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By Robin Phillips|Published Date: December 12, 2011
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
On November 16 this year, the Barna group published an article summarizing the results of extensive research over the last five. The research focused on young adult church dropouts, and asked questions such as, "Why Are Young Christians Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith?"
Based on their extensive research, the Barna group debunked the following five myths:
1. Most people lose their faith when they leave high school.
2. Dropping out of church is just a natural part of young adults' maturation.
3. College experiences are the key factor that cause people to drop out.
4. This generation of young Christians is increasingly “biblically illiterate.”
5. Young people will come back to church like they always do.
What interested me about the research was what they discovered about young Christians being unable to apply the Biblical worldview to their intellectual and professional lives. Even young adults who say they hold to a Christian worldview, often have an intellectual disconnect when it comes to applying that worldview to every area of public life. This intellectual disconnect is often exposed when a Christian goes to college.
It isn’t any secret that going to college can disrupt a young person’s faith. But if the recent research is anything to go by, it seems that the influences of college do not so much cause a young person to become shallow and disconnected with their Christian beliefs; rather, the influences of college reveal the shallowness already there.
David Kinnaman, who directed the research, commented that
“only a small minority of young Christians has been taught to think about matters of faith, calling, and culture. Fewer than one out of five have any idea how the Bible ought to inform their scholastic and professional interests. And most lack adult mentors or meaningful friendships with older Christians who can guide them through the inevitable questions that arise during the course of their studies. In other words, the university setting does not usually cause the disconnect; it exposes the shallow-faith problem of many young disciples.”
Why is this? Why are our young people, including those who self-identify as Christian, increasingly unable to connect their beliefs to issues of calling and culture?
No doubt there are many factors that have contributed to this state of affairs, but one principal cause may be what Nancy Pearcey diagnosed in her book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity. In this book, Mrs. Pearcey describes the role that various dualisms have played in causing the Christian worldview to become increasingly truncated, something that is seen to apply to our personal and private lives but has little relevance to culture or to our public callings in the world. Those who have grown up under the canopy of these dualisms feel no need - and, in fact, do not even know how - to think Christianly about the entire gamut of life’s experiences.
Like Mrs. Pearcey, we at the Chuck Colson Center have been endeavoring to correct this intellectual disconnect, emphasizing that the Biblical worldview does not merely apply to a narrow subset of private ‘religious’ truths, but is something that effects our entire experience in the world.
Next steps: Take a look at our Worldview Spheres to see just how expansive a Christian worldview is. Also consider joining our Doing the Right Thing movement to find out how you can help move our young people move from being intellectual disconnected with their faith to being intellectually engaged with it.
For more insight into this topic, read Chuck Colson’s article, ‘Hoobastank, Hostility, and Truth’ or the Barna Group’s article ‘Five Myths about Young Adult Church Dropouts.’ Also order Nancy Pearcey’s book Total Truth from our online store.
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