What does the next generation of Presbyterians look like? Findings from a 1998 survey of individuals who joined the church via confirmation provide a detailed snapshot. First, confirmands are young; their average age at the time of joining was 14, and almost all were between the ages of 11 and 15. Most are female, white, living with both of their biological parents and, at the time of the survey, were attending middle or high school. A majority have one or more siblings living at home. Nine in ten have grown up in the Presbyterian faith.
Confirmands have regular but not perfect church attendance. More than half report attending every week or nearly every week, and another third attend from 1 to 3 times a month. Four in 10 are regular participants in their congregation's youth group, and half at least occasionally attend church school. Interestingly, a third are either regularly or occasionally involved in a youth group at another congregation. Few, however, are active in YoungLife, Athletes in Action, or other "parachurch" organizations.
Only around one in four confirmands read the Bible privately at least weekly, although most read it once in a while. Still, almost one-third of confirmands never read the Bible privately. Group Bible reading is even less common, although around one in six confirmands attend a Bible study group that meets once a week or more. More -- almost half report that they "pray with one or more other persons" weekly or more often, including 12 percent who take part in group prayer every day. Around one in six meet weekly (or more often) with a Bible study group.
Large majorities of confirmands believe that "there is life beyond death" (82 percent), "Jesus was born of a virgin" (80 percent), and "Jesus will return to earth some day" (75 percent). A slim majority (58 percent) believe that "the Devil really exists." However, more disagree than agree that "only followers of Jesus Christ can be saved," and a large minority (44 percent) agree that "all the great religions of the world are equally good and true." And, a majority agree that "an individual should arrive at his or her own religious beliefs independent of any church," a result with important implications for the institutional church, especially since most of the remainder responded not sure (27 percent) rather than disagree (16 percent).
In sum, confirmands look a lot like the overall membership of the PCUSA. Confirmands are much younger, of course, and a bit more universalistic and relativistic on religious truth claims. But in terms of other characteristics (e.g., race, family composition) both groups are remarkably alike. They are similar in how they practice their faith, with comparable rates of participation in Bible reading and prayer groups, and majorities of both groups hold orthodox beliefs on many subjects.
In short, the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree -- or, at least, these apples didn't. What this survey doesn't tell us about are the children in Presbyterian churches who were not confirmed -- who in effect rejected church membership. And there must be a lot of them: in 1983, when many current confirmands were born, there were more than 50,000 infant baptisms across the PCUSA. In 1997, however, professions of faith for individuals aged 17 or younger totaled only 32,000. Keeping more of our own in the fold would go a long way toward eliminating net membership loss.
This essay is the fourth in a series summarizing the findings of two national surveys one of adult new members and one of confirmands--stemming from a partnership effort by Research Services and Evangelism. If you want more details, a five-page summary of results is available. Send a $3 check (payable to, and in care of) Research Services, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202.
Email the author: Jack Marcum
Research Services