C. Britt Beemer

The results of a survey of 1000 20-somethings who attended conservative Christian churches regularly growing up, but have since left the church, are here presented in a way that shed light on the traditions and teachings that are not working like we think they are. With a call to action for parents, Christian educators, youth pastors, and pastors, this book is an important read for anyone who has a heart for seeing young people continue to grow in their faith once they have more say over whether to attend church or not.

Though this book, and the survey it's based on, is over 10 years old, I can't imagine the results and impact are any less relevant today. In fact, I can say from my own personal life that the danger of a child growing up and not finding church relevant (and possibly, by extension, God) is still very real. With admonitions like not leaving it up to the church/Sunday school/youth group to teach your kids the fundamental truths of the Bible, this book should be an eye opener for many parents of children and teens. And I have to agree that while one's individual salvation may not be dependent on whether or not they believe in a literal six days of creation, amongst other ways the the world is trying to undermine the Bible, the impact that an individual's belief can have on young Christians (meaning young in age or simply new to the faith) can be devastating. Put simply: if you can't trust the first chapters of Genesis, what makes you think you can trust the gospels? Is it really more believable that a man could be born to a virgin and then rise from the dead than that a supernatural being could create the world in 6 days?

I know that I was one who was really confused about things in this area when I was younger. I don't remember it leading me to question whether God was real or the Bible was infallible, but I also think I learned the facts about Genesis early enough that I didn't have the chance to question these things, and I thank God for that. In fact, it was Answers in Genesis that led me to the understanding that the existence of dinosaurs does fit with the Bible (that was the first eye opener for me, as I remember having this vague uncertainty about how what I learned in school about dinosaurs made any sense if Adam and Even in the garden of Eden was also true). But therein lies the issue the book addresses—my family attended church regularly when I was young; why did I not learn about this there?

Though I do wish I'd read it years ago, this book comes at a good time for me, as I'm poised to take over the VBS program at my church in a year or two, along with my husband. Though it's only a week-long program once a year, we'll definitely be taking this book and its admonitions to heart. And on that note, if you're thinking about reading this book, understand that it makes the assumption that the reader believes the Bible 100%, including on matters like creation in 6 literal days, a young earth, the global flood, and...well, find out more about what the authors of this book believe at this link. If you do not believe the Bible is true, or to be taken literally, on all of these points, this may not be the book for you. Sadly, as Ham puts it, it has now become acceptable "to use man's ideas to re-interpret the Bible, rather than to use the Bible to judge man's ideas." To put it bluntly, somewhere along the line, we decided that we knew more than the author of the Bible (God), Who was there when everything was made.

My only issue with the book is that it can be repetitive. I almost rated it 4 stars for that reason, but I think doing so would undermine the truth presented within. If you are interested in reading this book, you don't have to purchase it, as you can find the entire contents online at this link (it can be purchased there, too, but scroll down the page to find each chapter linked).… (mehr)

For all I know, the survey of the thousand unchurched young adults from “conservative and 'evangelical'” churches done by Britt Beemer is absolutely correct. That said, I believe that the reportage on George Barna's statistics that is the context for Beemer's study is garbled, and there are certain pieces of data that would have greatly improved this analysis.

I'll mention that I am an atheist, but here I am reviewing that book for the use of statistics, not my opinion of the authors' views. I'm not a statistician by any means, but I have serious questions about some of the figures that are presented. Here's how it looks to me:

Ham confuses speaking of young adults AS A WHOLE with speaking of young adults WHO WERE CHURCH ATTENDEES IN THEIR TEENS. These are not the same, since not everyone in the United States attended a Christian church. On page 24 Ham presents statistics, and an accompanying but contradictory pie-chart created by George Barna on page 25. Ham says:
“61% of today's young adults who were regular church attendees are now 'spiritually disengaged,'” and ;
“20% of those who were spiritually active during high school are maintaining a similar level of commitment,” and ;
“19% were never reached by the Christian community.”

If you read that quickly, it seems to add up: 61% + 20% + 19% equals 100%, right? No, because in two cases you are talking about teenage CHURCH ATTENDEES and in the third case you aren't. It is like adding miles to miles per hour. The 61% and the 20% account for 81% of teenage CHURCH ATTENDEES. Where are the other 19% of teenage CHURCH ATTENDEES? They certainly aren't accounted for by the 19% who never attended church at all.

Barna's pie-chart, titled “Twenty somethings struggle to stay active in Christian faith” labels the sections as:
“20% churched as teen, spiritually active at 29
“61% churched as teen, disengaged during twenties
“19% never churched as teen, still unconnected.”
This is different from what Ham says, and does add up because he is talking about all Twenty somethings.

On page 19, George Barna is quoted as saying: “A majority of twenty-somethings – 61% of today's young adults,-- have been churched at one point during their teen years but they are now spiritually disengaged (i.e., not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or praying).”

On page 23, he is paraphrased as saying “six out of ten 20-somethings who were involved in a church during their teen years are already gone.” The two statements (on p.19 and p.23) are not the same although they sound similar. Again, Ham is equating ALL young adults with young adults who were CHURCH ATTENDEES. If these are two different studies with different results, that certainly isn't made clear in the text, although they have different web citations. (I have had only erratic success in finding the original articles on Barna's website.)

Ham's figure of an attrition rate of 61% or approximately two-thirds matches the paraphrase on p.23. If 19% of all young adults never attended a Christian church, that would mean that 81% or 81 out of 100 young adults (which is easier for me to envision) attended. If 61% of the 81% who attended church have disengaged from religion, that is 49 out of a hundred, or 49% of ALL young adults. Now let's see how those figures change based on the quote on p. 19.

According to the Barna quote, 61 percent, or 61 out of those 100 young adults attended church as teenagers but no longer do so. Since those 61 attended church, they are all included in the 81 young adults who attended church as teenagers. That would mean that that about 75% or three-fourths of teen-age church attendees no longer go to church, not two-thirds.

Beyond this, the comparison with Barna's figures is a little sloppy. If Ham is really most concerned about young adults from “conservative or 'evangelical'” churches, it would be nice if he had a figure for disengaging calculated for them, instead of using an overall figure. It appears that in determining the unchurched for their own survey, Ham and Beemer have used a different standard than Barna's figure for the disengaged. Barna's standard, you may recall was “ not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or praying.” Yet the Beemer figures for the unchurched include 51% who go to church at Christmas and Easter – it is unclear if Barna would consider that to be “actively attending church.” In addition, the hypothetical “William” on pp. 55-56 would not be considered to be disengaged by Barna since he reads his Bible and prays, even if he doesn't go to church. Ham and Beemer are free to create their own standards, of course, but the figures are accordingly less comparable to Barna's.

It would also be better if Ham and Beemer had statistics on the young-adults who continue active involvement in their church as a comparison. After all, it could be that their beliefs aren't any different, they are continuing to attend for other reasons. I don't think that the figures prove that Ham is correct that the problem is the failure to teach apologetics; we have no figures on what they are taught. Ham apparently goes to a lot of churches, and perhaps correctly senses that this is a short-coming, but it isn't evident from these figures. It is also the case, as evidenced in these data, that people who do take the Bible literally are failing to go to church, so as he acknowledges, it can't, be the only problem.

So the figures may be suggestive, but hardly definitive. For other books on young adults and Christianity, I suggest David Kinnaman's UnChristian and You Lost Me.… (mehr)