Those who decry the loss of faith among young adults might look to registered nurse Becky Schorn.

At 26, Schorn knows all too well the challenges of being a young person of faith in the 21st century. It hasn’t been long since she made the shift from the University of Delaware, where she was insulated by the constant proximity of supportive friends, similar beliefs, and flexible schedules, to the world of full-time employment, demanding schedules, earlier bedtimes, financial obligations, and plenty of reasons to sleep in on Sunday morning.

But what you might see in her church life isn’t necessarily what you might have imagined. Here is a young woman who is devoted to her faith but who also has a circle of friends with a variety of beliefs.

Her place of worship, Immanuel Church, in Wilmington, is a multi-denominational Protestant congregation rather than part of a single denomination. Her social schedule includes parties and dinners out with friends as well as weekly Bible study. And though she was educated in Christian schools, it’s likely that she’s more tolerant of others’ varying beliefs than your average partisan politician.

In many ways, Schorn is representative of the new people of faith—people experiencing life between college graduation and their 30s. They value labels and categories far less than a commonality of purpose in seeking higher truth amid the daily conflicts, challenges, and temptations they face.

She might not feel like a cultural touchstone, but statistically she and her peers represent a reality that churches and religious leaders will ignore at their own peril.

That reality is illustrated in the 2004 study OMG! How Generation Y Is Redefining Faith in the iPod Era, conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research for the progressive Jewish web magazine Reboot (www.rebooters.net).

The poll surveyed 1,385 Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 spread across the ethnic and religious spectrum. When the results were in, 27 percent of the respondents fell into “the Godly,” those with a central religious identity and for whom religion plays a large role. Another 27 percent were classified as “the God-less,” those who have little religious involvement but who might maintain some spiritual or ideological identity.

In the middle was a 46 percent chunk termed “the Undecided”—those who “are uncertain, yet positive about their religious identities and lean toward informal and expressive practices over the formal and institutional involvement.”

The study also found that members of this particular demographic group exhibited an unprecedented diversity in their ethnic and religious make-up, which translated into multicultural circles of friends and increasing tolerance of differing points of view.

The result, according to the study, is the “iPod-ization” of religion, where young people feel comfortable picking and choosing aspects of differing belief systems they feel apply to them or meet their particular needs.

In the religious hierarchy, this attitude has sparked some concern. This “cafeteria-style” faith in many ways threatens the appeal of specific religions and denominations. But in retrospect it was bound to happen, says Patrick Donovan, executive director for the office of Catholic Youth Ministry for the Diocese of Wilmington.

"We've raised this entire generateion of young people that have been taught to do whatever they feel like,” he says, suggesting that a modern young person’s image of God is “a cross between a divine butler and a therapis—a combination of Mr. Belvedere and Oprah.”

Along with creating their own personal images of the Almighty, younger adults are also unapologetic about acknowledging their “traditional” faith while supplementing it with beliefs that seem to complement their own particular worldviews.

“The people that say, ‘I’m Catholic with Buddhist tendencies’ are the ones that scare the conservatives to death because [conservatives] are afraid they’re going to lose them to the other side,” Donovan says. And if young people aren’t incorporating the beliefs from other religions, they at least are aware of their importance to the people who practice them.

“There is a higher level of tolerance,” Schorn says. “We are byproducts of post-modernism, and people in my generation really are thinkers because there have been so many choices put before us and because we’ve considered all our options. We’re in church not because we’re perfect, but because we need help. But in my generation there are people who are willing to listen and want to hear what people believe and have to say. We may not agree, but we’re not going to be rude.”

The incidence of informal religious talk, daily prayers, and personal religious pursuits, like reading faith-focused books, magazines, or newspaper articles, runs higher than 50 percent among members of the 18-25 age group, according to the Reboot study. Those who consider their beliefs central to their lives are more likely to volunteer for public service, again putting their faith into practice somewhere other than in church.

As a result, churches are trying to find new ways to draw young people in, whether it’s on Sunday morning or Saturday night. Schorn, who as a nurse works a schedule that would challenge even the most devout Sunday morning churchgoer, notes that many congregations have begun to offer alternative worship times to accommodate those with non-traditional schedules.

Some churches have created young adult ministries designed to appeal to those in their 20s and 30s. Also helping to draw young adults are more traditional activities such as church-affiliated mission programs and the church choir.

In the past few decades, one of the most obvious changes has been the addition of “contemporary” church services, combining traditional elements with modern music, instruments, and a more free-form atmosphere. The contemporary trend also plays into the huge popularity among young Christians of pop and rock music geared specifically toward them.

The popularity of “mainstream” popular music with Christian themes has also helped this trend, says Charles Brown, a professor at Albright University in Reading, Pa. who studies contemporary Christian culture. He calls this the “U2 approach—after the iconic Irish band that has built a huge mainstream following but has always incorporated the Christian beliefs of lead singer Bono, however subtly or metaphorically, into its lyrics.

Younger churchgoers “are just weary of the debate” over what is appropriate and what isn’t, he says. “They’ve heard it and they’re much more open. It’s a reflection again of that cafeteria approach to religiosity. They’re comfortable living in that gray area.”

What many churches are failing to do, he says, is acknowledge that in the pursuit of faith, there are gray areas. “If you take a look at it, in particular, by age, younger Catholics tend to be much less likely to accept the authority of the church on things like abortion, intermarriage; whatever the case may be,” Brown says. “They’re much more likely to appeal to their individual conscience.”

He also points out that many churches, instead of tapping those young people who might be on the fence about their faith, are aiming for the fringes. Movements such as the Revolution Church—run by Jay Bakker, son of former PTL Club leaders Jim and Tammy Fae Bakker—seek to attract those living the punk lifestyle who also want “a higher truth.”

Indeed, while most churches will gladly accept anyone, “it’s like anything else—you like to hang out with people like you,” says Brown. “If you’re one or two of a congregation of 500, there wouldn’t be anyone who shared your passions.”

That social link is important because many young adults live a life in which their faith is fed in the church but their social life revolves around more secular pursuits.

“I find a lot of people in my age group are looking for church and looking for a spiritual life, but they’re looking for a social life, too,” Schorn says. “I think a lot of churches are geared toward families and people with children, so lots of singles—even older singles—find it hard to make the connections.”

Programs like the Wilmington Diocese’s Theology on Tap hope to broaden the appeal of religious discussion and increase its social appeal by setting it in a bar on a weeknight. The speaker program, which originated in Chicago, aims to provide a relaxed forum for topics of faith and issues facing young adults as well as an opportunity for those people to meet. (Locally, Theology on Tap is held at Catherine Rooney’s Irish Pub in Trolley Square in downtown Wilmington.)

 “Sure, conversations [about religion] should happen over a beer in a bar or at the golf course or in the workplace, so I don’t think it’s crazy that we should try to encourage this conversation to happen,” says Susan Murray, director of the youth ministry at Resurrection Parish and the local Theology on Tap coordinator. “I think the idea is that it’s a necessity of our church to approach and recognize where young adults are and be present where young adults are.”