After reading the Top 10 Reasons Why Teens Leave Church, my Mom in her classic form, had me write a response paper to the article.
So, I writing the reasons he missed.
11) Because being a Christian is hard.
Between school, friends, sports, work, family, boyfriends (or girlfriends) and the necessary evil homework; most teens have a more than a full plate. So some teens, I think, feel that one more hard thing might just send them over the edge. So with this reason, it may be that once their lives clear up a bit young people may return to church and God; or it may take their life getting even harder to go back.
12) Because the world is different.
After being sheltered from the world for years and years of their young life, kids grow up. And they see the world and all it has to offer and wonder, "What could be so bad about this world that I've been warned about?" Because in contrast to the mission trips to countries without power lines and plumbing, 6am prayer breakfasts and the daunting Ten Commandments, the world can seem pretty great. You will be accepted for whoever you are, people have lower expectations, and there is no such thing as sin.
13) Because, "How do we know that Jesus is really God?"
Faith is difficult to muster up sometimes. And with all the various religions, or lack of, in the world young people can be confused with whether or not what they've been taught has any validity. Because how is one to really know for sure that Allah isn't the real God? Or that maybe there isn't a real God to begin with?
