** Young Adults Leaving Church

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007

** Young Adults Leaving Church

For Immediate release

HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) -- Seven of 10 Protestants in American age 18-30 – both evangelical and mainstream – who regularly attended church in high school say they quit attending by the time they were 23, according to a recent survey by LifeWay Research.

Also, 34% of those 70% said they did not return to church, even sporadically, by age 30, meaning that 25% of Protestants age 18-30 have left the church.

“This does not bode well for the future of Christianity in America,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide® and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission®.

Movieguide® and CFTVC are based in Southern California outside Los Angeles.

“This is sobering news that the church needs to change the way it does ministry,” added Ed Stetzer, director of Nashville-based LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. “There’s no life transformation taking place.”

The dropouts described fellow church members as judgmental (51%), hypocritical (44%) or insincere (41%)

About 52% of American adults describe themselves as protestant or other non-Catholic Christians, according to the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey, down from 60% in 1960.

Dr. Baehr said, “MOVIEGUIDE® has the tools to help parents and churches prevent teenagers and young adults from leaving the Christian faith. We can even help them strengthen their faith.

“Not only do we have books like THE CULTURE-WISE FAMILY, THE MEDIA-WISE FAMILY and FRODO VS. HARRY: Understanding Visual Media and Its Impact on Our Lives, we also have excellent articles and teaching materials. Also, my staff and I are willing to come speak at your church, talk to people on the telephone and in person, or write letters and emails to help protect you and your children and grandchildren from toxic cultural messages, and to help them defend their Christian faith.”

For more information, please visit www.movieguide.org or call 1-800-577-6684.

To help you pick the good from the bad, please visit us daily at www.movieguide.org.

Note: For more information, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of CFTVC and author of NARNIA BECKONS: C.S. LEWIS'S THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE AND BEYOND, SO YOU WANT TO BE IN PICTURES, THE MEDIA-WISE FAMILY, WHAT CAN WE WATCH TONIGHT?, and many other books, please call 1-800-577-6684.

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