Sermons, Pastor Conferences and “Why don’t young people come to church?”

Okay… so I have been a bad blogger and not posting much…. and now I am blogging about blogging which I hate doing. Anyways, the news is that I will continue to post sermons on my wesbsite: A Cowboy Pastor and on the church website: Little Lutheran Church on the Spike, but its probably not necessary to post them here every week, but maybe only the good ones or something. We will see.

On to other things, I have been a pastor just over 7 months now. And while the identity crisis of seminary is over, I am no longer this in between thing called “seminarian”,  some days I still a total shock that after all this school and preparation that I am finally a pastor.

Last week I was the at the Pastor’s Study Conference in Canmore, and even though I have been there twice, I was finally just another pastor. One the one, hand you got to be kind of special as a seminarian when you go to such things… at the same time you finally get taken a little more seriously when you are a pastor like everyone else, as I am sure its the same for teachers, or doctors, or vacuum salesman etc…

One of the things that struck me was that I am the youngest pastor in the ELCIC at the moment… and I was one of maybe a few other folks between the ages of 20 and 30, there was even a pastor there who got up and said he was a young pastor (he was mid forties I think). A few times some folks asked, “Why don’t young people come to church?”. And I don’t want to pretend like I have the answers, but I do know why every one of my friends of similar age is going to church or not. What surprised me and continues to surprise me is that no one in the church asks me this question… which means that they are almost certainly not asking any other young people. It would be a lot easier to ask the young pastor why he likes churchy stuff than to cold ask a random, or even worse, disaffected young adult. I mean, I ask my confirmation kids if they like church, what they think, and why they come or not. But there must be some birthday when all of sudden young people become puzzling aliens. I hope to never get there.

But I can tell you why 20-30 year olds are in the church today.

1. Their parents brought them from age 0-18, and brought them to worship, not just Sunday School.

2. Their parents and families were involved in the life of the church… and you want to tell me that kids are too busy with sports? Along with church, I played basketball, softball, football, umpired softball, refereed basketball, coached basketball, played on a curling team, a couple slo-pitch teams. I also took cello lessons, played in a orchestra, string quartet, symphonic band, church ensemble, and praise band. There are other extra curricular activities I did, but I don’t remember them all. Its not about being too busy, its about caring as much about church as you do about soccer.

3. They had friends at church because their friend’s parents brought their friends to church.

4. They were involved in organizations beyond the congregation: camp, bible school, student movements, youth gatherings, mission trips, and others.

5. Their church community cared about them, this maybe included the pastor, but way more  importantly the older folks at church cared that the young folks were there, they helped the young folks get involved and take leadership.

I also know that there are lots of ideas and programs that I have heard would be ways of getting young people to church, and I will give a few reasons that, as far as I know, had almost no bearing on why my friends do or do not come to church.

1. They don’t come because there is contemporary music. They might like contemporary music, but they don’t go or not go because of it.

2. They don’t go because of amazing programs. Young Adults plan and create their own programs.

3. They don’t go because the pastor is great… although bad preaching can drive people away.

4. They rarely go to a church on their own, there has to be a community invitation. A few folks I know just started going, but most either grew up with it, or found a community that invited them (like through friends).

5. They don’t go because their parents let them decide as a teenager if they wanted to be Christians or not. I mean teenagers don’t get to decide how many kids they can drive in vehicle with them, or even what time of day they can drive. They don’t get to decide who runs the country, they don’t get to decide whether or not they can go to school, or if they can get married. They can’t get credit cards, or rent cars. They can’t smoke or drink. So why on earth does any parent think they have the ability to make informed decisions about something as deep and complex as faith. Choosing to let kids decide on their own is actually telling them that choosing nothing is the best option.

Bishop Mayan read some findings from the George Barna Group about how most people think they know everything there is to know about the Bible by the age of 13. Most 13 year olds I know are still having trouble sounding out a lot of words the bible, in the newspaper, in textbooks etc…  They also think the most important thing in their life is the goofy things they do with friends in English class. They are wonderful amazing people, but they are not ready or even capable of making faith choices. But they know when people genuinely care about them, they know it better than anyone. We don’t let 13 year olds vote in federal elections because if they did the next governing party would be Pepsi with Prime Minister Miley Cyrus/ Hannah Montana, so lets not leave kids to make decisions they aren’t ready for yet.

So anyways, my first post in a while that isn’t a sermon and you get a rant. Its what has been on my mind though. As I sort out this new pastor gig, and begin slowly to re-evaluate an identity again. I spend 8 years of school learning what a pastor was and I am glad I did. Now its time to take the next step and figure out what it means to be a pastor here at St. John of Golden Spike.