In many ways, a generation of believers are losing their religion. A research conducted in 2016 among Christians in the US found that 32% of Christians under the age of 40 have become either agnostic or atheist.[1] Even among the remaining 68% who still hold to some belief in God, there is an alarming drop in numbers regarding their level of belief that God has to do anything with Christianity and its practices. This kind of phenomenon is happening all over the world. And this trend is dangerous. Not only that it will cause the loss of a significant number of people from the church (which is not desirable), but also this means that there would be more people lost towards their eternal destiny.[2]

This article discusses four reasons why people are leaving their religion and offers three suggestions on how we can respond to this in order to prevent it from happening. The topics discussed in these four reasons may be clichéd but are nevertheless crucial in understanding the crisis that Christians are facing today in terms of their faith. These four reasons are 1) easy access to information; 2) rise in gender equality and liberation; 3) growing sexual revolution; 4) rise in science and technology. Finally, three suggestions are given: we should re-embrace the importance of obedience, engagement with culture, and demonstrating the fruitfulness of the faith. In short, we should renew our evangelism, apologetics, and mission.

Why People are Leaving

Reason 1: Easy Access to Information

In the past, people had fewer resources for knowledge beyond what they receive from their local communities. Nowadays, however, people have access to internet, mobile phones, satellite television and many other media which would bring them closer to information from all over the globe. No longer they are content with reading the works of certain scholars or philosophers living in their own community. Now, they would dig deeper into Google and Wikipedia. They would ask questions all over the place and talk to experts in the field or even theologians about it. Imagine, before the Internet came, all of the information and ideas could only be handed down by a father to his children. Sometimes, even if a son inherits his father’s house and fortune, he might refuse to carry on the family name because he decides to start his own. That does not happen so often these days. Or maybe, it was one prominent idea that developed throughout the ages which happened when the Pharisee joined the Sadducee. Today, however, it is much easier to plagiarize ideas from others, whereas the best idea of the past might sometimes be rejected by younger generations.

Reason 2: Rise of Gender Equality

Feminism and women empowerment has been introduced to our society since the latter part of the twentieth century. It is understandable that before feminism people were much more patriarchal, which led to a very misogynist society with misguided ideas where men rule while women stay in the kitchen. But feminism has led not only to better status of women, it also makes both genders see things differently. Women, in particular, sees men as being inflexible, controlling, and undemonstrative, which often times lead to conflict between them.[3] As a result, this generation holds different values compared to people from earlier years. Back then, people valued obedience and respect for authority because they believed that one day they would rise up to a certain position, say a servant, and one day they would become a master. Now, young adults tend to get discouraged easily from pursuing their dreams in life and opt to just follow their own pleasures instead, such as amusement, sex, partying, and other vices.

Reason 3: Growing Sexual Revolution

Sex is always intertwined with relationship. People tend to think that sex is only relevant to those who are in relationship, whether monogamous or polygamous. Those who practice sex outside the marriage context is considered as promiscuous. Unfortunately, sex in our modern time tends to have gone past its traditional and natural boundaries. As people look further into the matter, they have not only accepted divorce for any reason, or remarriage after divorce, but they have also started thinking about divorce for frivolous reasons, such as unhappiness or loneliness, or remarriage by anyone of any age (younger people nowadays usually marry in the late 30’s). On the other hand, transgender and LGBTQ movement has been accelerated and has made many people lose their minds when trying to understand it. With this reality, the increase of sex in our modern world is not something to ignore. It is everywhere.

Reason 4: Rise of Science and Technology

Because we have access to so much information and our interest have been peaked, we tend to think that we know better than our parents’ generation. We might end up trusting medical practitioners more than our own preachers. While medicine has provided us with new ways to understand diseases and work out cures for it, it has also opened the door for many unethical practices to take place in the name of science. For example, euthanasia is now performed without any resistance from doctors, despite the fact that it goes against the directives of the Hippocratic Oath and even in violation of the Ten Commandments. Advancement in technology has enabled doctors to use artificial intelligence to learn how we humans function as biological beings. Even though this has led to great advancement in medicine, but it has also brought about new possibilities in how medicine is used to cure diseases. A simple search online will yield one search result per second, which is roughly around 694,400 searches per day[4] and 254 million searches per month[5]. Such massive amounts of information can lead to mistakes and error of judgement. Aside from that, many people in our modern world also believe that they can buy their way to happiness and comfort in a quick fix through technological gadgets.

How do we respond?

Now, the church has to be ready to face the challenge of staying relevant amidst so many new challenges coming up each year. There are three ways we can respond. First, we should re-embrace the importance of obedience to God. Secondly, we must engage with culture. Lastly, we should demonstrate the fruitfulness of the Christian life. In general, evangelism is relevant as ever, although in different ways and forms. We need to connect with people through various means of communication and starting to talk about the Gospel through the lens of these new ideas and philosophies. Most importantly, we must show people that being Christians can actually enhance one’s life, and even put it in perspective of being more meaningful than it really is.

Conclusion

People are losing their faith. If we do not give them a good reason to stay in the church, we will continue to lose them. However, let us also remember that because God calls us to share the Good News of Christ, the Gospel must be the main message we communicate, as well as the most important. Let us develop skills and strategies in our approach, yet our heart must always remember to please and obey God in all our actions. May God bless us as we seek to bring people back to God.

Bibliography

Crispin, Dave. “Why Do So Many Young Christians Become Atheists?” Naked Pastor, 1 Oct. 2016, www.nakedpastor.org/why-do-so-many-young-christians-become-atheists/.

Smith, Andrew. “Sex, Gender, and the Modern World.” Address delivered at the World Congress for Families VIII (Oslo, Norway; 15 June 2017; Andrewcom.org, Aug. 2017, andrewcom.org/files/sex_gender_modern.pdf.

“The Awful Truth about Google Searches.” Knowledge Power for Life, Power for Life Ministries, powerforlife.org/blog/greatest-google-searches-statistics/.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] Crispin, Dave. “Why Do So Many Young Christians Become Atheists?” Naked Pastor, 1 Oct. 2016, www.nakedpastor.org/why-do-so-many-young-christians-become-atheists/.

[2] There are other articles like this, but I think Crispin did a good job at explaining it succinctly, and thus I used his article as a reference point.

[3] Smith, Andrew. “Sex, Gender, and the Modern World.” Address delivered at the World Congress for Families VIII (Oslo, Norway; 15 June 2017; Andrewcom.org, Aug. 2017, andrewcom.org/files/sex_gender_modern.pdf.

[4] “The Awful Truth about Google Searches.” Knowledge Power for Life, Power for Life Ministries, power