Believing teenagers were asked if they had attempted to explain their religious beliefs to someone else with different religious beliefs with a hope that they might receive Jesus Christ as Savior. In 1997, 63% of "born-again" youth answered affirmatively. In December 2009, that number had dropped to 45%.
What does this suggest to those involved in campus ministry? Is the culture's aversion to dialogue about matters of faith taking its toll on youth witness?
My experience suggests that Christian students still desire to witness, but not necessarily in the "forms" that have been handed down from previous generations. This was a large part of the motivation behind the development of CoJourners.
3 comments:
That's really interesting to see stats on that. Thanks for sharing that study.
Two interesting books that may explain that decline: unChristian and Souls in Transition (have you read either?).
unChristian really hits the nail on the head as far as students’ reluctance to share their faith. It’s something that I’ve noticed in students in the last few years – an almost embarrassment to tell others that they are Christians.
Anyway, unChristian puts into words some things that I’ve sensed from college students:
“2/3 of young born-again Christians say they believe that most outsiders have a negative image of Christianity. Another 1/3 say that the way Christians act and the things they say make them embarrassed to be a Christian. We heard many young believers say that in some circumstances they are reluctant to admit they are Christians. They don’t fear being unpopular, but they feel that raising the Christian flag would actually undermine their ability to connect with people and to maintain credibility with them.”
Souls in Transition says something REALLY interesting though - that it's a myth that young people are hostile or averse toward talking about religion (christian teens' fears are unfounded). In their research the authors find non-Christian students generally seem happy to talk about religion if it happens to come up.
Sorry for the lengthy comment! It's just something I've been chewing on this summer as I read Souls in Transition (are college students antagonistic toward religion or just apathetic). I'm processing thru it on my blog:
http://www.timcasteel.com/
Tim,
Thanks for your response. Sorry for my delay. I was traveling for a month (half ministry & half vacation) and not doing any extra correspondence, writing, etc.
Both books you mention are excellent lens to see into this culture. UnChristian I read (and reference frequently.) Souls in Transition I have begun, though I need to give it more focused attention. My read of it was distracted by some historical pleasure reading.
But I would affirm from my experience and observations what SIT says about the myth of hostility and aversion to spiritual conversation. I have always maintained that while the audience has negative preconceived notions of Christians (and Christianity), they don't automatically project those views on you individually, unless you give them reason. In fact, often they are quite willing to engage when they experience genuine interest and care from the believer.
Or to put it more crassly, they don't assume you are a jerk, unless you give them reason.
KD
Keith,
Just saw that you replied! So a belated response to your delayed response :)
Although I loved UnChristian and thought it was very eye opening, I would say SinT is more accurate/up-to-date than UnChristian. I think UnChristian reflects the time in which it was printed and, I think, heavily influenced by the anti-George W Bush sentiment at the time (and thus anti-republican which was/is heavily associated with the religious right).
I definitely agree with UnChristian that we have a major PR problem but the majority of students are not as antagonistic to religion and Christianity as UnChristian makes them out to be.
I think UnChristian fairly accurately represents the opinions of the growing population of Atheists/non-religious. But, nationally, that group is still pretty small – SinT would say around 10%.
The reason I think it's important to distinguish between the viewpoints of the 2 books is that I think it dramatically affects how we approach evangelism as a ministry. If we assume people are going to be antagonistic, we'll never share. And we're wrong in assuming that. If we assume students are very open to talk about spiritual things (which they are), we will be bold.
For example, I love the Changing Evangelism Report but I'm afraid it's swayed a bit too much by unChristian. The problem: "Over the years the number of students ready to believe the gospel has shrunk" is true. And the "relational evangelism" solution is, I think, THE answer. But it's not true that students don't want to talk about God (the Report doesn't say that directly but I kind of get that vibe). It seems that the findings have an underlying assumption that non-Christians are anti-Christian where I just don't think that's true for the most part. So the solutions of doing lots of pre-evangelism (good deeds, sowing) are fine/good but not as critical as mobilizing students to do relational evangelism (which will involve building trust/sowing).
Have you finished Souls in Transition? Would be interested to hear your thoughts.
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