Recently, my Facebook newsfeed has been filling up with excited discussion about a TVNZ news segment reporting that some sort of revival is going on in New Zealand. The report suggests that the numbers are heavily in favour of people having an interest in religion. You can find the video here.
Obviously, having only really heard bad news from all other research in the same field I was really interested in what was going on. University aged young adults keen on God? Sounds great! I hate to be the ever present party pooper, but it seems that this is a bit too much hype over some less than encouraging stats. Let's have a closer look at this video.
We are told that there is evidence of some sort of religious revival (Christians, bear in mind this does not necessarily mean other Christians) and then we are shown clips from Easter Camp (which looked awesome by the way). Blue is interviewed commenting that people want purpose and meaning and that might be why people still find the need for religion. We then hear about the study itself: 150 university students are surveyed and about half remain involved in religion, with 20% saying they are more devout than their parents. I can’t find the study anywhere on the internet so I’m going to have to go just from this video.
I’m involved in young adults ministry (roughly speaking 18 – 30 year olds) and to me this just seems like the same discouraging statistics dressed up in sensationalist language. How can you possibly receive a 50% church dropout by university as a good sign? This simply means that of the people that were already religious through youth groups, only half of them remain religious through university. University age generally represents only the first 3 years of the young adult years. And 50% have already dropped out of church? All other studies would say this is fairly typical, with more dropout occurring before the age of 30. I’m interested in more than just the university years, and so although it’s great that half do stick around, is it really grounds for declaring a revival?
Let’s not forget what is said at the end of the video – if people aren’t brought up with a religion they are very unlikely not to ever find it. And in the last NZ census it showed that more people identified as having no religious affiliation. It seems that you are only likely to find God if he is part of your childhood. This, at least to me, is really concerning.
Remember, this is one study amongst many, one with a small sample, and one that doesn’t seem to be as encouraging as it is made out to be. I would maybe even go further and suggest that the only reason they put this together at Easter was to get people sharing the video and generating more traffic for their site.
If people are receiving this as good news can I please suggest we raise our standards? In my view, revival means people from all walks of life turning to God and a nation being affected. I don’t see how that looks anything like losing half of our young people at university.
I'm no mathematician but if Christianity looses 50% of it's young adults every generation with very little growth from people born outside the Christian community, then within a few generations it could be looking pretty bleak if nothing is done.
ReplyDeleteWhy not do your own study. Go somewhere within your own local community where there will be a good mix of people like outside local supermarkets. Ask people for their opinions on churches, Christianity, what they like, don't like. Why they go, don't go. What makes then go, stop going, what might make them try it. Any preconceived ideas. You can only make a change in your community if you listen to the wants and needs of the people you want to keep Or attract. Do you want to target young adults or none Christians of all ages, whole families. Talk to your community and find out for yourself what's going on. Just a thought !
Yeah I've gotta say, there isn't much good news here! Luckily I think a lot of good thinking is going on and some massive shifts are taking place :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as research goes, we could do a study, but plenty of research has been done in NZ and overseas and it is all basically saying the same things. Maybe I should put some of the stuff up here?
I guess it's good to keep an eye on trends but as one mans passion is another mans poison it doesn't always mean it's happening in your own back yard. Each community is different. A small town for example with a tight knit community that's grown up together might have a church as one of the local meeting places with lots going on and be an important part of the social structure of the people. City churches however tend to have more movement in the community and need to compete with other activities in a much looser community. Church there is just one of many options amongst a community of strangers for many of people in and around the town. With travel making it a shrinking world and more and more people moving towns and countries to places where the congregation of the local church are just nameless faces. It's easy to just slip away from it all, specially if your feeling a little lonely and your neighbors and work mates are offering other social alternatives. People are social creatures, we go where we find social acceptance and a feeling of belonging wherever that may be.
ReplyDeleteWould be interested to know what the thinking is and what's being implemented. As someone that's way, way, out there on the very edge of Christianity. I tried getting involved on two occasions in my life. One briefly successful attempt until I moved towns and one disasterous attempt a few years down the track. I pretty much keep my opinions on the whole thing to myself now.I wonder from time to time if the God I thought I knew is real and brows the odd bit online but have no plans to try a church again or to try to find any Christians to connect with.
ReplyDeleteWe're having a follow up at the end of next month so stay tuned! Gonna present some out of the box ideas about church, kinda like TED talks :)
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