ). If the youth in churches don’t even believe in their own religion, why would youth outside of church? In many Christian denominations, the accepted beliefs are crammed down young people’s throats leaving no room to breath in a little Bible and study Truth themselves. Youth are turned away because they don’t want “[…] to be spoon-fed information. They want to define meaning for themselves and not have it defined for them.” ( Deseret) and they aren’t allowed to do that.
The most dangerous and critical reason for the lack in church attendance among youth is hypocrisy within churches. Young people view the world more critically than others, and when they see Christians doing what they shouldn’t be, it turns them away. The first thing wrong within most Christian churches in this day is that, most times, there is no genuine change in a new convert’s life. Youth can see if people have really changed their lifestyles and attitudes, or if they are just the same as they used to be. Physical appearance is also important. Churchgoers dress, act, talk, and look the same as everybody else. A young person in high school or college would rarely be able to see the difference between a Christian and an Atheist, because outwardly they both appear the same, and many times inwardly as well. Youth are turned away by the fact that Christians are the same as everybody else. Another form of hypocrisy in churches is caused from the lack of respect for the Bible and the pastor. So many churches today say that you have to respect the house of God, yet they call their pastors by their first names and wear ragged or everyday clothes. Other churches permit things such as homosexuality, adultery, drinking, tattoos, smoking, fornication, and even child molestation, things clearly against Bible standards. Even a youth that doesn’t attend church can see the wrong when churchgoers engage in these actions, and it disgusts him when others look down on him because he doesn’t go to church. Why would he want to?
If Christians act, look, dress, talk, watch the same movies, and listen to the same music as everybody else, what makes them any different? When a Christian acts superior to a non-believer, he is being hypocritical, and any young person can see that. All other excuses for evasiveness pile up and block the view of this one very deterring factor, hypocrisy. No one wants to blame churches for causing youth to not want to attend, they want all the blame laid solely on secular excuses. The truth is that many Christian denominations in this world today are as much to blame for the lack of attendance, as the world itself. If youth can live the way that they already do, and still be called Christians, what is the point? They would much rather be doing something entertaining or useful, instead of going to church on Sunday, and “living like the devil” on Monday.