Why do most teenagers leave the church by age 22?

by: Dave Welsch

Recently I was sent an article that said roughly 70% of all teenagers leave the church by the time they turn 22. Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham recently wrote a book "Already Gone" on this topic, as the number of young people leaving the church has grown more and more people have addressed this issue. As a Youth Pastor I am not only concerned with young people while they are in my youth group but also the decisions they make when they leave my youth group. The real success of a youth ministry is that young people continue to live for the Lord after they have turned 18 and left the youth group.

So why exactly do so many teenagers that were brought up in church leave the church by the time they turn 22? Here are a few of the reasons that I have heard,

"The church is no longer teaching strong doctrine"

"The church is to judgmental"

"The church needs to be more acceptive of the sins of society"

"The youth group is to fun"

"The youth group is to boring"

"The church is to liberal"

"The church is to conservative"

"They just need time to explore"

The list goes on and on, and truthfully many of these are valid points. If a church isn't teaching the bible then why would we expect God to convict young people to stay faithful to that church? If church is all about fun and not God then why would we expect them to stay in church when they can have more fun outside of church? Although all of these and other reasons someone may mention may be correct I believe they miss the mark. Changing the surroundings and circumstances that a young person goes to church in isn't going to change their heart. Maybe you can trick them to staying in church a little longer then they would have otherwise but they really wont be there.

Simply enough no matter what kind of church, family or youth group a person grows up in if they do not have a close personal relationship with God then they will eventually leave the church. No matter what age they are and no matter how many games their youth group plays. The problem is simply that most 2nd generation Christians (kids whose parents are saved and have grown up in a Christian home) don't have a personal faith. They have their parents faith. They believe it because they have been told to, not because its been real in their life and heart. I see it constantly, good kids who do what their told, attend church every week but they don't know God. They believe in God, they don't do certain things because of God, they might even serve in the church because of God but they don't know Him. Not personally anyway.

Rather then being focused on the environment are teens are in and hoping that we can make the perfect church so that they will want to stay, we need to specifically address where they are at with God. If their heart is right, and they have a close relationship with God then you won't be able to keep them out of church.