If you've been wondering whether church youth groups are really effective, you won't want to miss the results of a recent study reported in the Christian Education Journal*.
We've covered several stories on this website about the shocking number of young people who were active in their youth groups but still dropped out of church in their twenties.
A recent issue of the Christian Education Journal contributes to the discussion by reporting a strong link between a college student's current spiritual state and the quality of key relationships during the high school years. The authors seems to conclude that college-bound students are not as spiritually strong as they could be because (1) they aren't being spiritually fed as much as they would like in their youth groups, and (2) other adults besides the youth pastor are not investing in their lives.
Youth pastors who are aching to add depth to their program will find the results encouraging. For the church as a whole, though, this is a wake up call: the youth pastor can't do it alone. Every adult in the church must step up to reverse the mass exodus of young people from church.
Here are two particularly compelling results:
The top five changes youth desire for their youth group were: time for deep conversation, missions trips, service projects, accountability and one-on-one time with leaders.
- Takeaway: young people want more depth. They want a program that takes God seriously and prepares them to be servant leaders.
On a list of 22 reasons why they attend youth group, students list "safe to talk to adults about doubts and questions" 16th and "Adults take time to really listen" 18th.
- Takeaway: the very things they want--more depth and one-on-one time with leaders--are very low on the list what they actually receive.
Intriguingly, the authors conclude: "There was some evidence of a relationship between two variables anecdotally related to support from other adults (involvement in overall church life and church worship during high school) and greater spirituality/religiosity during college."
Bottom line: what youth really need to remain spiritually strong--and what they really desire--is significant relationships with lots of adults in the church, not just with the youth pastor. Ironically, this is what they are unlikely to actually receive.
If we want to win the hearts of the next generation we must equip the entire church community to invest in them life-on-life.
This is why we developed the Passing the Baton Training Course. It's been proven to mobilize adults to get excited about personally mentoring, coaching and discipling students to be culture-shaping leaders.
If you haven't yet seriously examined this course, I invite you to do so here.
*Source: Kara Powell, Cheryl A. Craford, Cameron Lee, "High School Youth Group Seniors Transitioning to College: Risk Behavior, Social Support, Religiosity, and Attitude Toward Youth Group," Christian Education Journal, Series 3, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 47-59.
Editor's note: The researchers, who represent the Center for Youth and Family Ministry at Fuller Theological Seminary, studied 222 high school seniors from different regions of the US. The median youth group size was quite large, 51-100 members, and the vast majority of the students matched the profile of those likely to emerge as leaders (high GPA, stable home lives, and well-educated parents).
