by Mike James

I recently read a book titled Empty the Pews, which contains twenty-one essays by people who left hardline, authoritarian Christian groups. As the numbers for Church of God and other Christian groups continue to decline, I think it is important to see if we can find anything in these stories that may help us keep our young people. According to one estimate, 40 percent of people under 30 in the United States are religiously unaffiliated.

The editors of the book, Chrissy Stroop and Lauren O’Neal, cite a number of reasons as to why many young people are leaving right-wing Christianity: shame, repression, hypocrisy, and that many of the church’s teachings didn’t make sense. Let’s take a closer look at some details in the essays of this book and see what we can learn about not turning away our young people.