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You’ve perhaps heard the infamous statistic that 80-85% of people who become Christians do so before age 14. We youth workers especially love quoting that data when we’re asking for a larger ministry budget.
There hasn’t appeared to be lots of hard data to back up that stat. But maybe that’s changed.
Sociologist Dr. Christian Smith and his team at the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) have studied teenagers of all religious persuasions (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Religiously Indifferent, etc.). He reports in his new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults
Remember, the study includes teenagers and young adults of all religious persuasions, and it’s not entirely clear from the book what students mean what they say they have “made a commitment to God”.
But nonetheless, this is the best data I’ve seen in a while that supports that 85% statistic.
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August 26th, 2009 at 7:46 am
It’s interesting to me that we largely dissuade students from getting married too young because “they’re not ready for that kind of commitment” – but when it comes to the commitment of a life to God, we push early and often. I’m not really sure what to make of this. I share the sense of urgency to see students committed to Christ, but struggle with the specter of coerced confessions that have little impact on the behavioral/lifestyle choices of those same kids in 10 years.
August 26th, 2009 at 7:56 am
The legendary stat used back in the 1980s to get the budget increase (and telling my pastor that he was doing my follow-up work) was 85% by the age of 18. So glad to have this stat actually documented. Now here’s hoping that we don’t continue to misuse it.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:03 am
Mike,
I, too, struggle with this. I struggle with the fact that many kids “believe” in Jesus, and so we have a ceremony to celebrate that (including baptism), but that doesn’t necessarily mean it is a lifelong commitment to Christ and a lifestyle of discipleship. I’m not sure the kids we often baptize can even fathom that concept. Personally, I think this leads largely to the culture of “cheap grace” we see so often, and are frustrated with, in our adults.
So, like you, I’d like to see what that commitment level looks like in those 18-23 year olds.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Mike,
So true! The law of the land doesn’t hold a teen responsible for decisions til he/she turns 18. Tattoos aren’t legal for teens either. Dying one’s hair blue is seen as just a fad that will be outgrown. This is all because most recognize that decisions made in adolescence are not decisions they would make in adulthood and they are protected by law and parents til they are able to make adult decisions that stick.
Yet we expect their childhood/early adolescent decision to accept Christ to stick through to adulthood.
I do expect it to stick through to adulthood but I also provide opportunities to help them make an adult decision about their faith.
And the bottomline truth is without faith memories as a child and teen, adults rarely make a decision of faith. The more faith memories one has, the more likely they are to take their faith into adulthood. As a youth minister, my focus is to create lots and lots of faith memories.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:51 am
I’ve seen this to be true only when we guide the student and mentor them in their decision (not “hot boxing” them into a decision based on emotion). What I did was to revamp confirmation class to help answer the kids questions about faith, God, and the church and move away from a “membership class” with boring church history. Basically return confirmation to it original purpose to help a student “confirm” one’s faith/baptism as their own. I also gave them permission to “not” make a decision if they don’t fully “get it.” By doing this we then knew who needed extra time to ask questions…etc. By doing this our church retention level went from 25% to 75% and combined with a youth program that develops that faith. It’s been 12 years now and I’ve seen it to be true in my ministry as these kids are grown up and still active in the life of the church.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:54 am
You know, you take this stat, and couple it with the stats on how many kids leave their faith (or put it in the “lockbox”) after they graduate…
And we have a lot of work to do
I’m glad Fuller is putting this stuff out.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:29 am
If I hadn’t made a commitment to Christ when I was 12, I may not have ever done it. I was a misfit in school because my family’s income was much less than that of most of the families in the school district. My self worth was non-existent and my identity was cloudy at best. If I hadn’t been told that I was valuable to God and owned that relationship as an early teen, my life would, if it had continued, would have been far less fulfilled.
That’s been very informative to my ministry with youth over the last 20 years. I thank God that someone saw questions as being important and my faith to be genuine even though I was young. (Like Jeremiah, David and Mary, et al)If we want the church to take young people seriously, we who are called to minister with them must certainly do so, as well.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:30 am
The Schaeffer Institute had done similar studies starting in the late 70’s and continued with these examinations along with your predecessor the “Institute of Youth Ministry” at FTS a YL partner in the 80’s. FSICLD and YL found that the 85 % stat is correct. However, it was 80 to 85% of people come to faith in Christ by 18 has slipped to earlier age ranges in the last 30 years to 80 to 85% to be now by 14 to 15. The significance of this is our cultural shift, making preteen and JH ministry now the paramount. HS is still critical, but to be a more discipleship focused and also predatory for life, church and college and beyond…
August 26th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Including my own years in a youth group from 9th grade and then active involvement in youth ministry covering now over 50 years, I have seen the importance of the key decisions of Master, Mate and Mission. In the life lives of my siblings, 3 sons, nieces and nephews who grew up in Christian homes, the age of 5 to 6 was repeatedly a time of personal Christian commitment. As my wife and I had prayed, in most cases the individual took personal initiative in making those decisions. Now most are in their 30s and those initial commitments have stuck, in over half the cases through secular school and university educations. I now work with high school youth in a third world context and repeatedly see the openness of youth and their desire to make knowledgeable spiritual decisions at that time. That decision made and growing in discipleship provide a base for making the others of Mate and Mission most often after having matured into their 20s. At the same time, a number have joined our families as spouses who made those Christian commitments during their university years and they have been a great blessing to us.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
You all are making such great points about the importance of adults being involved at the formative years of our kids. Of course, the Holy Spirit can (and does!) get our attention at any time but there does seem to be a special openness, at least statistically, up to age 14.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
[...] 85% of those 18-23 who make a commitment to God did so before age 14 [Fuller Youth Institute] http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/08/the-85-statistic-is-back/ [...]
August 26th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
We all knew it – and we “know” it – the question is: What are we going to do about it? Not the 85% who have a spiritual (Born Again) awakening– but the % who leave their faith (93% i’ve read ) once they enter college and become young adults. I propose we examine the structure of the modern church. There is no need for Jesus to do anything else- His sacrifice was all sufficient. When the order & structure is changed and people realize they have a voice and a song….families will grow through all phases of life connected with Christ.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Kara, a couple of questions to consider.
1) How does Smith define “commitment to God”? That was part of the problem with Barna’s research, in that his definition of conversion was so narrow, that given the ongoing fluctuation of teenage spirituality, it was virtually impossible for them to be considered “converted.” That was part of what Dave Rahn discovered in his follow-up
2) Given that we’re talking about adolescents (in this case, late adolescence), is the initial “commitment to God” that Smith and others refer to really the best indicator to use? In fact, I would go so far as to suggest that with most adolescents there are many such “commitments” throughout their adolescent years, many of the later ones far more important in their estimation than the earlier one. I don’t know that I have a better suggestion, but given the critical and complex nature of spirituality, I’m not sure that simply looking at “a” commitment is enough.
August 27th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Great converstions! When I was raised in a little country Baptist church I remember the conversion moment being very significant, but indeed it was offered (and responded to) multiple times by kids like me. Now, a Presbyterian pastor, having been working with young people almost 30 years, I love the emphasis we place on the journey. Whether it be in confirmation, or on a retreat,in a Sunday school classroom or someone’s bedside, certainly there is often a moment to taking one’s faith seriously and making it their own. But how awesome to let students know at whatever age they first responded to the work of grace in their lives, it was the beginning of a process, the journey of discipleship! And what a pirvilege it is to be walking this journey with them!
August 27th, 2009 at 11:50 am
This both works for us and against us, especially in the realm of budget increases. For the fist time in 10 years I will be working with MS-HS students only. As I have walked along side our new Children’s Director over this last year I am reminded how that is where the real ministry is happening. Teaching and loving kids to God in their formative years. I almost wish I had been called to that ministry (if I wasn’t having so much fun with teens that is). It looks in fact, as Branda said earlier, that we are doing their follow up work.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:48 am
First of all we have a biblical mandate existing throughout all of Scripture that children should be taught the ways of the Lord from their earliest years; this necessarily implies that they will be making decisions about what they are taught from a very young age.
Second, let’s reach them at ANY age. Whether as my good missionary friend Matt who distinctly remembers receiving his call to mission work at age 6, or me who accepted Christ for the first time at 9, or my tremendously gifted Lead Pastor who was transformed from a drug addict to a Jesus fanatic at ag 17, or my father who knew nothing of God and was literally a leg-breaker for the Mafia, until his encounter with Christ at age 32 or Dave, a gentleman who received Christ at age 67 during our church’s Thanksgiving Outreach. So any age is a good age to present God’s love to people.
Third, after 28 years of youth ministry I can say I’ve met very, very few Youth Ministers who “coerce” students into commitments to Christ. I would say that more than 98% of Youth Ministers I have met down through the years who call young people to make decisions for Christ handle those challenges with sincere respect for the student’s free will to choose. On the other hand, a very real problem that I’ve encountered on a frequent basis is Youth Ministries that almost never challenge students to make a decision for Christ.
Finally, as some have stated here, our walk with Christ, though it usually begins with a distinct decision, is ultimately a life-long journey. Most people begin that journey before age 14 but they will need critical points of “re-commitment” all along the way, and the ones that they make up through age 25 are usually the most critical, which is why both Children’s and Youth Ministry are so very crucial.
September 1st, 2009 at 6:22 pm
[...] 85% of those 18-23 who make a commitment to God did so before age 14 [Fuller Youth Institute]http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/08/the-85-statistic-is-back/ [...]
September 2nd, 2009 at 4:58 am
[...] 85% of those 18-23 who make a commitment to God did so before age 14 [Fuller Youth Institute] http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/08/the-85-statistic-is-back/ [...]
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Mike (1st comment up top): Just wanted to say I recently read a report that marrying young isn’t the worst idea after all! The main reason is that prolonged singleness is teaching young adults to be unhealthily independent rather than interdependent on/with family.
In a similar tone, I completely agree with PT (comment 16). God designed us to be born into closely-knit discipleship groups (families) right off the bat. So, Scripturally speaking (Deut. 6 to be exact) discipleship begins BEFORE birth… We need to get to work with the current generation so they will raise up godly children and GRANDchildren. This generational overlap is designed by God Himself, and he’s always several steps ahead of us.
Furthermore, when family units make worshiping God such a big priority, it becomes harder to just ‘leave’ that when you go to college. Some students may be able to forget about their youth group, but nobody forgets about their family, or what their family taught them day after day after day.
And to spin it all full circle, those college students then need to be thinking about their next family, not just themselves or their own careers. Adolescence is a myth we have entertained to the endangerment of our family units. These kids would be ready for adulthood earlier than we think… if the bar was raised sooner.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:01 am
[...] http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2009/08/the-85-statistic-is-back/ [...]
December 27th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
You are missing the point… They turn their life over to Christ, and Christ will not leave them unless they ask Him to… yay!
January 11th, 2010 at 10:31 am
I think some are missing the point or totally complicating this issue. These same kids that we say don’t understand committment(and in most cases I would agree) do have the ability to work, learn and adapt. For example I would dare say that 99% of kids who start taking algebra in school do not understand it and may not fully grasp it for a number of years. That is why school is so repetitive, and why teachers spend year after year teaching the same principles and facts over and over again. The same goes for us in youth ministry. There is no real mystery here. Kids need to trust us and know that we care for them in a real and relevant way and in turn we spend the most informative years of their life instilling in them the principles of Grace, Love, Faith ect………I would also say that all adults including those of us in youth ministry are still learning every day of our lives as well. We also spend many hours in prayer and in committing and re-committing our time to the work of Christ. My view may be a bit simplistic but if I remember the bible didn’t Jesus say “Suffer the little children to come unto me”? That being the case then that should tell us that the Holy Spirit can reveal himself to these kids as easily as he can a group of educated youth ministers.
January 12th, 2010 at 7:25 am
[...] a blog post from about six months ago by Kara Powell that is well worth the read. The post itself is great, [...]
January 17th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
[...] before the age of 14. Often there is’nt much data to back that up… Check full article here By Kara Powell You’ve perhaps heard the infamous statistic that 80-85% of people who become [...]
March 3rd, 2010 at 8:35 am
What I find interesting is that its no longer “before 18″ but “before 14″, but it makes sense when you consider patterns of adolescent development. The most important and influential really has to be ages 12-14. Yet sadly, I see a pattern where Jr. High and Middle School ministry is more often handed to newer inexperienced youthworkers and experienced youth pastors transition to Sr. High ministry. Perhaps a better use of our pastoral resources is to put the most experienced staff and budget into Jr. High programs and let the intern run a smaller Sr. High program.
March 8th, 2010 at 6:46 am
Quoting Ahren & Brenda about doing the follow-up work of Children’s Ministry – I was wondering what is your perception of Family Ministry, specifically regarding keeping the kids their entire childhood.
I am a Children’s Minister who, due to a change in churches, has now also Youth Ministry (in part, because I said ‘I would never do Youth Ministry’… no offense).
If I follow Doug Fields’ model for longevity, I literally could have some kids from birth through adulthood. Chap Clark’s book, Hurt, talks long & hard against abandonment, but I just wonder if this would be a good thing or a bad thing for the kids. (Would that indirectly fuel the commitment to the leader and not The Leader?)