It’s no secret that the American church is changing. It’s no secret that the American youth are leaving. Why?

Kenda Creasy Dean wrote in her book, "Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church",that Martin Luther’s Small Catechism accomplished the following:

[This use of the catechism] Located teaching outloud in households, not congregations, which had the effect of locating Christian formation in the intimacy of families, where children drew direct connections between religious instruction at the dinner table and the lives of people that loved them.it was an educational stroke of genius, since it effectively ensured that parents and children learned the core teachings of the church together. (Horton, “Almost Christian”)

In the modern church, youth are not being catechized by their parents in their own homes. And without catechismal teaching, youth don’t learn the basics of Christianity. Without the basics of Christianity, youth have no reason to continue their walk in the faith. In short, youth are leaving the church. According to the article “Six Reasons Young Christians Leave the Church,” “59 percent [of youth] disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15." This may be because of the way our society is changing as a whole. Christian Smith, sociologist and William R. Kenan Jr., Professor of Sociology, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society and the Center for Social Research at the University of Notre Dame, state that after WWII, people tried to move away from a fundamentalist – in this case, catechismal – view to a more open-minded view or subjective experience. Faith now is based much more on how a person feels in the moment than how a person may serve another. In essence, the church message has changed from focusing on God to focusing on us. An example of this is that many of today’s youth would rather be entertained at church and/or youth group instead of taught. And if we aren’t learning about Christianity, we have little reason to remain within the church.

The modern day church concentrates on subjective experience: mainly, what we feel during a church service, how we can make our lives better, etc. It is very self-absorbed, which shows clearly how the church message has changed over time from a focus on God to a focus on ourselves. Many young children are entertained in the church with games and arts and crafts rather than being taught to listen and learn at a church. Because of this, when they reach an older age and are more capable of learning deeper things, youth pastors feel they have to water down and dilute their messages in order to keep the youth engaged. While I was lucky enough to have a different experience in my church and youth group, I have seen and experienced at camps that many youth pastors now are acting as if youth are incapable of grasping certain concepts and choose to entertain instead. If the youth had been given basic catechismal instruction early, they would have had the tools with which to learn deeper concepts.

This entertainment culture can mean a number of things as youth grow older. Probably the most common outcome is the idea that feelings dictate our spirituality. A good Christian should be happy and nice all the time, never sinning, always performing good deeds. When this fails, people are at a loss, unsure of why they are not good Christians. Entertaining the idea of subjective experience leaves most youth unsatisfied with the Christian faith, and many leave. In the CNN article “More Teens Becoming Fake Christians,” Emory University professor Elizabeth Corrie says, “We think that they want cake, but they actually want steak and potatoes, and we keep giving them cake.” So, is it possible that “dumbing things down for the kids” and entertaining the idea of subjective experience results in youth leaving the church?

Smith and Dean both speak of something called Mormon Envy. Other religions, such as Islam, may fit into this “Envy” category as well. Envy of a religion, such as Mormonism, comes from the amount of devotion the families give their faith. Mormon parents encourage their kids in the faith and are as a whole committed to the growing of their faith. This is something lacking in the Christian families of today. Oftentimes, families go to church Sunday morning as a matter of habit and when they leave it is like nothing happened. Mormon families, on the other hand, take their kids to seminary at six o’clock in the morning each day in order to lead the new generation into the faith. In the documentary "Soul Searching," featuring Christian Smith, a Mormon teenager shows how clearly devoted he is to his faith. He, in contrast to many of the other youth Smith interviewed, was able to articulate and affirm his faith and passion for his religion. When his family was interviewed, it was obvious that they invested much time and effort into their faith. This was not seen in the Christian families.

Religion in America, according to Christian Smith in “An Interview with Christian Smith,” is thought of as a private, subjective experience that helps people get through life. In the article “More Teens Becoming Fake Christians” by John Blake, Kenda Creasy Dean, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, a minister, and the author of “Almost Christian,” addresses the modern day church’s acceptance of “moralistic therapeutic deism.” She defines this as “a watered-down faith that portrays God as a 'divine therapist' whose chief goal is to boost people’s self-esteem." Dean, according to the article, goes on to say that “this ‘imposter’ faith is one reason teenagers abandon churches.” The article went on to say that most teens were indifferent and inarticulate when it came to their faith. They thought, essentially, that God wanted them to feel good and do good – moralistic therapeutic deism. In a way, this is passed to them by their parents, who generally send them to youth group in order to “keep them off drugs and away from premarital sex.” However, Dean also says that zealous Christian parents instill in their children a passion for religion. Perhaps, if parents become radical Christians, their kids will too.

With numbers like 59 percent of youth leaving the church, it is understandable that many people want to try and fix the problem. Some say it is the pastors, or the music, or the American church in general. These factors may well play into it, but I would argue that uninterested parents and unsatisfactory subjective experiences lead more youth away from the church. Unfortunately, faith, now, is based much more on how a person feels in the moment than how a person may serve another. This very idea – subjective experience instead of the catechism – is what leaves youth unsatisfied and confused. Without proper knowledge of the catechism, youth do not know the basics of Christianity. Perhaps the re-introduction of the catechism and home-based passion for the Christian faith will, eventually, reduce the amount of youth falling away from the church.