Over the past couple of years, I feel like I've seen multiple news headlines or online commentaries worrying about the population of the Catholic Church. Seeing different headlines saying things like "Why Are Millennials Leaving the Church?" or "Young Adults Aren't Going to Church Anymore" or "More People Stop Believing in God Before College Than Ever Before" can get pretty disheartening and irritating after awhile. Especially for a young adult Catholic man like myself.
A part of me is also sitting here, selfishly, being like "What am I, chopped liver?". Like, we're paying so much attention to why people in my generation are leaving and trying to figure out what exactly is keeping them away that we're not paying attention to those of us who aren't even leaving. Hello, guys! I'm here! I'm trying real hard to practice my faith and grow in my relationship with God!
I started to think that I'm probably not the only one who's had reactions to these news articles or has felt ignored despite being as faithful as can be or even growing as a Catholic disciple of Jesus Christ. There's got to be other people around my age who have different yet similar experiences to my own, right? My point is that there's often so much worry and dread and concern that seems to come from the news articles that we see regularly now or the kind of talk that we might hear when figuring out how parishes can draw in younger people.
Whether it was people coming into the Church later in life or if they've been here the whole time, I know I've seen plenty of other young adults in the Catholic Church, yet the headlines would make you think there's just a handful of us left. I decided that if I was getting all huffy about these cynical type of articles that 1) I needed to do something about it and 2) I need to present a positive, hopeful message rather than a negative, worrisome one.
Why focus on the negative when instead we can focus on the positive? Perhaps by shifting our focus, we can transform the conversation.So, how do we shift this focus? My answer: create a survey that allows fellow Catholic young adults to give their voice and experiences to help figure out why we choose to remain faithful to God and to Holy Mother Church. So, let's find out why Catholic young adults stay in the Church!
Sure, there's books out there with more in-depth knowledge and examination on this subject. Just by announcing this survey on a Facebook group page, I had people talk about The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly (a great read, by the way) and Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell (on my reading list for this year). Yet, that's a ton of reading with all sorts of data, statistics, and long paragraphs of examination.
For every great book like these worth reading, there's a large stack of news articles that are shorter in length and easier to read. So, I wanted to combat those news articles with something of similar length and intensity. Therefore, my solution is writing blog posts. Still going to throw a lot of information and statistics your way, just hopefully on a smaller, more casual scale that's easy and maybe even fun to read.
I learned so many things while assembling this survey and the results. Number one being, choose an easy online option instead of a Word document to collect interest and data. People had to point me in the direction of Google Forms before this thing took off. The next thing I learned was that maybe putting a bunch of questions that allowed long form sentence answers was not the best way to go. Only by examining the results did I see "Oh, I totally could've made this thing a multiple choice question and made this a whole lot easier for everybody!". Along with that, I realize that some questions could've been phrased differently. There are many open questions which provided answers from all sorts of angles. Lots of living and learning on this thing.
When creating the survey, I set an age limit I was looking for, asking for participants aged 21-39 years old. This way, I felt like it gave enough time for hindsight and separation from other phases of life. Those at the younger end of the spectrum could look at their teenage and youth years without still being directly connected to it, really taking on that change into young adulthood. Those at the older end of the spectrum could reflect on the past couple decades of their faith life and see just how they've grown as a Catholic young adult before transitioning into regular ol' adulthood with bigger responsibilities.
I readily admit I'm not a scientifically minded statistics guy nor am I a full blown Catholic scholastic know-it-all. I try my best to explain everything in a way that everyone can understand without either dumbing the information down too much or overexplaining something I don't fully understand. There's some survey responses that I was confused by, information or resources I had not known about before receiving these responses, and so on. I even had to look stuff up and figure out what certain acronyms stood for.
You'll also notice that when analyzing or discussing the collected data, I will be doing so in my own style, in my own voice. Just be aware that I get goofy sometimes or maybe I just phrase things weirdly. But hey, it's not all my voice in this survey. There'll be quotes from the survey takers thrown in, and of course none of the information could be presented without those participants sharing their own personal experiences. There's tons of honest, vulnerable life-sharing going on in this survey, and that was beautiful to see as I was editing.
My hope is that the responses to this survey will provide solid information to why young adults stay Catholic by sharing their life experiences. Moreover, I want these results to bring hope to all the people in and out of the Catholic Church, particularly fellow young adults. Perhaps there is a Catholic young adult who has fallen away or is struggling with something in their faith, these survey results could provide some assistance in their lives. Perhaps you know a young adult who has a certain struggle or doubt and you can use the information provided by the participants to guide that person towards answers. Maybe you're just a practicing Catholic young adult, just trying to do your best, and when you see this survey you can use the wisdom and resources shared by the participants to help you further pursue that relationship with God.
There are many young adults in the Catholic Church and we should not take that for granted. We are here for a multitude of reasons and because of the experiences we have had in life. On top of that, there's always something we can do as a next step to be a better Catholic and grow in our relationships with God. I hope these survey results can show you that. Thanks to all who participated in this survey and thank you for checking it out.
For every great book like these worth reading, there's a large stack of news articles that are shorter in length and easier to read. So, I wanted to combat those news articles with something of similar length and intensity. Therefore, my solution is writing blog posts. Still going to throw a lot of information and statistics your way, just hopefully on a smaller, more casual scale that's easy and maybe even fun to read.
I learned so many things while assembling this survey and the results. Number one being, choose an easy online option instead of a Word document to collect interest and data. People had to point me in the direction of Google Forms before this thing took off. The next thing I learned was that maybe putting a bunch of questions that allowed long form sentence answers was not the best way to go. Only by examining the results did I see "Oh, I totally could've made this thing a multiple choice question and made this a whole lot easier for everybody!". Along with that, I realize that some questions could've been phrased differently. There are many open questions which provided answers from all sorts of angles. Lots of living and learning on this thing.
When creating the survey, I set an age limit I was looking for, asking for participants aged 21-39 years old. This way, I felt like it gave enough time for hindsight and separation from other phases of life. Those at the younger end of the spectrum could look at their teenage and youth years without still being directly connected to it, really taking on that change into young adulthood. Those at the older end of the spectrum could reflect on the past couple decades of their faith life and see just how they've grown as a Catholic young adult before transitioning into regular ol' adulthood with bigger responsibilities.
I readily admit I'm not a scientifically minded statistics guy nor am I a full blown Catholic scholastic know-it-all. I try my best to explain everything in a way that everyone can understand without either dumbing the information down too much or overexplaining something I don't fully understand. There's some survey responses that I was confused by, information or resources I had not known about before receiving these responses, and so on. I even had to look stuff up and figure out what certain acronyms stood for.
You'll also notice that when analyzing or discussing the collected data, I will be doing so in my own style, in my own voice. Just be aware that I get goofy sometimes or maybe I just phrase things weirdly. But hey, it's not all my voice in this survey. There'll be quotes from the survey takers thrown in, and of course none of the information could be presented without those participants sharing their own personal experiences. There's tons of honest, vulnerable life-sharing going on in this survey, and that was beautiful to see as I was editing.
My hope is that the responses to this survey will provide solid information to why young adults stay Catholic by sharing their life experiences. Moreover, I want these results to bring hope to all the people in and out of the Catholic Church, particularly fellow young adults. Perhaps there is a Catholic young adult who has fallen away or is struggling with something in their faith, these survey results could provide some assistance in their lives. Perhaps you know a young adult who has a certain struggle or doubt and you can use the information provided by the participants to guide that person towards answers. Maybe you're just a practicing Catholic young adult, just trying to do your best, and when you see this survey you can use the wisdom and resources shared by the participants to help you further pursue that relationship with God.
There are many young adults in the Catholic Church and we should not take that for granted. We are here for a multitude of reasons and because of the experiences we have had in life. On top of that, there's always something we can do as a next step to be a better Catholic and grow in our relationships with God. I hope these survey results can show you that. Thanks to all who participated in this survey and thank you for checking it out.
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