New Barna Research shows that church attendance bottoms out during the late 20s when the vast majority of students have transitioned from education to the workforce. Only 31% of 20-somethings attend church in a typical week, compared to 42% of those in their 30s and 49% of all adults 40 and older. Just 22% of those 25 to 29 attend church. As teens, more than half attended weekly while 81% had ever gone to a Christian church. That means that from high school graduation to age 25 there is a 42% drop in weekly church attendance and a 58% decline from age 18 to age 29. That represents about 8,000,000 20-somethings today who were active churchgoers as teens but are no by their 30th birthday. Only 30% of 20-somethings donated to a church in the past year, compared with 61% of older adults. Overall, only 30% of 20-somethings have read the Bible regularly, compared to 37% of those in their 30s; 44% of 40s; 47% of 50s; and 55% of 60s and above. Just 34% claim to be absolutely committed to Christianity versus 54% of older adults. This means millions of 20-somethings are crystallizing their views of life without the input of church leaders, the Bible, or other mature Christians. Interestingly 80% say that their religious faith is very important in their life and 57% claim to have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life while75% regularly pray to God. More than 10 million are active churchgoers and very committed to the Christian faith. (Barna Update 9/24/03)
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