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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a twentysomething myself, I think most young people today have a finely tuned BS radar and are turned off by religious establishments that try to market to them and make religion "cool." I am interested in exploring my faith and spirituality but I don't like feeling like I'm being sold something. The praise bands, the hipster churches that have slick websites and are all over social media and have a marketing plan...those types of establisents are a big turn off. It feels like some middle aged Church leaders were sitting around in a conference room thibking, what can we do to get the young people to church? Let's hire a 38-year-old pastor who plays the guitar and wears jeans and has tattoos!

I think a lot of people my age are interested in the traditions and sacraments and rituals and liturgy and history of the faith tradition. But it's hard to find that in a faith community, especially if you're an outsider or newcomer and don't really speak the lingo. It's just a little awkward. But I think if more faith communities focused on going back to their roots and reviving traditional spiritual practices instead of tripping over themselves to make it "relevant," they would see more young people.[/quote]

This is how I feel too, but unfortunately the churches that do offer this (think Episcopalian, Presbyterian, etc.) are in steep, steep decline to the point where there's doubt whether they'll even exist in a few decades - while the hipster, "relevant" churches are booming. So IDK.[/quote]

This is how I feel, too, but I am Jewish. I don't really feel connected to a synagogue. I enjoy the services but I never click with the people I meet there. It's not a matter of not knowing the lingo for me, since I am attending synagogues in the same tradition in which I grew up (Conservative), but it seems like all the rabbis preach about is Israel and every activity focuses on Israel and I am not really that into Israel, at least not in the concrete sense of visiting or raising money for Israeli causes. So I don't fit in at shul, I don't enjoy the activities they do outside of services, I don't like the people I meet there ... and therefore I don't go except for the High Holidays which fall once a year. Add to that the fact that a lot of traditional Jewish practice is in the home, unconnected to a synagogue (keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath, eating holiday meals) and I don't really need to go to synagogue even if I found one I liked.

We'll join ... somewhere ... once our oldest is old enough to suffer through Hebrew school. Not looking forward to paying $3000 a year for the membership fee. But it's the price of a Jewish education.

I am 35. Not sure if that counts as the "young people" who are non-religious. But to the extent it does, for me it's not so much that I'm non-religious, as that I don't like the options for practicing my religion.[/quote]

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