MMasztal
Puritan Board Sophomore
My experience with high school kids in my school prompts me to ask this question.
We’re all familiar with the Barna studies which show a large percentage of young adults raised in the Church leaving the Church when they go away to college. Answers in Genesis did another large study which found that the disconnect actually starts in middle and high school, however these kids are still “under the thumb” of their parents and have to attend church. So when they go away to college they can exercise their freedom and drop church attendance.
Both Barna and AIG cite a lack of substantive Christian education in church youth programs and maybe at home, but I wonder if there is another reason which I have not seen addressed in the research.
I teach in a non-denominational school so we have kids from a whole gamut of church backgrounds: Reformed to Pentacostal to uber-lib/emergent to rarely attending any service at all and even some Seventh Day Adventists. It seems that the kids who are the most argumentative and basically unhappy with church are those that come from a really legalistic and oppressive families/church background.
This make me wonder if growing up in a legalistic home/church environment may be the major contributor to the church attendance exodus that occurs when kids leave home to attend college. Does anyone know of any studies that have been completed that show a correlation between the legalistic upbringing and breaking away from church in college?
It might make for an interesting thesis/dissertation.
We’re all familiar with the Barna studies which show a large percentage of young adults raised in the Church leaving the Church when they go away to college. Answers in Genesis did another large study which found that the disconnect actually starts in middle and high school, however these kids are still “under the thumb” of their parents and have to attend church. So when they go away to college they can exercise their freedom and drop church attendance.
Both Barna and AIG cite a lack of substantive Christian education in church youth programs and maybe at home, but I wonder if there is another reason which I have not seen addressed in the research.
I teach in a non-denominational school so we have kids from a whole gamut of church backgrounds: Reformed to Pentacostal to uber-lib/emergent to rarely attending any service at all and even some Seventh Day Adventists. It seems that the kids who are the most argumentative and basically unhappy with church are those that come from a really legalistic and oppressive families/church background.
This make me wonder if growing up in a legalistic home/church environment may be the major contributor to the church attendance exodus that occurs when kids leave home to attend college. Does anyone know of any studies that have been completed that show a correlation between the legalistic upbringing and breaking away from church in college?
It might make for an interesting thesis/dissertation.
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