59 Percent of Millennials Raised in a Church Have Dropped Out—And They’re Trying to Tell Us Why

I very much agree with many of the reasons given in this article and some of them seem to apply doubly in the LDS church.

However, as Ray has often pointed out, the LDS church often fares better at retaining its youth than many churches. This may be precisely because we have rejected the consumer driven model of church. When you are trying to attract parishioners based on how your church programs add value to their lives – it can be easy to drift from current consumer tastes and generational gaps. The LDS church does not seem to be trying to attract people so much as present a program that, if true, is vital to your salvation.

Perhaps the LDS church can implement some of these suggestions without seeming to pander to the whims of changing generational expectations. After all, church does not have to be painful to be true.

I’d like to see our own retention numbers compared with the general numbers quoted in the study in the opening post…

I read this when it came out, and as I recall, church retention rates for youth becoming adults used to run around 90%, but now is running 64%.

It’s an incomplete statistic, though. Worldwide only about 35% of all members are active, with higher rates in Utah and much lower rates in SA and Europe. So is this 30% just reflective of the norm for all members? If that’s the case, it not news or significant. What would make the stat worthwhile is if it were broken down compared to other age groups, geographic location, and covert as compared to BIC.

The real problem is that it doesn’t differentiate between children of record and converts. A fair number of ysa didn’t grow up in the church.

Assuming we’re just looking at rough estimates. You can see that the ysa activity rate is lower than the general membership. How much lower, not so much.

I identify with this excerpt so much. To be honest, I see the lds church’s rejection of the consumer driven model, or emphasis of “truth” and downplay of “contributing to wellbeing” as greatly increasing the harm it causes.

I am not a millenial but I can sympathise with some of the points being made.

I think a lot of millenials have a shorter attention span. Mass media is part of this. I have a deal of patience but I don’t sit through General Conference anymore.

I think there is also a considerable amount of anti-religious bullying amongst millenials, particularly on social media.

I think there is also a considerable amount of anti-religious bullying amongst millenials, particularly on social media.

Good point.

There are also widely propagated perceptions that Christians are bigoted, enable child abuse, are hypocritical, uneducated etc etc. Some are but not all are.

To be honest, in my experience, most Christians are bigoted. They just don’t recognize it as such because it is less extreme than what they typically associate with the word. Misogyny and homophobia are widespread in Christianity. Many of us view these as more condemning flaws than older people do. Just because you don’t throw slurs at me does not make you not homophobic. You don’t have to be as misogynistic as Trump for church to not be a place I want to raise a family. If I can have the benefits of spirituality without all these harmful ideologies, why should I go to church?

I mean, there’s a reason that the vast majority of queer people, including those who grew up in religious families, aren’t religious. And it’s not because of hate groups like the Westborough Baptist Church. It’s because of personal experience with a bigoted, toxic environment. Actually accepting and affirming churches are in the minority.