Living in church limbo

Young adults are “the most spiritually independent and resistant age group,” and not-so-surprisingly, they’re more often sleeping in on Sunday mornings than going to church.

Christians in their 20s live in a kind of religious limbo, in between their teenage years spent at youth group bible studies and lock-ins and their plans to return to the fold once they’re grown up and settled in the future.

Although these young adults maintain their belief in God, they’re not at church on most Sunday mornings. Busy schedules mean they’re sleeping in, running errands, changing diapers or brunch-ing with friends instead.

“I think part of the reason at our age and living in this area that I don’t go to church as often as I should is because I’m so busy or I go out on a Saturday night, and I just do not want to wake up on a Sunday morning,” admitted Jen Wheeler, a 23-year-old marketing rep living in Arlington, Va.

jen Jen, pictured left, grew up a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. As a kid, she attended services each week, went to Sunday school and wore an eyelet-lace white dress on her confirmation into the church 10 years ago. In college, though, her once-pious religious practice “kinda fizzled out,” she said.

Like Jen, more than 70 percent of adults in the U.S. have gone through some sort of religious initiation ceremony (such as a baptism, bar mitzvah or naming ceremony), according to last year’s American Religious Identification Survey.

Few adults in their 20s maintain the regular religious practice of their younger years. The Barna Research Group, a Ventura, Calif.-based Christian research organization, named them “the most spiritually independent and resistant age group.”

Zodianne James grew up surrounded by the spirit as a Seventh Day Adventist in Jamaica, but now, as a 28-year-old new mom living outside Washington, D.C., she struggles to find the time to attend church.

“In Jamaica, Christian people live the life,” said Zodianne, a graduate of the University of Maryland. “If you go to church, you are truly in the church. You don’t curse, you don’t drink liquor, you are kinder to people. You make it your everyday thing; you go to church, youth choir, bible study.”

Every so often, Zodianne will attend Seventh Day Adventist Saturday worship with her mother, who lives in Silver Spring, Md. (where they moved when she was 12). But it’s not enough. She still feels guilty about her fall from faith and is trying to find time to regularly attend Baptist church in the area.

When she does make it to church, “it feels fulfilling,” said Zodianne. “It feels like now you are on the right track.”

Researchers say today’s generation is less like to return to church, even if they intend to. But for those who do make efforts to reconnect with their religious roots, the generation gap in church congregations is hard to ignore. In many churches across the country, young, single adults barely dot the pews. brittany

“It’s frustrating,” said Brittany Ladd, a 23-year-old Catholic living in Washington D.C., pictured right. “You go online to the Archdiocese of Arlington or the Archdiocese of D.C., and you go to these churches and some of them are young families or more of the older set.”

Brittany, who graduated from Northwestern University a year ago, attends services in the area about once a month and is still searching for a young, active congregation with a relatable priest.

“The priest is important. In the homily, I am looking for how he connects this biblical text. I want guidance on how to live my life now,” she said.

Young adults have become the coveted group of many churches, which try to offer specific programs to bring back this missing demographic.

Thomas James, pictured below, is a student at the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. and works for the school’s Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Even in his own “church shopping” in the area, at 25, he felt uncomfortable at the lack of people his age.

“Those young adults are not always present, but you want them around because you share life experiences,” said Thomas, a young pastor-to-be in the United Methodist Church.

Out of their parents’ homes but not yet starting their own, young college grads hover in a unique position, where faith practice is just one of many details that’s TBD. Church attendance may be a habit that’s slowly formed along with getting settled and growing up.

“I actually went by myself for Easter. I went to church by myself, and I’d never done that before. It was actually kind of nice,” said Jen, who has lived in Northern Virginia for the past year.

Jen also returned to prayer a bit more, a habit lost during late, busy nights.

“Lately, I’ve had some friends going through difficult times, and I thought, ‘oh… I should… do that pray thing for them. Why haven’t I done that in a while?’”