From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-
Chances are that if you are in your 20s or 30s, you are not hanging around a church.
Polling is now a highly sophisticated industry, and religious organizations are being fed some irrefutable numbers about what is happening among their constituents.
In a single generation, the Christian church dropout rate has increased fivefold. The Barna Group, a leading research organization focusing on the intersection of faith and culture, says 80 percent of the young people raised in a church will be "disengaged" before they are 30.
In the past 20 years, the number of American people who say they have no religion has doubled and has now reached 15 percent. Those numbers are concentrated in the under-30 population. The polling data continue to show that a dramatic exit is taking place from American Christian churches.
Beyond the polls, denominations across the board are acknowledging loss of membership, but it is worse than they are reporting. Many churches report numbers based on baptized constituents, yet Sunday morning attendance doesn't come close to those numbers.
Once baptized, always a reportable Christian!
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10346/1109833-192.stm#ixzz17tgNfShU
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