What can be done to bring more young people into the church?

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I think there is the danger that reason suggests;
If you keep doing the same thing, you should not expect a different result.
I often wonder if there is a silent contentment of laity with a growing insular church that derives from basic human desire. It derives from precisely what Jesus warned of as he shaped this famous parable to address the obedient and loyal.
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODICAL SON is a tale of two sons. The sinful son returning to the father, and the son who exhibits jealousy, anger, and discontent at" basically" never getting his calf dinner and recognition ( at least from his vantage). A dinner his conduct merited perhaps which he percieved as a slight when his brother got one… The second son is relevant here. His sense of worthiness blinds him to the wishes and will of the father. Who always opperates out of love.
The parable describes the tension and conflict caused by our human condition. We strive to sense that we are more worthy of God’s love. We seek indicia of his appreciation( as if we were his A -student, or more valued). Truth is we are not, but that is ok when loved with a perfect love. What more does one need. The parable is characteristically gentle and understanding of the good son, but also crystal clear in it’s teaching.
Fast forward, remaining laity risks operating out of the same mind set of the good son. The remaining are in fact those most prone to fit the profile of the good son.
With the parent generation estranged from their beginnings as Catholics, today’s children will require very different methods to entice them to join the Church. When I was a child( long ago) we began a life as members and the trick was holding on to us as we grew.
Look towards people’s needs in the future and how the Church might be the center of relevancy to those needs.
For example:
Robotics have been on the horizon for over a decade in a profound way. The forecast is PERMENENT displacement of the work force in larger and larger swaths. This seems inevitable.
Displaced from " what we do" will have a profound effect on our perception of self worth of human beings.
Self worth, self perception, self value, is a fragile thing. In the absence of God in one’s life, it is completely derived externally. ( Believers are not exempt )
Life is a series of worthiness tests, eternally derived esteem, evidenced by status, wealth, fame, and that " winner" identity which is derived from others. We seek it, crave it, and depend on it.
The same society also doles out shame. That which removes esteem. Indicia of UNWORTHINESS.
We exist a prisoner of these external sources telling us our value. They are fickle and unstable, and of course false.( Astonishing…There won’t be a luggage rack)
The Christian who is well formed derives self worth from within. Perhaps the Church should consider dusting off it’s theology of Divinization. Divine Indwelling. The Christian truth is our value is intrinsic and derived from within. The Holy Spirit dwelling within, if only a small part, generates real value.
We are perfectly positioned.
 
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Fr. Z’s Blog has a new entry that speaks of this problem with youth participation, but only as part of a more general problem. He suggests the TLM may be the answer - I am tending to agree part of the answer. The article, worth reading, is HERE.

We ought not try to make the Mass, or the parish, or the Church into a “means” of attracting any particular group - and thus tailoring it to meet the perceived expectations or desires of that group. We ought to seek above all to please God, with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, first. That would occupy quite a lot of our time and attention, and it would be fruitful in every good way. The lesser concerns would, if true and fitting, be resolved if and when the greatest true and fitting concern is embraced and answered.
 
fide said:
He suggests the TLM may be the answer
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Precisely what I mean by magical fairy dust. Sorry, but in the real world, the TLM is not at all attractive to younger people, not per se, but because it is tightly associated with social and political positions that younger people find morally abhorrent.

The “Young people are flocking to the TLM” and “Our TLM parish is bursting to the seams with young families” memes are just fake-it-till-you-make-it jingoism, never backed up by real, verifiable numbers. And, like I said, it is a perfect example of magical fairy dust, a mythical quick and easy solution to a problem the scale of which boggles the mind of the most intrepid observer.

Sorry, I just don’t buy it. At all. It’s just garden variety nonsense.
 
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Why is this such a big issue? Let the young people find their way to the Church. Are we supposed to create a Mass app, so younger people will be attracted to taking part in Mass?
 
I’m not trying to attract anyone of any age to the Church if they are not seeking Truth. Many people are seeking the world, the noises of the world, the laughter of the world, the chummy back-slapping of the world, the glory and glitz and shallowness of the world. Let them seek that in the world!

When (and if, by God’s grace) they grow tired of all that, let the Church be remaining TRUE to herself and her identity, then she will be the answer to men of all their true seekings.
 
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What can be done to bring more young people into the church? Stop using contraception.
 
I agree with this, as someone who’s living for
The world and slightly fallen away. It takes time. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom.
 
Amen to that. Rock bottom really can be the “Rock” to rebuild a life on. And a faithful, richly endowed, solidly True Church is exactly the right home we need then.
 
JoeShlabotnik said:
Why is this such a big issue? Let the young people find their way to the Church. Are we supposed to create a Mass app, so younger people will be attracted to taking part in Mass?
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It’s a big issue because young people like the OP often feel a bit lonely and concerned when they are going to Church and to Church functions and they don’t see many other people their age around. Often, they feel concerned about finding a Catholic spouse when they can’t find people their age at church, let alone in the secular world (where they may also meet young people who were “raised Catholic” but not practicing).

I feel the OP’s pain to an extent. When I was in undergraduate school, we did not have a strong Catholic community for the students at the Newman Center. A lot of Newman Center activities were directed towards social justice activist types who were either at the graduate/ faculty level or didn’t even attend the school. I went from there to a couple of parishes in another state (so I didn’t see any of my old Catholic friends from my childhood parish, grade school or high school) that similarly didn’t seem to have anything for people my age. Everything was for families with kids, or old folks. I didn’t feel ready to get married and have a bunch of kids at age 22 and I did not feel I fit in. Eventually I started getting anxiety attacks about even going to Mass, and having to sit there by myself wondering how being there even related to me, and did the church even want people like me who weren’t married or having kids yet. I still loved Jesus, but the Catholic church seemed to be really out of touch with me and my needs and my life. This is one reason, maybe a big reason, why I eventually just stopped going to Mass for years except the occasional Christmas or Easter or visit home.

So I think it’s definitely a valid concern. I don’t think band-aids like “Look! Here’s a Mass app” is the answer. We need to work to make ALL groups of people feel part of the Church and address the specific needs of all ages.

The Internet has made a lot of things easier nowadays, because one can go online and see that there are other young Catholics your age even if they don’t happen to be in the pews at your particular Mass.
 
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LisaB said:
I’m on a FB group for youth ministers, and on there people have said that youth don’t want/need traditional catechism classes
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I don’t think that is true. I think the main reason people leave the Church is because they buy into the claim that religion is just a human construct to help them cope with suffering and death and encourage people to get along. We need proper catechization to understand that our faith is reasonable and not just some arbitrary religion of several that we fell into by birth. Personally, I don’t remember learning any history of the Church in CCD, only the rules and none of the “why”. All I remember is being taught how horrible the Crusades and Inquisition were in high school history class.

I’m 24, and while I’ve always believed in God and prayed frequently, I grew to believe that was all that I needed in high school. I did not appreciate the Church until I met my wife in college, who went to a private Catholic school, and sought to understand why she thought things like going to Mass every Sunday was so important. That’s when I found Catholic Answers on the radio and these forums where I get much deeper answers to my questions. Before, I didn’t see a need to go to Mass just to “keep the Sabbath holy”, which is all I remember learning in CCD, when I felt praying at home fulfilled that commandment.
 
Le_Crouton said:
I’d like more people my age in the church. What can be done about this?
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Why do you go to church? Might we find some answers there?

(My personal view is that all people seek the same irrespective of age. They seek transcendence, truth and a glimpse of the Divine. Banality and ugliness in worship block the paths to these.)
 
LisaB said:
I’m on a FB group for youth ministers, and on there people have said that youth don’t want/need traditional catechism classes, they need an encounter with Jesus. Does anyone know what such an “encounter” looks like in practice? Is this what young people need to keep them in the Church?
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My first question about this would be, what is meant by “traditional catechism classes”?
If it means “boring lectures like we had in school where some teacher makes you read and memorize sections of the Catechism, or Q and A out of the Baltimore Catechism”, then I agree that youth don’t want that.
But if you mean something like Theology on Tap, then obviously youth enjoy that or the program wouldn’t be happening in so many places. Youth will respond to catechesis if it’s interesting and relevant and not boring like a class or a list of dos and don’ts.

As for an “encounter with Jesus”, I think this is roughly equivalent to realizing that Jesus Christ is real and that he cares about you as an individual and loves you as an individual. Mother Angelica described having such an encounter as a teenager after she prayed for healing from a stomach ailment and was cured. She realized that God really did love her. Other people get this when they hit “rock bottom” with problems or addiction or whatever. The Evangelicals would frame it as asking Jesus to come into your life as your personal savior. I think there are also other people who experience Jesus through helping or caring about others.

I’m not really sure how you would “bring that on” for teenagers. Many retreats and youth rallies, both Catholic and Protestant, try to do so. Some such events seem emotionally manipulative to me, and I’m sure if I have that feeling, so do some of the young people. It’s sort of a vision quest that each young person has to find for themself.
 
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Why do we want more young people? Seriously. What’s the point?
I get that it’s a nice looking idea, but I’m not sure what the overall benefit would be.

Anyhow, I think if someone can answer the “why,” it might give some help in figuring out the “how.”
 
A lot comes down to the personality of the priest. In our parish, we had a new priest installed at the same time I became a candidate, and I’ve heard from many people my age (millenial) who have now started attending that he made a big difference. He is open and gregarious but has high standards in the liturgy. The music in the parish got a big overhaul when he started as well and that has been commented on frequently.
 
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I don’t like engaging in stark realism, but generations will return to Christ when it becomes obvious that man without God is utterly lost and confused. Human beings tend to learn the hard way, unfortunately.

We should be hopeful that virtue changes this trend instead of consequences.
 
As a young person (16), truthfully, I have absolutely no idea. It’s an extraordinarily daunting task.

The thing about young people is that we aren’t as monolithic as we may see at times.
There are those people that retreats, epic-sounding music, communal worship, and the pastor guy emotionally speaking will touch deeply. Then there are the people that don’t care for such things for whom rational appeals work immeasurably better. Then there are the people that are just struggling just to survive or that don’t see why they should possibly care.

You can’t reach everybody the same way.

Something that worked for me was building a reason for how faith would benefit me personally, how having faith is actually useful because it gives you a template to give your life, rather than simply going at it alone.

But again, I must emphasize, the same way doesn’t work for everyone.
 
It was a fairly quick transition from Marty Haugen settings of the Mass and hymns from Glory & Praise to chanted Ordinary and responses with polyphonic or gregorian chant reflections. As well as a doing away with guitar and piano and shifting towards the organ.

We are lucky that we have a pretty sizable number of professional and amateur musicians that attend this parish, so the transition went well on the music production side of things.

And I’ve heard from many people that they love the music, some saying it’s the best they’ve ever heard at a parish. However, I am certain that there is some confirmation bias prevalent in that as those who did not like the transition probably wouldn’t tell me about it.

That said, in terms of raw numbers he does seem to be making an impact, as attendance is very strong, even during the week.
 
We are gathering with my wife’s family Saturday.
One of the nieces was enrolled in marriage prep at her parish with her fiance. They either backed out or were faced with choices by the priest.
Background:

She has two children with two different fathers. He has 2 children from a divorce and comes from an active Catholic family. He steered them to marriage in the Church.

They had separate apartments when they started prep with the priest. In the interim they found a house they liked, bought it and moved in together. They could not wait until marriage to live conjugal life. And so marriage in the Church became an afterthought.

The family (generally speaking) is badly broken. This is the fruit of gradual disbelief and relativism. If anything goes, nothing works well. And we have chaos. It won’t take many more generations and western civilization will be gone.
 
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