07
Encouraged to Doubt, Young Adults Leave Church in Droves
Posted by Eric F. Langborgh on 07 Aug 2007 at 05:24 pm
In today’s USA Today is a sad story concerning the state of the church in America today. Here’s an excerpt from the article, “Young adults aren’t sticking with church”:
Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 – both evangelical and mainline – who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23, according to the survey by LifeWay Research. And 34% of those said they had not returned, even sporadically, by age 30. That means about one in four Protestant young people have left the church.
…The proportion of young adults identifying with mainline churches, [Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow] says, is “about half the size it was a generation ago. Evangelical Protestants have barely held their own.”
The article cites many reasons that young adults give for leaving the church. But I want to venture one reason not given: Could it be that in a highly baptistic American church that young adults leaving is the necessary consequence of preaching doubt, and not faith?
Now, many of my baptist brothers will object to this characterization. Further, they will say that this survey just proves the wisdom of their take on the sacrament, that it should only be applied after an individual provides a “credible” profession of faith. But I argue that that teaching is the problem, or at least a big part of it. Baptism is the sign of the New Covenant. All Christians are to be baptized. When our children come to us and say, “I believe in Jesus. I love him. Why can’t I be baptized?” how does a baptist parent respond? At best, the response is usually, in essence, “I hope so, but we can’t do it until you are of such age that we can believe you.”
The replacement of faith with doubt is hardly a problem just for baptists. Most churches in this country are baptistic, either officially or in practice, but very many churches that practice paedobaptism are guilty of the same problem when it comes to discipling our children.
Further, even if baptized, too often the emphasis of our teaching to our children (and adults!) is on how much we should love Jesus, and how we should respond. This is important, but it is not the main thing. The main thing is that Jesus first loved, and still loves, us. The waters of baptism are a sign and seal of God’s promise to us. We are called to simply believe in that promise. But the emphasis in the American church is on our devotion; thus baptism now represents our dedication to Jesus. The Reformers rightly taught that through the Holy Spirit we can have assurance of our salvation — by looking to God and His Word. But today’s Christian too often is asking himself, “Am I really a Christian? How can I tell?” and therefore engages in all sorts of navel gazing.
I submit that when this is the case, the consequence is young adults who doubt, who never felt close to Jesus, and who finally leave the church, not missing anything.
For more on this subject, please see these other posts of mine:
- My Reasons for Embracing Paedobaptism
- Out of the mouths of babes … Faith!
- A Toast: On the Occasion of Samuel and Maggie’s Baptism
- Baptism “Jam”: What I Didn’t Say
- Mark Horne: “Do Christian Children Need to be Converted?”
- ‘What Are the Waters of Baptism, and How Are We Saved Through Them?’
- Finding Assurance in Baptism
Sometime in the coming weeks I hope to expand upon my early post about why I now believe in infant baptism, explaining some of my journey to this position. Until then, I trust the above will be helpful to anyone interested in exploring the subject.
At best, the response is usually, in essence, “I hope so, but we can’t do it until you are of such age that we can believe you.”
Is that really a problem? I’ve never heard of anybody being turned down for baptism.
Hi rho,
I came to Presbyterianism out of a Reformed Baptist church. Now, the Reformed Baptists haven’t come up with a universal practice on when to baptize professing children, but at this one — and many others — the line was usually that children had to be out in the world, which usually meant out of high school and into college or a job. The thinking is that before that point you can’t tell if a child has true faith or is simply impressionable and is mindlessly parroting his or her parents.
Even in baptist churches that are more willing to baptize at earlier ages, though, there is still a period of disconnect between, for example, kids learning to sing “Jesus Loves Me” and when that promise is sealed in baptism, which I believe has to lead to some level of confusion for the child. And then, the navel gazing theology afflicts most churches, even paedobaptist ones, imo, compounding the “doubt” over “faith” problem I’ve described.
Thanks for the comment! Do come back often. :)
That’s interesting. I attend a Primitive Baptist church, and we’ve baptized several children, whereas I’ve never been baptized myself. Many of my friends and family are Southern Baptist, and there isn’t a stricture on youthful baptisms that I’ve noticed.
Your assertion was interesting to because many Primitive Baptists, including me, consider the Presbyterian church as closer to our doctrine than most Southern Baptist churches. (Don’t ask me which strain of Presbyterianism–I always get confused between the differences.)
Your blog is on my list of RSS feeds. I quite enjoy it.
I appreciate your comments, rho! I pray you find my posts on baptism helpful. I esp. recommend you read the first and last of the linked articles in my post above. And I hope you choose to be baptized soon!
I’m glad you like the Borg Blog. Thanks for you kind words. It’s good to finally “meet” one of my “regulars.” :)
Great post, I heard Doug Wilson make a simmilar point in a St. Anne’s Pub talk. I think it is very important that credo-baptists at least rethink their position and start baptizing at whatever age a child professes faith (even if it is 3 or 4). This would help remedy this problem of encouraging doubt rather than faith. I know that some baptist churches would pactice baptism this way, but sadly it seems to be the minority. I must say that I really enjoy your blog. I am also a fairly recent convert to paedobaptism and covenental theology, and I am also new to politics. I love your stuff on Ron Paul! Keep up the good work.
Thanks Evan — and good thoughts.
And thank you, too, for your kind words of encouragement. :)
Also, I just went to your blog — you have some neat artwork there! (Readers, click on Evan’s name to check it out.) The couple pieces I saw with people barfing grossed me out, though. But I like the rest!
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