Why do some young people leave the Church? A new study investigates

  • Thread starter Thread starter _Abyssinia
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
40.png
Luke6_37:
40.png
Xanthippe_Voorhees:
Exactly. Parents are not placing priority on religious education and the church has decided not to take a firm stance as any other institution of education would. Johnny is too busy for the past 2 years of Confirmation classes? Ok, have him write a note and we’ll Confirm him.
Click to expand...
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit may just be what Johnny needs. My pastor thinks Confirmation should be pushed back to 8th grade in order to give the kids that extra grace needed to negotiate public high school. It would require a big change in our Religious Education program, but I don’t think what we are doing now is working very well anyway.

The high school program could then focus on youth ministry rather than Confirmation prep.
Click to expand...
We don’t do children any favors by allowing sacraments without education. Sure, have confirmation at a younger age. It dosn’t change the need for the child to be EDUCATED about what they are doing. Grace isn’t magical.
Click to expand...
Grace is real. Who knows how it will affect a person? Eastern Catholic & Orthodox churches regularly preform chrismations on babies right after baptism. Maybe that’s how the sacrament is supposed to work.
 
Couple of points that have an impact for this:
They say the internet is where religion goes to die. That could be a factor in it. When people have access to converse with other points of world views and listen to the critiques of people outside of their faith, they have a wider understanding of religious points they were taught up to that point. If it shakes their faith and they leave, then I guess “safe zones of religious practice” don’t stand up to real world involvement.

Education in philosophical understanding of logical fallacies and what is justified to believe and unjustified to believe.

Access to better world views and points of reference for moral guidance and standards to hold oneself to.

Loss of the relevance of religion in their daily lives and issues they are trying to master.
 
I taught Catechism for 4 years grades K, 1, 2 and 3. It was odd that almost consistently only 1 or two out of 10 or 12 that attended Catechism actually attended Mass. I didn’t ask grade K but I did show a kid video of the Mass that explained the Mass for grades 1, 2, and 3.

We went on “field trips” to the Church (Catechism classes were held in the basement of the Church, to the Church (with priest 's permission of course; don’t got traipsing about without notifying and obtaining proper permission))to pray for the intentions of my students.

Very moving. Hoping we find some way to get parents more involved in Religious Education I was frustrated at times of course but realized perhaps I planted some seed of out Faith Catholic to the adorable young elementary students I taught.
 
Hi Mary,

I taught confirmation classes, and had the same experience, maybe a bit more attendance, but not much.

I pray for a revolution in Pastoral ministry and homiletics. We had a wonderful priest who said a little about the readings, and a lot about his family. We really felt like we were at a celebration, a meal with him. He had a gift for remembering names, and he seemed to know everyone personally. He loved us, and we loved him back. When asked about going to mass, he simply said “Well I have to be there.” He packed the masses, and we had to start considering increasing the size of the chapel after we increased the number of masses. The congregation was very large, and it felt like a family. We were his family. We have have of our masses in Spanish, and they loved him too. I sincerely believe that if his replacement would have had the same pastoral/homiletic/approach, the congregation would have welcomed the new person and remained.

When he was moved, his replacement was a disaster, and he was immediately followed by a chain of mediocrity. Our current priest’s english is hard to understand, and he reads a canned homily. How are we ever supposed to be a family again? We know nothing about this guy, and the same can be said about the last few pastors. Our attendance is probably 25% of what it was when we had that great priest.

I’ve had a couple opportunities recently to go to the “megachurch”-type services. The preachers were plugged into the people and shared their lives, made the Gospel alive (even though I disagreed with their theology, for the most part).

When is our Church going to wise-up and develop great people to preach the word?
 
Most problems start with one word,

Boredom…

I went to. Church almost every single week till about my mid 30’s …
I have always found the Catholic Church a lonely place .yet if I ever visit a Lutheran church it always seems a happier environment,
The Question is Why is this the case ?.
 
Which Lutheran Church do you go to? A Lutheran Church ELCA, LCM or WELS confessional Lutherans or some other? There is not one unified Lutheran church.
 
Really ?
I had no idea,
If you Google Living Faith Lutheran Church
Murrumba Downs Queensland ,
Then maybe you can tell me what it is ,lol
I think it’s just Lutheran Church Australia .
How are you going Mary , haven’t seen you around for ages,
But then I haven’t been on C A much since the changes , they kinda lost me a bit…
Look forward to hearing from you…
 
They also have a Facebook page that might be of interest ,
Only go there once every few years .
 
This is what they state : : is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church of Australia (LCA), and adheres to the LCA’s doctrinal teachings."
https://www.livingfaith.org.au/index.php/our-church/what-we-believe
I’m not familiare with the LCA ad I live in the USA (LOL how’s that for a sentence of abbreviations!~) You’d have to look oup LCA doctrinal teachings to know.

I’m doiwng well, Phi. It’s great to see you posting again. God bless.
 
Thanks A Traveller, looks like they are conservative in nature but do acknowlede the differing views regarding “non essentials.” I’m not surprised they are in ‘pulpit fellowship’ with the LCMS. I have a lot of friends that are LCMS members which is conservative regarding social issues but still profess the Pope either IS (or sits in the seat of ) the Antichrist. (Book of Concord.) Troubleseome, but we pray for unity.

“While there is agreement among all Lutheran churches about key doctrines (critically, salvation through Jesus Christ alone), there is also freedom to hold differing opinions on issues not considered central to the Christian faith.” ( http://www.lca.org.au/about-us/our-beliefs-and-teachings/)
Bolding mine for emphasis.
 
I need to make a correction. It appears LCA is not in full pulpit fellowship with the LCMS after all.
I got the impression from:


They are not listed on the LCMS site (for whatever reason going to the LCMS site didn’t come to mind at the time to ‘corroborate’, luckily I’m not a journalist!):
https://www.lcms.org/how-we-serve/international/partner-church-bodies
But they did work with the LCA in the past:
https://www.lcms.org/worldwide-regions/asia/australia
I apologize for making this error.
 
Last edited:
No problem. Thanks for the info. After my divorce, I spent two years in the LCMS church while thinking about conversion.

Announcemnt, LOL: I NEVER communed there, and went to the Catholic Church as well. I was so impressed with the Christ Centered approach and Law/Gospel preaching.

I went the the “conversion class” for those thinking about conversion and also studied the Bible start to finish over two years with the Today’s LIght Bible by Jane Fryar. The Pastor gave weekly lectures on the readings for that week, and after two years for the first time in my life I was able to say I READ THE BIBLE…start to finish which was a great accomplishment for me for I had never done so before. The Pastor had a Master’s in Exegesis and was a former CPA; he retired out on diability due to MS. He was called to the Church as a Pastor later in life. I miss him but I missed the Eucharist, the Lord’s True Body and True Blood period and the Communion of Saints, and Mary the Mother of our Lord.

I made many friends and appreciated their welcoming attitude. Thank you to the LCMS for enhancing and renewing my Faith through wonderful preaching and teaching the Word of God when I had lost almost all faith after my divorce during the annulment process in the Catholic Church.

I am a zealous “revert now” but miss my days there sometimes and the people I met.

I embrace my Catholic Faith fully now but will aways have a special place in my heart for the confessional Lutherans, LCMS specifically.
 
Yeah, Australia’s always been a bit of an odd duck when it comes to Lutheranism. The theologically-Lutheran and theologically-Liberal bodies merged back in the 1960’s (before the theologically-Liberal became really Liberal).

Consequently, they’ve always been a body that can’t decide what to do with itself. For instance, It keeps voting on women’s ordination, but keeps voting it down. It can’t fully join the Confessional ILC because it permits too much Liberal thought and doesn’t adhere strictly to the Lutheran Confessions, yet it can’t fully join the LWF because the Confessional Lutherans in the LCA won’t sign onto the full pulpit-and-altar fellowship required to join. So it’s an associate member of each – helping out in social spaces like food pantries and refugee relief, but not in anything theological. It has only friends, and no friends. It’s odd.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top