Study Probes Why College Students Leave Church
by Atoday News Team
By Piet Levy (Religion News Service)
PASADENA, Calif. — Millions of college freshmen are overwhelmed right now trying to make new friends, adjusting to more rigorous school work and learning to live away from home. Whether they also find time for church during their first two weeks on campus will set the mold for the rest of their college years, according to new research.
These findings come from a six-year study of approximately 500 Christian youth group members, conducted by Fuller Theological Seminary’s Fuller Youth Institute in Pasadena, Calif.
The study’s results will be released Sept. 17 in “Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids.” The book examines why, according to a 2006 report by Christian research firm Barna Group, 61 percent of 20-somethings who regularly attended church as teenagers later left the pews.
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This will come as no surprise to both students and their parents. When a child leaves home, he is no longer under his parent's direction. If in an SDA home, she probably dutifuly attended church and the necessary practices AS LONG AS SHE WAS THERE.
Once, on her own, she had to make so many choices and finding a church was often not tops on the list.
Interestingly, my granddaughter when she left home for college, looked for a church, but she found a non-SDA church that became her church while there four years. This was repeated when she established a new home in a different city and visited many churches before she found one that she could be part of: choir, other activities.
Parents must trust their children to make independent choices, as that is all part of maturing. And they will not always follow their parent's footsteps; in fact, they usually do not in everything. Belonging to Adventism is not the only way to be spiritual or have relationship with God. It is not always found in any particular church. Parents should be grateful that their children are becoming mature and cutting the cord. If we have raised them right, they will not stray too far, and church membership is certainly not the most important choice in the world when there are so many choices to be made as a young adult.
Barna released a study on why kids leave the church here : http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/528-six-reasons-young-christians-leave-church The interesting thing is that, at almost 50, I relate to most of the reasons.