Engagement is key in age of increasing disconnect between young people and faith communities, study finds

Young people are becoming increasingly disconnected from traditional faith communities, but they don't necessarily reject religion altogether, a recent study shows.

Springtide Research Institute surveyed more than 10,200 people and interviewed 65 people ages 13-25 for its annual State of Religion and Young People study, the theme of which is "Navigating Uncertainty."

Among its findings, the study found that in the midst of major life changes, young people don't feel that conventional religious spaces are sources of comfort. 

"They (young people) have been searching, and sometimes, finding ways that spirituality, religious practice, and belief can help them deal with uncertainty and anxiety. So who are they turning to for those solutions? Spoiler alert: They aren't turning to religion, at least not in the traditional sense," Josh Packard, Springtide's executive director, wrote in the study's report. 

Reasons cited for not turning to traditional religious spaces include a desire to discover answers about faith themselves, rather than someone else prescribing answers, feeling that religious communities are too "rigid and restrictive," and being unsure about ways to connect to religious communities, among 15 other reasons cited. 

Jewsic City works to engage young Jewish people in Nashville

Those concerns are what Jewsic City is trying to address in its work engaging young Jewish people in Nashville, said Sarah Ruden, a cofounder of the group. "We say we are rooted in tradition, but not at all traditional."

Jewsic City meets once a month to celebrate Shabbat services, starting off with a community dinner and then a service that features less traditional styles, such as using percussion and guitar. Also, their songs include passages in English and in Hebrew. 

"It’s really a community," Ruden said. "I think young people want to come and they get a free dinner and they get to spend time together and sing together. And we encourage people to bring instruments."

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There are also times when guest speakers will present to the group, spurring additional conversation among group members. One guest speaker was an Ethiopian Israeli woman who spoke with the group about her experience living in both countries, Ruden said. 

Ruden and three others started Jewsic City five years ago to create a community among other young Jewish people in the city, who, like herself, are moving from cities where there are larger Jewish populations than Nashville. 

Today, 20 to 30 people attend Jewsic City gatherings, hosted at different spaces each time, like parks or backyards. 

Jewsic City and other groups engaging young Jewish people "can help provide the sort of opportunity for this younger demographic to participate in what are still religious activities and taking them outside the existing houses of worship," said Eric Stillman, CEO of the Jewish Federation & Jewish Foundation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

"It is providing these young adults with the opportunity to create their own service or way of expressing their Judaism through these otherwise religious activities."

The Jewish Federation provides grant funding to Jewsic City and it runs another group for young Jewish people in Nashville called NowGen. 

Providing 'flexible' expressions of faith

Groups like Jewsic City model a key point that Springtide's report makes on "flexibility" of expressions of faith. 

"Leaders who make room for curiosity, wholeness, connection, and flexibility in the lives of young people can be the kind of guides young people trust and turn to in times of uncertainty, or whenever they are facing life’s biggest questions," read a section of Springtide's study. 

The rigidity of faith communities, specifically in the South, has been a reason for young people leaving those faith communities, region-level data from Springtide's study shows. 

Of the reasons cited for not joining religious communities, respondents in the South region scored highest or second highest to respondents in the Northeast, Midwest, and West regions. Those answers included:

• "I don't feel welcome." — 44%
• "I don't feel safe asking questions." — 29.4%
• "I have been hurt by people in the faith community." —  19.3% 
• "They do not share my values." — 37%

Due to the South's religiosity, the region trails behind other parts of the country with certain religious trends, said Andrew Zirschky, who oversees the Nashville extension of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he he is a professor of youth ministry.

However, Zirschky adds, the South's religiosity might also explain the pushback.

Zirscky also serves on Springtide's research advisory board. 

"When you have a very certain, very rigid, very formal religious culture, there’s a lot that you have to hide to be a part of that community," Zirschky said. "So, there’s a lot more in the South, in its religious culture, to push against."

Add to that the pandemic, which exacerbated young peoples' disconnect from faith communities. Rather than attending church as usual, people stayed home and went "'Oh, why do I go to church on Sundays?'" Zirschky said, based on findings from Springtide's studies and his students' research. 

One year into the pandemic, only 10% of respondents told Springtide that a faith leader reached out to them personally. 

As Zirschky sees it, ministry leaders need to improve the way they engage young people — both in methodology and frequency. 

"A mass email does not count as contacting your young people," he said.

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.