Young voters supporting Donald Trump over Joe Biden makes me catch my breath. How is it possible that an indicted insurrectionist who lies routinely has such support among young people? Have our young people lost their collective minds? But yet…
Nonreligious young adults say they are more open to religion than older adults, but campus ministers say that’s still a delicate opportunity
According to a recent Gallup Poll, 75% of U.S. adults who have no religious preference say they are “not interested at all” in exploring religion in the future. But broken down by age, young adults are more inclined than older…
What is the cost of the church’s failure in ‘Explaining Jesus’ to its members?
In his 2018 song “Explaining Jesus” Jordy Searcy opens the floor to a solemn and honest discussion about evangelical church life. He begins the song with lyrics that acknowledge some gay believers’ feelings of inadequacy when they consider their relationship…
What absurdism and a parody conspiracy theory tell us about why Gen Z is sleeping in on Sundays
Gen Z has the lowest church attendance of any generation and is frequently dubbed as the least religious generation. In a time when churches are struggling to fill their pews, Gen Z is sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Many are…
Younger and older Americans aren’t returning to church as much as the middle-aged
Yes, church attendance has declined in the two years of the pandemic. But it has not declined equally across all demographic groups, according to a new analysis published by the Institute for Family Studies. The Institute sifted through data from…
New Netflix docuseries highlights the wisdom of our elders
“To walk toward the future, the past is needed.” That nugget of wisdom from Pope Francis describes in a sentence the mission behind Stories of a Generation, a four-part Netflix documentary series set for release on Christmas Day. The docuseries…
American young people report huge gaps between what matters to them and what appears to matter to the church
Young people in America do not believe churches care about the issues that are important to them — by double-digit disparities — according to a new national survey released today. Springtide Research specializes in data and resources related to the…
‘What we must do, as young people, is to ensure we don’t carry forward the endemic fallacies’
The leadership of young people is crucial in helping the world recover from the economic, health and political devastation exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to panelists with the Next Generation Task Force of the Parliament of the World’s Religions….
They’re not coming back
Years ago, we used to tell ourselves that young adults who had strayed from the church would come back after they got married. When that didn’t happen, we shifted our hopes and proclaimed that they would return when they had…