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Why do Christian college students leave church and struggle

N

nyc christian

Member
This is something that I saw growing up and now that I am older and once again in school I keep seeing. I think we need to pray for our youth and try to encourage and offer support to young adults in our church and in our families.

I have seen how young adults who were on fire ended up in sin the moment they went to college. The transition seems to go like this once they are 17yrs -18yrs old - finishing h.s., they start going to church less and less, when they start college they rebel and use studying and finals as an excuse to leave and begin to fall in sin. By the time they graduate they may not even go to church anymore. Im not judging any of them but I think we need to take some action and be aware of what is going on. I believe its due to all the freedom they experience at once, that leads them into making decisions with little thought on the consequences.

When I was a freshman in college I suffered big time because the encouragment I needed wasnt there, the only young men in church that where my age had either left or had fallen in sin. That is why I try to be a good example to the youth in my church because I want to be there for those young guys that may be feeling the same way I did.
 
I agree. Being away from any type of authority, and being accountable to no one but yourself all at once it is easy to stray. Also, just the atmosphere of college alone leads to a lot of temptation. (Coed dorms)

I think most people lose track of living for God and start living for themselves.
 
Its actually quite simple. Most people are brought up in a closed enviroment where Christianity is the norm. This is how the United States is. The Majority of people in the United States claim to be Chrstian.

So when The kids leave the protected enviroment where only one bit of information is present, they enter a world where all information is present. Its overwhelming.


What can be done about this? Nothing. Its true. The only thing you could do is to isolate the person where he/she can only talk to people who agree with them from the start.

The world has allot of information. When it is hidden the problems are delayed. When they are shown and understood in little bursts, understanding forms and less likelyness to stray happens.
 
Blazin Bones said:
So what you are saying is that the only ones who remain Christians are the overly sheltered, closeminded people?
Click to expand...
No, not at all. What I'm saying is that allot of people stray because they whre completley unaware of the world around them and discovered it all at once and strayed.

The second part of my post shows, that based on my understanding, Shows that those who don't come from an isolated background are more likely to not stray. ;)
 
church is not fun. The music is lame and the preaching is boring.

no 18 - 24 year old wants to hear a lecture, especially when they are a full time student.
 
Lance_Iguana said:
Its actually quite simple. Most people are brought up in a closed enviroment where Christianity is the norm. This is how the United States is. The Majority of people in the United States claim to be Chrstian.

So when The kids leave the protected enviroment where only one bit of information is present, they enter a world where all information is present. Its overwhelming.


What can be done about this? Nothing. Its true. The only thing you could do is to isolate the person where he/she can only talk to people who agree with them from the start.

The world has allot of information. When it is hidden the problems are delayed. When they are shown and understood in little bursts, understanding forms and less likelyness to stray happens.
Click to expand...


the word you are looking for is 'cognitive dissonance'.
 
ChevyRodeo said:
church is not fun. The music is lame and the preaching is boring.

no 18 - 24 year old wants to hear a lecture, especially when they are a full time student.
Click to expand...

Oh I beg to differ wholeheartedly. I know of a great number of young people personally who actually WANT to be preachers, ministers, servants of Christ...they love going to church services, they even attend services on campus when it's not Sunday!
 
Lance_Iguana said:
[quote="Blazin Bones":loqsczbr]So what you are saying is that the only ones who remain Christians are the overly sheltered, closeminded people?
Click to expand...
No, not at all. What I'm saying is that allot of people stray because they whre completley unaware of the world around them and discovered it all at once and strayed.

The second part of my post shows, that based on my understanding, Shows that those who don't come from an isolated background are more likely to not stray. ;)[/quote:loqsczbr]


I think both are likely to astray, I think more needs to be done to retain them. Finding the cause why can be helpful but taking action is more important. I was conducting some primary and secondary research and I came across some sad facts. Many young adult (20-29)christians who were active in churches during their teens pass through their most formative decade while putting christianity on the backburner. The research was conducted in the U.S. but I think the results reflect what goes on throughtout the world. The research showed that americans in their 20's are significantly less likely than any other age group to attend church services, to donate to churches, to be absolutely commited to Christ, to read the bible or to serve as a volunteer or lay leader in church.

From my experience I saw that when I was in college doing my BBA a lot of 18 -22yr olds started attending much less and leaving. But what i hadnt realized was that now that Iam older and from the research I found is that attendance bottoms out during the late 20's when the students have gone from college to start their careers, just 20% of those ages 25-29 attended church in a typical week. About 8,000,000 twentysomethings alive today who were active church goers as teens will no longer be active in a church by their 30th birthday. This research was done a few years ago, my own findings are no different from the secondary research, the diff. is I started measuring the change from age 17. This is something that I will want to work at resolving till I am an old man. I have tried to implement change in my church but the youth leader has not wanted to let me do what I feel is right, he wants to do it his way. As a result I have to do it as best I can by myself without getting any help from the church.
 
Lance_Iguana said:
[quote="Blazin Bones":mv1jf0nz]So what you are saying is that the only ones who remain Christians are the overly sheltered, closeminded people?
Click to expand...
No, not at all. What I'm saying is that allot of people stray because they whre completley unaware of the world around them and discovered it all at once and strayed.

The second part of my post shows, that based on my understanding, Shows that those who don't come from an isolated background are more likely to not stray. ;)[/quote:mv1jf0nz]
You have a point. I was like that when I became acquainted with the world. However, it is the choice of the person as to whether he really wants to fall into the temptation; or struggle back onto the path of which Jesus has paved for us. For me, really it's remembering myself. I stray mind you, but I never go off course to an extent.
 
I think there is a big difference between believeing in God and knowing God. For some people, they have to experience the world a little bit before they see the wisdom the bible teaches, and force themselves to really find God.
 
caromurp said:
ChevyRodeo said:
church is not fun. The music is lame and the preaching is boring.

no 18 - 24 year old wants to hear a lecture, especially when they are a full time student.
Click to expand...

Oh I beg to differ wholeheartedly. I know of a great number of young people personally who actually WANT to be preachers, ministers, servants of Christ...they love going to church services, they even attend services on campus when it's not Sunday!
Click to expand...

I agree, I speak for the 18 year olds such as myself and others at my church and we LOVE the services. I used to think they were boring but I've since leant that was more problem within myself than the speakers, plus the MUSIC is WOOO! Gotta love what God does during worship time! (Case you haven't picked it up, yes I attend a Pentecostal Church)

Its a shame that many other Christians however don't see it this way, but thats less a symptom of their age and more a condition of their heart, nothing I can do about it except pray and talk to those who are willing, in the meantime I'm still really happy cause its Monday so I'm still on a bit of a high from Sunday :)
 
Also I think its because everybody in church is somebody (unless its a campus specific church with only college students) so everyone has a career/degree, wife, car etc and your kind of the odd man out if your in college. Also the whole pre marital sex conundrum I believe comes into play, a 20 yr old guy wants to have sex and have a beer after the stresses of their ciriculum and if your married thats not a big deal the problem is its socially unacceptable to marry in college and I found it harder to find a GF in church than on dating sites. When you are 20 you are trying to establish yourself in life and anything other than that is basicly a waste of time and effort, you are trying to establish a degree to move on to a high paying career and find a wife, just thoes 2 things take up a tremendous amount of effort. Also as an unmarried (unable to get laid) very early 20's it gets super old listening to youth groups talk about masterbation and porn, yep im 20 and going to a tech school so not getting married anytime soon and masterbation is going to happen sorry thats just life and after a day of O chem, calculus, and thermo I dont want to hear about what I do with my right hand is evil, its like the condemnation is right out of the gate before they even know if you have read the bible, it seems youth groups are more about agendas (like masterbation, porn and sex) than just reading the bible.
 
rppearso said:
...it seems youth groups are more about agendas (like masterbation, porn and sex) than just reading the bible.
Click to expand...

Quoted as a lesson to youth pastors, youth directors, and church leaders in general. We need to teach our people, young and old alike, to read and practice God's word for what it is, and not just use it to support our own agendas and traditions!

Thank you Rppearso!
 
Igor said:
Quoted as a lesson to youth pastors, youth directors, and church leaders in general. We need to teach our people, young and old alike, to read and practice God's word for what it is, and not just use it to support our own agendas and traditions!

Thank you Rppearso!
Click to expand...

Thank you, I also think another aspect of the problem is that some christians just straight up have not read the entire bible (I am guilty of it as well and am working to aliviate that problem and as I read I find that alot of the core church agendas require an extreme focus on FEW scriptures AND taking them out of context), they have only read snipits that some church member had them read as part of some training/agenda. The bible is VERY contextual and if it is read in the wrong context you can get all messed up, that is in fact how cults start. I believe that if you are inturpreting the bible in such a way as to make someones life harder or more onerous that is dangerously close to adding and taking away, like how the church likes to elevate the premarital sex thing out into orbit when there is in fact no specific scripture relating to it if the word fornication is properly translated (maybe thats the issue). Never the less it still seems to get an unhealthy level of focus.
 
Yes Rppearso, you are right, not many Christians have read the Bible for themselves. In fact, just yesterday I commented on that in someone else’s thread. It sounds like you have done some study of "fornication" and found out that many Christians do not understand what it means. I'm guessing you have also looked into the original meaning of "adultery", as well as other passages that shed light on acceptable and non-acceptable sexual activity. But there are also many other areas of the Bible that are taken out of context, misinterpreted, or over emphasized just to serve man’s agendas. All this just leads to confusion and disillusionment.

Many Christian teens grow up under the teaching of church leaders and never start actually reading God’s word for themselves. Much like overprotective parenting tactics, this may work as a method of controlling young people for a while, but when they finally get away on their own and have to decide what authority they are going to follow, all those teachings that take verses out of context or overemphasize one aspect over another, just cause confusion. So they get discouraged with church and fall out of fellowship.

If we want young people to stay committed to Christ when they are no longer directly under our authority, I really think we (especially those of us who are church leaders) need to forget the agendas and start emphasizing the reading and learning God’s word for what it actually says. Then, at least in my opinion, we will build stronger Christians that will not be so easily lost to all the temptations that pull them away from their faith.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I think the falling out of fellowship also comes from the lack of efforts from denominations to drop the party lines and encourage a Christian walk as opposed to a Reformed, Lutheran, Baptist identity.

The issue with fleshly lusts becomes much easier to handle when a methodist Christian student is willing to forget that the strugling student is a Catholic and just remind them of what Scripture does teach.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: While pre-marital sex may play a limited role in the falling away of college students, this thread WILL NOT be used to debate what pre-marital sex practices are and are not sin.
 
Hello, This is a great post i completely agree it has to do with who you surround yourself with, this seems to be the issue so many are having moving scenarios, we must pray of course ! i think it would be great to have more of a focused ministry on this subject.

blessings !
 
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