Church and culture of young adult

I recently read an article that claimed that studies
show that twenty something year olds are dropping out of church at an alarming
rate.  When questioned, they gave reasons
that the church is non-community, homophobic, out of touch with the real world,
legalistic, anti-art, judgmental and anti-intellectual.  Furthermore, twenty year olds claimed that
someone or something wounded them; they were members of a church where the
pastor committed some sexual sin, or were members of a congregation where the
leaders were more concerned with the building than the care of the people. Even
still, as if those few reasons are not enough much of their disappearance is
because of the changing culture.  Here,
the church seems to disconnect from the pace and trend of current technological
advances and lags behind leaving a chasm between church and real world.  Because of the trend and pace of technology, community
happens elsewhere, within the world of social media instead of the local
church. 

The aforementioned reasons are interesting and
thought provoking to say the least. While the comments do provide modest critique about the community of the
church and to some degree is necessary it fails to realize two very important
points. 

First, church and community don’t just happen on its
own.  Intentional relationship based church
and community happens when individuals are unafraid and openly willing to be
involved with others.  It’s like sending
a friend request except it’s done in person. To this, what strikes me as odd is that outside of the church most twenty
something year old people are very pursuant of intimacy, love, commonality,
career, goals, human rights, and political and social equality, which all specify
community, but for one reason or another have great difficulties doing the same
within the context of the four square walls we call church.   

Secondly, and it’s my view, although probably stated
before asks the question, “When did updating your current status on a
particular social network to a bunch of so called friends qualify as community.”  Is this some sort of new kind of community
that speaks to the heart of our human existence?  Quite possibly.  I mean its worthy of our attention.  Or, are we seeing a redefinition of community
morphing into something greater as our lives become more globally centered.   Hmm, more globally centered.  Is that really what is happening?  If so, then maybe, just maybe it’s time that
we rethink church.   

After talking to self for a few days and doing a bit
of mental jousting, I decided to ask my 21-year-old daughter what she thought.
To her point, and probably the underlining reason why twenty something year olds
are leaving the church is because the church does a poor job at providing the
common ground necessary to foster community. She said, while church is good, it doesn’t provide the common ground
that work, school, military, and other social places do which are necessary to
foster relationships.  She said people
come and go at church and it’s easier to neglect community because there is
nothing that brings people together in a real intimate way.  Work, school, and other social institutions
force people to build relationship whether good or bad.  The church doesn’t do this.  So, for a young adult, it is easier to go
somewhere where you are known and people listen to you, talk with you, and
share with you.  In other words, it’s
easier to find community on a popular social network than it is in the
church. 

This being said, maybe church ought to be intentional
about creating a community like atmosphere where individuals get to know one
another in a real and intimate way. Traditional church is done in the fashion that people go to hear God
speak through the pastor or leader.  This
is okay in a sense.  But, it begs to
question that if the church is losing membership to social media then maybe it’s
time that we do church at the table where different aspects of Gods voice can
be heard, and through that each person is valued, known, and appreciated as
someone special.  How this is done is difficult,
and maybe this is just a start.  But, if
church continues in the way that it has been for centuries then maybe it is time
that we take a cue from these twenty something year olds and do something
different.