Double Down

@ryanburge - click to go to tweet

Last week one of the authors I follow on Twitter retweeted something from Ryan Burge (@ryanburge). Ryan is a professor at Eastern Illinois University. He posts a lot about religion in the United States. His post bothered me as much as it invigorated me.

He posted a graph that shows the Age Distribution of Protestant Traditions, and said, “I don't think people fully grasp how much of Protestant Christianity is going to die off in the next 3 decades.”

The Church in the USA is getting older. Younger generations aren’t replacing those who are passing away. This isn’t new news. What is new is that we can actually see it happening around us. For more than a decade, groups have sounded the alarm that young adults are leaving the church. The hope has been that they would return, even if it didn’t look promising. Now we see the bleak reality. The median ages of so many protestant traditions is trending old. Ryan said that 57% of Southern Baptists have turned 55. In the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, it’s a staggering 68%.

It’s not the “liberal” churches that are struggling. It’s all churches. Some traditions are doing better than others, but the Church in America is getting old.

This isn’t a good data point. And if I only read that fact on my twitter feed I would have been very despondent. However, in my email the same day, Barna Research sent out a snippet of their new research report on teens. It turns out teens are open to learning about Jesus!

“Over Half of Gen Z Teens Feel Motivated to Learn More About Jesus”

This is amazing news! Barna calls this study the “Open Generation” because teens are very open to Jesus and even Scripture. I have the report, and it’s fascinating. It’s not all good news, but there is hope in the report. Teens are open to Jesus.

Investing in kids and teens has never been more important. We must seek to reach kids and teens so that they can love Jesus. I’m blessed to work at a church that cares about kids and teens. There is a lot of investment here, and a desire to help kids know Jesus and follow Him.

That being said, I think the Church in the USA has to double down on her investment and reach of kids and teens. We need to be all in. I think God is moving in the lives of Students. I see it with the students that attend LCC.

The news might not be all great, but I sense a revival coming. I just hope we are on the right side of it: nurturing it, empowering it, joining it, investing in it.

I know I’m all in. Will you join me?