I saw this post the other week and I thought that it was really interesting. It has been rolling around in my mind along with a quote from Kenda Creasy Dean that says that, “youth ministry is the R&D of the church.” Makes me think about how youth are a great barometer for the health of the church. Perhaps the exception to this is Churches like National Community Church in DC where 70% of the congregation is single twenty somethings, and in a very transient area.
Take a look at the article, I found it to be some great food for thought. Follow the link and scroll to the comments to read other people’s thoughts on what Kara Powell wrote.
You’ve perhaps heard the infamous statistic that 80-85% of people who become Christians do so before age 14. We youth workers especially love quoting that data when we’re asking for a larger ministry budget.
There hasn’t appeared to be lots of hard data to back up that stat. But maybe that’s changed.
Sociologist Dr. Christian Smith and his team at the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) have studied teenagers of all religious persuasions (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Religiously Indifferent, etc.). He reports in his new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults
, that 85% of those 18-23 who have ever made a commitment to God did so before age 14.
Remember, the study includes teenagers and young adults of all religious persuasions, and it’s not entirely clear from the book what students mean what they say they have “made a commitment to God”.
But nonetheless, this is the best data I’ve seen in a while that supports that 85% statistic.
The 85% Statistic is Back — and Pretty Strong Actually | Fuller Youth Institute
