This is part 2 in a series of posts on the book Souls in Transition.

First the bad news: College-aged young people are “the least religious adults in the United States today.”  Only 20% attend religious services at least once a week.  They are morally adrift and alienated from religion.

These are a few of the findings of the Authors of the book Souls in Transition.

Based on five years of academic research, Souls in Transition presents the best information to date on the spiritual beliefs of the current generation of college students.

Here is what they report about how Emerging Adults (what they call those age 18-22) line up spiritually (and I find this to be less “doom and gloom” than I’d feared):

• 15% are Committed Traditionalists who “embrace a strong religious faith, whose beliefs they can reasonably well articulate and which they actively practice.” (p 166)
• 30% are Selective Adherents who “are not that interested in matters religious or spiritual” but do hold to certain aspects of their religious tradition that they pick and choose (p. 167, 295)
• 15% are Spiritually Open, who “are not personally very committed to a religious faith” but mildly interested and open to some spiritual topics or activities. (p 167)
• 25% are Religiously Indifferent who “simply [don't care] one way or the other”.  They “religion really doesn’t count for that much” (p 168, 295)
• 5% are Religiously Disconnected who have little exposure to religious ideas or people.  Religion is not a particular interest.  They lack “the social and institutional ties to religion to know or care that much about it in the first place.” (p 168,295)
• 10% are Irreligious who “hold skeptical attitudes about and make critical arguments against religion generally, rejecting the idea of personal faith.” “Religion just makes no sense” (p 168)

So on your typical campus:

• 15% are “solid believers”
• No more than 10% are “atheists/agnostics” –
• 30% come from a churched background (this would be more like 60% on our campus) but are moral relativists
• 45% are what I would call “Unspiritual but Open” – they would be very receptive to Christians and having a conversation about God

Obviously (like I mentioned re: our campus) you’d have to adjust for your campus but these findings would/should definitely shape the way you approach outreach on your campus.

A few takeaways for our ministry:

• It might be helpful for staff/students to be able to think through: “which category does the person I’m talking to fit into?”  And then training students how to communicate the message of the gospel to each group.  You wouldn’t talk to a “Religiously Disconnected” student in the same way that you’d talk to a “Selective Adherent”.  The former has never really been exposed to religious beliefs or people.  The latter has been inoculated to the gospel and now want little to do with it (at least during college).
• At our campus we need to get a lot better at communicating the gospel to our average student: The churched kid who picks and chooses which parts of Christianity he wants to follow: “sex before marriage?  Perfectly fine.  Attending church?  Optional.  Alcohol/drugs?  Why not.  But I feel really guilty. Thanks religion”  The authors summarize their outlook: “I do some of what I can.”  They are religious moralists (and pretty crummy ones, at that) who do not understand the gospel of grace..
• My heart really goes out to those in the “Unspiritual but Open” category – it just seems like if they just consistently rubbed shoulders with a passionate follower of Christ over the course of a school year, they would be open to the gospel.

What are you takeaways after reading these findings?

Photo courtesy of Neil Dorgan via Flickr