That's Creepy....

October brings thoughts of Halloween and that brings thoughts of creepy things. That is how The Barna Group (a Christian data collection agency) described the spirituality of 20-somethings....CREEPY. I might be wrong but I don't think they were suggesting that Christians in their 20's have had lobotomies or that they go through life like zombies, but I might be wrong.

I think what they were describing is the other type of creep, you know the type that happens to side of a creek. The dictionary describes this creep as "to slip or gradually shift position ".

Barna says that while teens embrace spirituality, disengagement...or creep... happens in their 20's. His data shows that 20% of twentysomethings remain active in their spirituality and 19% remain inactive in their spirituality. But the rest, 61% are those who were churched as teens but disengage during their twenties. Now that's creepy!

The facts are 20-somethings are leaving the church like its their job. Not all are leaving Christianity or "spirituality" but they are leaving the church. The reasons are piled high: college, jobs, individuality, rebellion, laziness, crappy churches and the list goes on.

But if you look at this Creepy situation from the other side (...it becomes Ypeerc) there is a great opportunity to take Christ to a large population of creeping 20somethings, who are not necessarily turned off to Christ or Church but are gradually slipping away from their teenage spirituality.

How can we stop the creep? The future of the church depends on it.