Church Attendance and Youth
by Frank Stirk

While youth may be "thirsty for the gospel," surveys suggest that encouraging those who come to Christ to attend church on a regular basis could be more difficult.

• According to the most recent Gallup Canada survey on weekly worship attendance, 32% of adult respondents had attended a church, synagogue or other place of worship in the past seven days, up slightly from a year earlier. Yet among those between 18 and 29 yearn old, only 19% said they were weekly attenders.¹
  
  
• A Statistics Canada study found that 23% of children under 12 attended a religious service at least once a week in 1994-95, most often with their mothers. But there was a huge divergence between denominations. For example, regular weekly attendance by children in Baptist churches stood at 60%, compared to only 18% for both United and Anglican churches. Family structure was also found to have a bearing on whether children were in church: 38% of children in two-parent families were more likely to attend regularly than those in step-parent (31%) and single-parent families (28%).²

But even if youth do not attend church, a new CNN/Angus Reid Group survey of teens and young adults in 11 countries, including Canada, suggests that most still adhere to traditional moral values. So while only a minority rated "going to church" as important to them, a significant majority valued "keeping your word" (95%), "helping others" (89%), "working hard" (84%), having a "lifelong partner" (77%), and "resisting temptation" (71%).³

See Also: Cover Story: Revival Generation
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Endnotes:

1. Gallup Canada: Gary Edwards and Josephine Mazzuca. "Almost One-ln- Three Attend Religious Service," The Gallup Poll (June 14. 1999).

2. Statistics Canada: Frank Jones, "Are children going to religious services?" Canadian Social Trends (Autumn 1999), pp. 13-16.

3. Angus Reid Group: "The Values of Youth" (news release - November 18,1999).

Citizen. Darriel Reid, President - Focus on the Family (Canada) Association. Jim Sclater, Senior Editor/Director of Public Policy. Candace Martens, Assistant Editor. Frank Stirk, Writer/Researcher. Derek Rogusky, Contributing Writer. International copyright secured. Any duplication, including electronic re-transmission, is prohibited without prior written permission. Citizen staff can be contacted by email.