The Young and Tradition

In a recent essay by Tim Keller in Cutting Edge Magazine, Reverend Keller writes: “A disproportionate percent of 1) persons on a self-identified religious pilgrimage, 2) persons born after 1965; are found in very large churches.” This is an interesting statement for us to digest at Chris Church because we are still small (closing in on 100 parishioners) but we tend to attract a disproportionate number of the young. Our congregation is about 70% persons born after 1965 with half of those, adults under age 30. Over the last year we have begun to attract mainly young adults under 30 (married and single) who have no history in the Reformed tradition and are often employed in the arts. I say this is interesting because according to Keller, a church our size should not be attractive to this age demographic and because we have assumed our primary affinity group would be 30 to 40 year old married couples with children.

 

Recently, I found this tidbit in Touchstone Magazine that seems to shed a little light:

Unchurched people prefer traditional church buildings to contemporary buildings, and over half said the style of the building would affect their response to visiting a new church, found a study by the Southern Baptist agency LifeWay. Those aged from 25 to 34 were notably more inclined to the traditional church building than the average, while those over 70 were notably less inclined.

It seems that if the younger age demographic is attracted to a church with a traditional building, they would likely also be attracted to what goes on in that building if it is filled with tradition.

Comments

[Theisens]

Great post. In much of my reading I'm discovering that those same young people (a group in which I find myself) want a church to act like a church. In other words, they are sick of trying to be sold a gimmick. They want church to be something deeper, something spiritual.

These are interesting times. I hope we don't drop the ball.

[Garrett]

Not if we keep it real...liturgically.