Heavenly Father,

I’m praying for myself and for all young adults, that we may grow in our prayer lives.

May we be people of prayer, asking not only for our daily needs to be met but praying for others.  May we ask, seek, and knock with right motives, living lives of obedience that are pleasing to You so we may receive whatever we ask.

May our prayers be set before You like incense as we pray without ceasing, praying always without giving up—boldly and with persistence. Help us come before Your throne of grace with confidence.

Help us pray in faith, believing we have received what we’ve asked because we’ve prayed according to Your will. May our faith be so strong it amazes You!

Help us to grow strong in prayer.

In Jesus’ name, AMEN.

 

Young Adults Losing Their Faith

My Aunt recently posted a video on my Facebook wall entitled “The Toughest Test in College”.  The video outlines various reasons why young adults in college lose their faith.  The video is a promo for “TrueU DVD: The Toughest Test in College: Why Students are Failing to Keep Their Faith on Campus.”  I liked the video, even though it seemed to put too big of an emphasis on the professors.  To me, it seemed to blame the professors for being too atheistic and pushing their views upon the students.  Although I don’t think this is true in most cases, I still enjoyed the video; it intrigued me. 

Why are college students losing their faith?  I think I must make a distinction real quick….it’s not just college students (at either secular or Christian schools) that are leaving their faith behind, it’s most young adults, regardless if they’re in college or not. 

Sam Rainer, pastor and co-author of Essential Church?, blogged:

Our research has debunked the myth that the influence of the secular university pushes young adults out of the church. No significant difference exists between the dropout rates of those who attend at least a year of college and those who do not. For those that attend college, 69% of active churchgoing youth stop attending church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. Yet 71% of active youth who do not go to college stop attending church during the same period.  So overall, the college itself is not to blame for the dropout issue.

Not only is Rainer a pastor and author, he also is the president of a research and consulting firm. 

Although this research was done in 2007, I’m relatively sure that the results would still be about the same today.

Still, the question remains Why are young adults losing their faith?  Is it because they find church boring?  Is it because they ‘don’t have time’?  Are the pressures of young adulthood causing them forget about God?  There are many reasons as to why someone may leave the church or stop believing in God completely.

I think what we need to focus on is what brought these young adults to the faith in the first place.  We need to help them remember why they started believing to begin with.  Today’s first reading at mass today reminded me of this. 

If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.

We all once died with Christ and were raised with Him.  We need to always remember this.  If you have strayed away from the faith, for one reason or another “Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:  immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry…since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator.”