In the Northern Ireland religious scene there is a burgeoning of independent 'churches' that are modelled on the Vineyard churches. They are sprouting up in many of our provincial towns such as Coleraine, Dungannon, Magherafelt, Lurgan, Portadown, etc.
Your people in particular are leaving the mainline denominations in droves, despite their trying to mimic the world in a bid to retain them. There churches, some of them professing to be reformed churches, have introduced the rock-style praise because, they say, this is what the young people want. It does not seem to dawn on them what God might want and how He desires to be worshipped.
I think that the reason for this exodus is that the mainline churches, while mimicking the world to keep the youth, are just not doing a great job at it. They are unprofessional, unskilled, ragged. Indeed, by their compromise with the world they are actually driving the young away from them.
They are succeeding sufficiently to keep them for a whole, but when their worship becomes too 'normal', they then need a stronger 'fix' of worldly worship to keep them interested in religious things.
The churches have been warned about this trend, but no one has paid a blind bit of attention to these sincerely given warnings.
The mainline churches need not complain at the exodus of young people from their ranks - they have only themselves to blame for driving them to where they will get a stronger 'fix' of unadulterated worldly religion.
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