Ways to get younger people interested in church?

[Lamb]

What are some ways to get younger people (teen years through 30) interested in coming to church?

 

[tango]

I've been pondering this a bit recently. Sometimes I wonder if the church's desire to "appear relevant" has resulted in the church becoming less relevant. Sometimes it seems that the church is trying to shift and change to become the things that it thinks young people want and in the process loses the very thing that differentiates it from everything else in the world.

I don't think we need to try to wind the clock back and pretend we're in the 1850s again but it often seems to me that the more we push the ultramodern stuff the more we lose sight of the underlying message. We can have modern music with solid theology but if we lose the solid Christ-centered theology in the music and in the message we might as well not even bother trying to reach people with the Christ-lite version. If we push too much of the Christ-lite message it seems all we'll do is teach people that church is little more than another social club, and not necessarily a very good social club.

 

[Albion]

I'm going to guess that it helps if the church sponsors a number of auxiliary groups such as Kids Club, Young Adults Bible Study, Food Bank, and whatever.

There are several problems with this friendliness, though. I am referring to 1) the idea that the worship service ought to be gimmicky and casual if not downright fun; to 2) the minimizing of doctrine in addition to that; and 3) the fact that smaller churches don't have the ability and personnel to do all of this.

 

[Castle Church]

23 and up.....get married and have kids of their own. Honestly that seems to be a big driver for a lot of people that grew up going to church as well.

 

[tango]

I'm going to guess that it helps if the church sponsors a number of auxiliary groups such as Kids Club, Young Adults Bible Study, Food Bank, and whatever.

There are several problems with this friendliness, though. I am referring to 1) the idea that the worship service ought to be gimmicky and casual if not downright fun; to 2) the minimizing of doctrine in addition to that; and 3) the fact that smaller churches don't have the ability and personnel to do all of this.

Gimmicky - that's a good way to describe what I was saying about the push to "appear relevant" that results in becoming less relevant.

If the church has enough people to make things happen then youth activities are an obvious way to get young people used to the idea of being in church. The flip side of that is that sometimes I think churches end up playing a kind of bait-and-switch where they try and attract people (young and old) into the church based on a promise of something only to then start presenting a message people didn't expect to be dealing with. If people are interested that's great but if someone is only staying out of a sense of politeness or obligation it's probably doing more harm than good.

We can help the less fortunate with things like food banks with or without presenting doctrine. If someone just needs food the help doesn't need to be conditional on the recipient sitting and listening to a message that doesn't really interest them right now. If they want to know more about the church they are always welcome to hear the alternative we offer to the world's way. As long as the doctrine isn't minimized as part of that (as you quite rightly noted) it can be a method of outreach for anyone who wants to know why people give up their time to help others.

 

[Albion]

Yes, I knew that "Food Banks" wasn't exactly what I was trying to describe. I was thinking of some sort of community charitable program or evangelizing project or something like those.

They involve people outside of attendance at the Sunday worship service and probably do build a sense of belonging and purpose. But again, that kind of endeavor is usually more than a small congregation can pull off--yet those are the churches that most need a boost.

 

[tango]

Yes, I knew that "Food Banks" wasn't exactly what I was trying to describe. I was thinking of some sort of community charitable program or evangelizing project or something like those.

A food bank can certainly be a part of an outreach program, showing the community that the church cares and that the people in the church are actual people and not some kind of drone. If people feel that church "isn't for people like them" then it's not necessarily a bad thing. I used to live within a couple of miles of a Sikh gurdwara and they frequently had community lunches - anyone was welcome to attend and eat, and donations were strictly optional. Not many churches do that.

They involve people outside of attendance at the Sunday worship service and probably do build a sense of belonging and purpose. But again, that kind of endeavor is usually more than a small congregation can pull off--yet those are the churches that most need a boost.

Church needs to be more than an hour or so once a week - if people can connect with each other during the week it creates stronger bonds. As you say a small church can often struggle with that, but sometimes large churches struggle too if they have a lot of people who show up on a Sunday but don't want to volunteer their time.

My church seems like the kind of place where if there is a one-off need people come out of the woodwork to help but hardly anyone is willing to commit to do anything regularly.