Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

'Forget Pizza Parties,' Teens Tell Churches

"Bye-bye church. We're busy." That's the message teens are giving churches today.

Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in.

"Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook," says Barna president David Kinnaman.

"Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It's the age teens typically drop out," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, Nashville, Tenn., which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. "A decade ago teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They're not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, 'We don't see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.' "

Rainer says teens today want Scripture, they "don't want superficiality. We need to tell them that if you are part of church life, you are part of something bigger. The church needs you, too."

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-08-11-teenchurch11_ST_N.htm

Majority of Americans Are Mixing Their Religion

Going to church this Sunday? Look around.

The chances are that one in five of the people there find "spiritual energy" in mountains or trees, and one in six believe in the "evil eye," that certain people can cast curses with a look — beliefs your Christian pastor doesn't preach.

In a Catholic church? Chances are that one in five members believe in reincarnation in a way never taught in catechism class — that you'll be reborn in this world again and again.

Elements of Eastern faiths and New Age thinking have been widely adopted by 65% of U.S. adults, including many who call themselves Protestants and Catholics, according to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released Wednesday.

Syncretism — mashing up contradictory beliefs like Catholic rocker Madonna's devotion to a Kabbalah-light version of Jewish mysticism — appears on the rise.

And, according to the survey's other major finding, devotion to one clear faith is fading.

Of the 72% of Americans who attend religious services at least once a year (excluding holidays, weddings and funerals), 35% say they attend in multiple places, often hop-scotching across denominations.

"Mixing and matching practices and beliefs is as much the norm as it is the exception," Pew's Alan Cooperman says. "Are they grazing, sampling, just curious? We really don't know."

Even so, says Pew researcher Greg Smith, "these findings all point toward a spiritual and religious openness — not necessarily a lack of seriousness."

Pew says two in three adults believe in or cite an experience with at least one supernatural phenomenon, including:

•26% find "spiritual energy" in physical things.

•25% believe in astrology.

•24% say people will be reborn in this world again and again.

•23% say yoga is a "spiritual practice."

Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2009-12-10-1Amixingbeliefs10_CV_U.htm?csp=N009

Study: Decline in Adolescent Religious Beliefs & Practices Over Time

The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) recently announced the release of a new report on adolescents in the United States based on the second wave of NSYR survey data.

In "Religion and Spirituality on the Path Through Adolescence," the authors examined religious and spiritual changes in the lives of adolescents in the United States across a three-year span. The comparison of NSYR survey responses from the same adolescents in 2002 and 2005 reveals relatively small but consistent decreases in conventional religious beliefs and practices. Although the majority of adolescents in this study remained stable in their religious beliefs, practices, and spirituality, a significant minority did experience slight shifts away from standard religious beliefs and decreases in religious practice. Overall, the dynamics in religiosity and spirituality among this nationally representative sample of adolescents reflect subtle changes--rather than large or dramatic shifts.

The report, is authored by Melinda Lundquist Denton, Co-Investigator with the NSYR and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Clemson University, Lisa Pearce, Co-Principle Investigator of the second wave of the NSYR and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Christian Smith, Principal Investigator of the NSYR and Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame.

To download the entire report in pdf format, click here.

Source: National Study of Youth & Religion
http://www.youthandreligion.org/

Study: Church-Going Teens Have Higher GPAs

Regular church attendance may boost a student's GPA, according to a new study.

Students who attend religious services weekly average a GPA of 0.144 higher than those who never attend services, said Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

"That suggests that the act of attending church – the structure and the social aspects associated with it – could be more important to educational outcomes than the actual religion," the sociologist suggested.

Despite the positive link between church attendance and academic success, the study surprisingly found the importance of religion to teens had "very little impact" on their educational outcomes, Glanville noted, according to the University of Iowa News Services. The study had looked at whether the teens said religion was important to them.

According to the study, church-going teens tend to do better in school because of regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models; their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends' parents; they develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values; and they're more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

Source: Christian Post
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080823/study-church-going-teens-have-higher-gpas.htm

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade about this news, but you'll have to forgive me for not being very excited about the findings. Sure, what can be said is that regular church-going teens have higher GPAs than those who aren't. But, I just can't go gaga over the increase of 0.144. The kid who doesn't go to church and has a 2.30 GPA, gets a 2.44 if he or she goes to church regularly. Now, even I would be excited if it had been a full point increase!

Also of note regarding this study is that there is no differentiation made as to various religions. And, as the study points out, the increase might be due to the structure and social aspects associated with attendance, not the religion itself.