Campus Corner

Mainline religions consistently have been losing membership over the past several decades. I have become increasingly afraid that the losses are even higher in our young people. Statistics confirm my fears. When I joined the United Methodist Church in 1970, we had about 10.5 million members in this country. Today we have fewer than 8 million. The greatest loss in membership has been out youth and young adults. According to a report at General Conference last year, the average United Methodist is 57 years old, and United Methodists under age 18 account for only 4.6 percent of church members.

Why have we lost our young people? I think there are at least four reasons. First, our society has become more concerned with themselves than others. I am old enough to remember JFK’s inaugural speech, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country.” It used to be when people came to a church, they asked what they could do to help. Today you are more likely to hear them ask what the church can do for them. Second, technology has changed the way people interact with email, MySpace, cell phones, text messaging, and even TV/Internet church. Church is not longer viewed as the best place to meet people. E-Harmony claims that 2% of the marriages in this country found their spouse through E-Harmony! Third, people are waiting much longer to begin their families for both career and financial reasons. In 1994, 16.73% of the women having babies had their first at 30 or older. In 2004, that percentage was 24.03%. Finally, funding pressure on the church has caused a cut in financial support for youth and campus ministry. In our own Annual Conference funding for camping ministries and campus ministry has been slashed. For the past several years our Annual Conference budget for campus ministry has been only $1000 per year. That was supplemented by about $14,000 per year in endowment funding.

It used to be that we did a pretty good job of taking care of our youth at church. When they went to college they tended to drift away but soon after graduation, they would marry and start a family. They would then come back to bring their children. Now, because family formation is postponed so long, instead of the young people being out of church for only four or five years, they are out for 10 to 15. By the time the couple have children, they have forgotten church and often never return.

With this bleak picture, what can be done? I believe that the church has to have a focused effort to increase our children and youth ministries. With our graying churches, it may mean that we have to recruit our grandparents to bring their grandchildren. We may also need latchkey and after school ministries. We need to work much more intently with our youth programs so that we don’t let our teenagers slip away before they leave for college. When our young people do leave for college, we need to work hard to push them into campus ministry programs.

With no end in sight of the pressure on our annual conference budgets, it is not realistic to expect that financial support for youth and young adult ministries will return to the levels seen in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s when the church invested heavily in those ministries. Financial support will need to be raised in other ways such as direct support from local churches and raising endowments.

 

Finally, I believe that we must bathe our youth and young adults with prayer. Pray also for those who minister to them. There is a power in prayer. Believe in it!