Teens Tell Churches - Bye Bye - Forget your Pizza Parties

The collapse of modern youth ministry is reaching legendary proportions and people want to talk about how to fix it. Nearly everyone agrees it is severely broken, but not everyone has the same answer. USA Today reporters Cathy Lynn Grossman and Stephanie Steinberg have an article documenting one of the current challenges - shrinking youth groups and a shrinking youth summer camp industry.

They report, "Only about one in four teens now participate in church youth groups, considered the hallmark of involvement; numbers have been flat since 1999. Other measures of religiosity — prayer, Bible reading and going to church — lag as well, according to Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., evangelical research company. This all has churches canceling their summer teen camps and youth pastors looking worriedly toward the fall, when school-year youth groups kick in."

Seemingly, even the high octane entertainment is not enough, "'Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook,' says Barna president David Kinnaman."

The problem for churches, who have built their ministries on youth groups is significant. "Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It's the age teens typically drop out," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. "A decade ago teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They're not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, 'We don't see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.' "