Ben Witherington helps straighten me out on terms used for different age groups. (I've bold faced them below). He writes:
My concern in this post however is with the latest Pew Forum on Religious Life which suggests that young adults are less likely to go to church than they used to be. Dividing up the time period as follows-- Greatest Generation (born before 1928), Silent Generation (born 1928-45), Baby Boomers (1946-64), Gen. X (1965-80), and Millenials (born after 1980), the survey says that when asked whether they have any religious affiliation or not only 5% of the Greatest Generation, 8% of the Silent Generation, 13% of Baby Boomers, 20% of Gen Xers, and 26% of Millenials say they have no religious affiliation. This of course does not mean they do not believe in God, nor does it mean that they may not be 'spiritual' or 'religious' in various ways. The survey is basically measuring self-identification when it comes to more traditional forms of being religious. For example, only 18% of Millenials say they attend worship nearly every week or more often, 21% of Gen Xers, and 26% of Boomers. Does the situation change as Millenials and Gen Xers get older? Its too soon to tell about Millenials and most GenXers but if we judge by Baby Boomers in the 1970s 39% of Boomers said religion was very important to them, but by 2000 some 60% of them said so. Or again 47% of Boomers asked in 1980 said they prayed every day, but in 2005 some 62% said so.
One of the real problems with this type of survey is that the word 'religion' in the new millenium has become something of a dirty word or at least a less preferred term in various circles. You often here people say 'I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious' by which is usually meant not involved with organized traditional religion of some kind. This kind of survey however does not adequately take into account what I will call 'sheep shift'. What has happened, especially with the growth first of megachurches and then of Emergent Churches of various sorts, is 'sheep shift' not decline in church attendance. More of the young are going to alternative worship experiences instead of traditional ones, although a good number of post-modern kids prefer worship that actually has liturgy and sacraments and some mystery involved as opposed to the happy clappy praise crowd.
'Sheep shift' however, it should be remembered is not church growth if we are talking about the church as a whole. The fact that large churches are gaining members regularly tells us more about sheep shift, and declining loyalty to denomination brand names than it does about over all decline in worship attendance. My own anecdotal survey of things shows the following trends: 1) as rural and small town areas decline in population and the young move to cities where there are jobs, it is perfectly understandable that churches will shrink and close; 2) urban churches in older downtown areas that have not gone through urban revitalization and are not near to the increasing number of condos for 'Yurbs' (young urban condo dwellers) tend to experience decline along with their environment; 3) church plants in suburban areas of big cities tend to do much better, except that what they are mostly capitalizing on is the increasing willingness to change churches 'to find a better fit' for one's self or family. When it comes to the young much depends on the social networking, the programs available and the degree of aggressiveness in recruiting; 4) because of the increasing application of the consumer mentality and 'star' mentality of our culture to the church, people pick churches like they pick new cars-- they are attracted to the shiny popular ones, with the charismatic pulpiteer or music program, or adult and young programs etc. I have commented at length with the problems these sorts of approach to worship bring with them in my new book We Have Seen his Glory now available on Amazon.
What this survey reminds us of, just in time for Lent, is that the church cannot afford to be either a glorious anachronism nor unresponsive to the cultural situation in which it finds itself, if it wants to continue to recruit new members, especially among the young. I am simply waiting for the day for the cellphone church, where everyone is encouraged to bring their cellphone, dial up their favorite praise song, and instead of singing all play it simultaneously while holding up their phones towards the altar! Or perhaps we could have a twitter service where during the sermon, the young are being tweated or texted repeatedly by the youth ministers while the sermon is going on, with more 'relevant' content for millenials in the appropriate jargon.
What is clear is that the general American culture is no longer strongly supportive, or in some cases, even tolerant of orthodox and traditional Christianity. Unless the American church recaptures the spirit and modus operandi of the church in Acts, which was a missionary movement that also did discipleship on the side, rather than being a nurture institution that has a mission committee, we can expect these sorts of gloomy trends to continue in this country. Perhaps we could start a new slogan---- 'I'm not spiritual, I'm saved'.