do you know any young Christians

[zope]

MIL (in her 60s and religious) recently came to stay with us and I accompanied her to church when we got there i was really shocked by how few people under the age of 60 there seemed to be to the point where I (now in my mid 40s) felt young again. There were a number of small children with grandparents but virtually no one age 10-60. I haven’t been to church since I was a child myself so I was quite taken aback, is this what most churches are like nowadays or was this a one off. Do you personally know any young as in teenagers or in their 20s/30s Christians and do they have many friends who are also Christian? I would honestly be interested?

Yes I work with one. Hes all about bible studies and God on paper but hes a disrespectful twat that does fuck all work and lies. So perhaps not a real Christian.

@SmugOldBag

Very heartening to hear this OP. Hopefully the church will die out in the UK soon.

It won’t

I’m a youngish Christian op. There are so many young Christian’s at my church, we have plenty home groups for young adults alone and thriving youth ministry. We are Pentecostal/evangelical. Our church and other churches I know are growing by the week and most new people are actually under 40

@SmugOldBag

Very heartening to hear this OP. Hopefully the church will die out in the UK soon.

Would you also say this about Mosques, Temples and Synagogues?

@Carpy899

If you're young and believe in God can you explain why?

Would you ask this question to a Muslim, Hindu or Sikh?

Yes. Why wouldn't I?

I attend a presbyterian church, I am almost mid 30s. There is one other family of a similar age, everyone else 60(maybe more) +

No idea what you are asking it YABU or not about, so haven't voted, but, yes, I know lots of Christians under 40.

I am also aware that society is very different from in the 60s and 70s, now Sunday is treated very much like any other day in terms of shops and businesses being open and all the sports leagues and leisure activities that people can attend. I am aware people don't go to Church every week out of habit or obligation anymore, and Church attendance as a national thing has been declining for years (decades). Statistically, older folk are more likely to be weekly attendees than working people - pressures of time make that difficult for many families, but there are still many, many people who attend Churches. Where my dd is a student, you have to book in to the service at the Church she attends due to numbers of young people attending. They already do 2 x evening services to accommodate the numbers.

@MasterBeth

There’s a strong correlation between education and atheism. As people learn more about the world, they are less likely to see religion as a valid way to interpret the world. More young people are educated for longer now than older people were. Religion is literally dying.

It’s an interesting perspective, do you have evidence to back this up? Many highly intelligent people still view the universe as something more than just material matter, of course this is slightly different from advocating religion but I’m guessing (correct me if I’m wrong) you do mean the former rather than the latter.

There’s a great book (The Myth of Disenchantment by Jason josphenson-storm which is a scholarly look at this point)

Of course, you do run into interesting debates about the nature of God/the divine. Many great scientists don’t see the scientific and divine as mutually exclusive. From “Spinoza’s God” of near enough pantheism to a Neoplatonic All to a Blakian concept of the divine in man many highly intelligent people belief in something else, a divinity.

Trying to write off everyone who does have a one dimensional materialistic view of reality as somehow uneducated is really rather disingenuous.

*Does not have a one dimensional view

I am one (30s) and I know shedloads of them thanks to a lifetime in church. Definitely, where I live, people under 60 tend to go to the more 'lively' churches (independent charismatic evangelical, Baptist, lively New Wine/HTB type C of E). I go to a cathedral and there are quite a few young families due to the choir having kids but there are fewer young families than before the pandemic. I have visited a handful of more traditional C of E congregations with a handful of over 60s. Nothing against them but they had nothing about them that grabbed me/were very 'nothingy' as far as the service went and had no-one even vaguely near my age, so were a no. People in their 20s, 30s and 40s IME all congregate in churches with other 20s/30s/40s.

@Youally

The fact there are people who believe in god blows my mind!

Why?

Yes. I’m 17 and a born again Christian

@SmugOldBag

Very heartening to hear this OP. Hopefully the church will die out in the UK soon.

It's been here since Roman times so I doubt I

@MasterBeth

There’s a strong correlation between education and atheism. As people learn more about the world, they are less likely to see religion as a valid way to interpret the world. More young people are educated for longer now than older people were. Religion is literally dying.

I don't know, a lot of the Christian's at my church are well educated

I find it interesting that so many people think the Catholic Church is more progressive than the CofE. That's not my experience at all.
But my CofE church isn't particularly "traditional"

No, but that's likely more reflective of the people I know.

I actually only know a handful of Christians. My lovely neighbours, both around late 50s. A younger couple, mid 40's. And an absolute con man that became big on Christianity in his 30's, probably in the hope it would redeem him of his numerous sins. Funnily enough, once he was caught all church and religious stuff went out of the window.

Yes, quite a lot. You wouldn't think it from looking at the average congregation of a 10am communion service, but by attending the family events, you see there are more families than you'd think attending family praise, messy church, playgroup etc.

I'm not a Christian myself but my boss's daughter met her husband through church after moving to London and finding a church to join. It was a few years ago now but I think she'd be in her late 20's.

I don't know, a lot of the Christian's at my church are well educated

This is my experience too. I work at a university in a school that focuses on engineering. Our pro-vice chancellor is a woman who is married to a bishop. They met when they were undergraduates at Cambridge. Both were from working class families so no suggestion that they weren't there in merit.

My three adult children are committed Christians and l know many others. As previous posters have said, it depends on the type of church - the more traditional churches tend not to be as attractive to younger people.

I’m in my late 20s, attend mass regularly and have done all my life, as do all my siblings and cousins etc. I go between two parishes and different mass times depending on what’s happening, I find Saturday and evening mass (5/6pm) have more ‘young’ people and singletons, whereas Sunday morning mass (which I didn’t go to till I became a mother myself) is mainly over 60s and families.

Yes, but I attend the earlier family mass in a very Catholic city, which also has a large international Catholic community. High Mass is mainly older people and single women. The Saturday evening mass also seems to have a lot of families with older children as it doesn't clash with extra curricular activities.

Also wouldn't necessarily say education is turning people off religion. Where I live has plenty of unis. I'm highly educated and know several others with PhDs (many scientists) that attend services at a variety of different Churches.

@MasterBeth

There’s a strong correlation between education and atheism. As people learn more about the world, they are less likely to see religion as a valid way to interpret the world. More young people are educated for longer now than older people were. Religion is literally dying.

DH and I are both practising Christians. We both have PhDs. Our Christian friends include two GPs, two surgeons, a vet, a dentist, a psychiatrist and several academics. Plus of course clergy - four of our clergy friends have PhDs as well as degrees in theology.

DH is a scientist. Many of his colleagues are also religious, although Muslims probably outnumber Christians in his field.

I'm not sure just how much more education you think we would need to stop seeing religion as a valid way to interpret the world.

Re young people in church, as many others have said, young people tend to be attracted to churches which already have a significant number of young congregants. So a church which doesn't have many is likely to see the few it does have move away.

Our teenage DCs are part of an active and committed Christian youth group.

@OMG12 Yes, there’s lots of evidence that backs this up. Look at the research The Pew Research Center had done in the US. In the UK, those who identify as Christian have the lowest percentage with a degree or equivalent qualification

@StellaEllaIsabella, it makes me laugh that you try to counter the research that shows that more educated people have less religion by offering purely anecdotal evidence about your own situation. So what?

Yes, lots of educated people are religious. That’s not the claim.