Once Young People Leave the Church it is Unlikely They’ll Return, New Study Shows

A new research study has revealed that it is becoming increasingly less likely for young people who leave church to return when they are older.

In a Barna Group research analysis done by assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and pastor of First Baptist Church of Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Ryan Burge, showed that those born between 1965 and 1984 were much less likely to return to church than those born between 1945 and 1964.

The data, Burge said, should have major implications for the way ministry is done in today’s evangelical church.

“Many pastors are standing at the pulpit on Sunday morning and seeing fewer and fewer of their former youth group members returning to the pews when they move into their late-20s and early-30s,” he said, according to the Christian Post. “No church should assume that this crucial part of the population is going to return to active membership as their parents once did.”

Burge added that the “data is speaking a clear message: the assumptions that undergirded church growth from two decades ago no longer apply.”

“If churches are sitting back and just waiting for all their young people to flood back in as they move into their 30s, they are likely in for a rude awakening,” he said. “Inaction now could be creating a church that does not have a strong…