Last Sunday the sermon at the congregation I attend was a topic that always interested me. The topic? Retention of young adults within the church. The statistics were predictable, but still stunning and a bit scary.
For example when both parents attend worship regularly and have church work assignments, the retention rate for their adult children is 75-80%. Just half of adult offspring are faithful when just one parent attends. When neither parent attend, at best only a fourth attend.
Meanwhile college students who attend Christian colleges stay faithful at a rate of 85%, while half of those who attend public college stay faithful. Just 43% of those who do not go to college stay faithful.
I began to think about my own experience in my youth. I was raised in the church. My family was there for every service. By the time I was in high school, there was a core group of faithful Christians who attended most all the youth events. It was a good time. We felt we’d always stay faithful. I look back at the quaintness of one of my fellow youth group member’s message in my 9th grade yearbook:

Enter the college years. We all went our separate ways. I chose Lipscomb University, mostly because a few of my good friends were going there. Looking back on my decision it was probably a mistake. I felt I could have had a better experience at a Christian university down the road. But at that point I was not a leader; I was a follower.
It was at college I had to make the decision whether to attend church. I remember one particular Wednesday night I had a decision to make, whether to attend Wednesday night Bible study or not. On most occasions I attended. I surrounded myself with Christian friends. I could have found sin at Lipscomb, but I avoided it.
A large part the growth of my spiritual life involved being a camp counselor at a Christian camp, something I continue to do today.
Meanwhile our church youth group was scattered elsewhere. Some went to state colleges. Some went into the military. Others got jobs right out of high school. As the statistics would have it, we did not all stay faithful. I know of one other person who was in my class who still attends church at my congregation. I would like to believe that others stayed faithful, but are just in different towns. But I know this isn’t the case. Some attend denominational churches or just don’t attend at all. To my knowledge the signatory of the yearbook message above is not faithful.
So what happened exactly? Was there no one to tell us to go to church? Did the cares of the world put a backseat to religion? I think at some point we had to figure out if we were going to make what our parents brought us up to be our own. We had to chose Jesus as our own savior and not just giving into our parents.