Growing Young

Churches are both shrinking and aging as more young people disengage. 
Based on groundbreaking research with over 250 of the USA's leading congregations, Growing Young provides a strategy any church can use to involve and retain young people. It profiles innovative churches engaging 15- to 29-year-olds that are growing–spiritually, emotionally, missionally, and numerically. 
Packed with ideas, Growing Young shows ministry leaders how to position their churches to reach younger generations in a way that breathes life into the whole church.

About the research
The Churches Engaging Young People (CEYP) project is one of the most comprehensive and collaborative studies ever done on this topic and it is changing church culture.
10,000 hours.
1300 individual interviews.
40 states.
80,000 miles traveled.

All churches grow old, but strategic churches are growing young. Churches are both shrinking and aging as more young people disengage. Based on groundbreaking research with over 250 of the nation’s leading congregations, Growing Young provides a strategy any church can use to involve and retain young people. It profiles innovative churches engaging 15­ to 29-year-­olds that are growing–spiritually, emotionally, missionally, and numerically.  Packed with ideas, Growing Young shows ministry leaders how to position their churches to reach younger generations in a way that breathes life into the whole church.

Here’s a snapshot of how the 259 churches that chose to participate in the research describe themselves.
The study included newer church plants that were less than five years old as well as historic congregations with over 140 years of history.
21 major church traditions were represented, including: Anglican, Assemblies of God or Pentecostal, Baptist, Christian & Missionary Alliance, Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ, Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, Evangelical Covenant, Evangelical Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran Church­Missouri Synod, Nazarene, Presbyterian, Reformed or Christian Reformed, Roman Catholic, United Methodist, and those claiming no denominational affiliation.
Churches ranged in size from under 100 participants to over 10,000 participants. The largest three categories were 1,001-­3,000 (28 percent), 501-1,000 (24 percent), and 251-­500 (15 percent).
Just over half of the congregations were predominantly white, one­-third were multiracial, and the others were predominantly African American, Hispanic/Latino, or Asian.
Geographic location included all census regions of the country, with representations from the Midwest (33 percent), West (31 percent), South (25 percent), and Northeast (11 percent).
In terms of where the congregation was located, 56 percent reported being suburban, 33 percent urban, 3 percent rural, and 8 percent a mix of urban, suburban, and rural that was difficult to distinguish.

Article:  Meet the churches young people are loving

The Book:  Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church

Visit the web page:  Growing Young for a free assessment, research and resources.