When I was converted, I remember large young people’s groups. There are far fewer young people in churches today. How can I be realistic without being a doom-monger?
Your perception might reflect limited experience rather than the overall state of things in faithful churches more generally. Perhaps some churches when you were growing up did not have large numbers of young people and may have faced such challenges. You may be part of a generation that has seen little but decline in churches like ours.
When that is the case, despondency can set in. Our great goal in church life can become that the congregation dies more slowly, or at least shuffles on until we die first and it is no longer our problem. Numbers is not the same as health, and can even mask an underlying sickness. However, allowing that there may be some truth in your concern, we are already being realistic by facing the fact as you perceive it.
We face significant demographic changes, especially relating to conservative evangelical church attendance. We face challenging changes in attitudes and expectations. It often used to be the case that such congregations were fairly well-attended, with whole families under the Word of God. In some such places, there are simply fewer young people around – families are smaller or youngsters move away as soon as they can.
The first and simplest way to do that is to be present, and then to be as fully involved as possible. Do not buy into the apathy and snowflakery of our age!
