Young Adult Church Dropouts...? Or just Adult Church Dropouts?

A few years ago, I read a book called "Quitting Church" - which in essence was a study about why more and more faithful, bible believing Christians were leaving the "conventional" church and moving on to, well, nothing. (Yes, I and I see that some may take issue with the fact that I used the term "faithful" but I'm not going to get side-tracked.) It seems that these people, all have a genuine faith and a sincere desire to serve God, are finding that their experience in the church was not that helpful in facilitating the growth of that relationship - especially in relevance to every day life. And as a result: they stop going.

Now part of working up in a beach filled with party-hearty young people, fewer and fewer which I see in the pews on Sunday, makes me reflect again on the relevance of church into everyday life. I recently read a survey by The Barna Group (full article found here) on the Five Myths about Young Adult Dropouts. In essence the five myths were: (mostly in my own words)

1) It happens because of high school
2) Its just a phase
3) It happens because of college
4) Young Adults are Biblically illiterate
5) They will come back (which they don't)

Remember these are myths.  So The Barna Group researched and found that this fantastical thinking is how people frame the absence of young adults in the church. To quote from a new book by David Kinnaman called "You Lost Me": 

"Churches, organizations and families owe this generation more. They should be treated as the intelligent, capable individuals they are—a generation with a God-given destiny. Renewed commitment is required to rethink and realign disciple-making in this new context. Mosaic believers need better, deeper relationships with other adult Christians. They require a more holistic understanding of their vocation and calling in life—how their faith influences what they do with their lives, from Monday through Saturday. And they also need help discerning Jesus' leading in their life, including greater commitment to knowing and living the truth of Scripture."

I read that and I only hear one word: relevance.  To quote: "how their faith influences what they do with their lives, from Monday through Saturday." But isn't that the question for all of us? How does faith influence our lives...every day...from the time we step out of church until the time we step back in? In "Quitting Church" the issue wasn't age - the issue was relevance. When we focus in on an age (such as young adults) we get specific issues that they face at that time in their life...but let's not do a disservice to everyone who is not a young adult...because the reality is that we all struggle with how to make our faith relevant. We all want to know what difference creational thinking is going to make in our relationships with co-workers. Or how understanding the Trinity will change our view of the environment. Or how knowing that the fruit of the Spirit isn't manifested in road rage.

And maybe, maybe, we are one step ahead of ourselves. Maybe instead of asking "how" will this make a difference, we need to ask "why" will this make a difference.