Top ten reasons young adults drop out of church - Ed Stetzer - [ChristianHeadlines.com - Headlines ]
As the title of the cited article indicates, the author lists the supposed top ten reasons young adults stop going to church. As one commenter posted, "What truly born again believer would use any of these excuses for not going to church?" In actuality, the "reasons" given are normally the same ones given by any person of any age for not attending church, but unfortunately, they are not reasons, but excuses. The difference, as one individual aptly defined it is "An excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie."

So what is the lie or lies being told by these young adults or by any other ex-church goer for no longer attending church? In reality it's simple: people don't want God because they don't want objective truth. I think that our rapidly accelerating cultural trend toward erasing objective definition is the basis for allowing this lie to be told. We no longer allow right and wrong to be defined since "what might be right for you isn't right for me." Relativity is no longer a theory of physics postulated by Albert Einstein, but a mantra that is chanted by the loudest voices in our society.

Whether or not these people are actually saved may not be the real issue. For the most part it is becoming increasingly difficult to find church attenders who have not allowed this kind of mentality to invade their thinking and interactions. Church leaders are no longer respected as men who have paid the price of years in learning to hear and follow God, but are simply paid employees whose responsibility it is to give their opinions on the scriptures and to not be dogmatic about anything because the membership is so easily offended by that which invades their comfort zone. We no longer have pastors who are accorded the respect that their office deserves, but who are referred to as "mentors" that everyone knows by their first name or at best "Pastor Joe." They are no longer allowed to lead without a critical examination of every minor decision they make, whether it be church related or a part of their personal life.

I think that an increasing number of people are leaving churches because they have never been integrated into the church to begin with. They have never seen themselves in the sinfully depraved condition in which God sees them and have never accepted their need for the sufficiency of His Grace to sustain and carry them on a moment by moment basis. Until we as Christians can return to the absolute truth of our condition as lost sinners in need of the absolute truth of the Scriptures, we will continue to see a weakening in the spiritual state of the church and a continued exodus by people of all ages.