The church is a place where you go and worship your respective higher power. For many older people, it’s the highlight of their week. However, going to church has become less popular with younger people over the last few years. Several religious denominations have seen memberships fall among young adults and teens in recent years.

A new survey revealed that many young people perceive a disconnect between themselves and houses of worship that need believers to maintain their congregations. Fifty percent of young people from ages 13 to 25 said they don’t think that religious institutions care about important issues, according to a report from the Springtide Research Institute.

Those issues include racial justice, immigration, gender equity, income inequality, and gun control. The most significant disconnect comes with the case of LGBT rights. Almost seventy-one percent of youths said they care about gay rights. Still, only forty-four percent of religious communities care about the same issue, according to a survey of more than 10,000 people across the country representing different faiths.

Although there is a disconnect with the church, seventy-eight percent of young people consider themselves spiritual, even if they don’t identify with organized religion. A 2020 Gallup survey suggests that this behavior is contributing to the decline in church memberships.

The 2020 Gallup survey found that forty-seven percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque, decreasing from seventy percent in 1999. The survey also found that younger adults are less likely than older generations to identify with religious groups or participate in spiritual practices. According to the Springtide survey, only twenty-three percent of young people said they attend weekly religious services.

About thirty-one percent of adults attended religious services weekly in a 2019 Pew Research Center report. Teens are also more likely than their parents to identify as religiously unaffiliated, meaning they identify as atheists, agnostic, or nothing at all. Thirty-two percent of teens and twenty-four percent of parents identify as nones.

So why have young people turned away from houses of worship? Some believe that it’s because young people feel like the church doesn’t care about the same issues. However, many churches are involved in causes like helping the homeless and feeding the hungry. Young people see the church as an archaic institution, but it’s so much more than that. The church is a place where you can gather with your fellow believers and revel in the wonder that is God. It’s a place where you can come before God and lay down the burdens of your heart and mind.

The church is also a place of fellowship where you can meet new people and get involved in worthy causes. Many young people think that the church can’t change, but that’s not the case. Young people feel disconnected from the church because they don’t believe the church cares about their issues. However, if young people are willing to share their concerns with the church, leaders may listen. The church can change if young people are open to changing their mindset as well.