The most striking change was the fact that teenagers today seem much less inclined to have spiritual conversations about their faith in Christ with non-believers.

A new research study from the Barna Group explores the changing religious environment of teenagers, comparing their participation in personal and group forms of faith over the past dozen years. While most teenagers remain spiritually active in some way, it appears that six specific types of teen faith engagement are declining.

These included small group attendance, prayer, Sunday school participation, donations to churches, reading sacred texts other than the Bible, and evangelism by Christian teens (explaining their belief in Jesus Christ with others who have different faith views).

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group and the director of the research, pointed out that some of these changes may go unnoticed by church leaders because the most visible activities – teen church attendance and youth group involvement – have not changed much in recent years.

Kinnaman commented on the findings: “While there is still much vibrancy to teen spirituality, it seems to be ‘thinning out.’ Teenagers view religious involvement partly as a way to maintain their all-important relationships. Yet perhaps technology such as social networking is reconfiguring teens’ needs for relationships and continual connectivity, diminishing the role of certain spiritual forms of engagement in their lives. Talking to God may be losing out to Facebook.”

The most striking change was the fact that teenagers today seem much less inclined to have spiritual conversations about their faith in Christ with non-believers.

The survey question specifically asked if the survey respondent had “explained your religious beliefs to someone else who had different beliefs, in the hope that they might accept Jesus Christ as their savior.” Among born again Christian teenagers, the proportion who said they had explained their beliefs to someone else with different faith views in the last year had declined from nearly two-thirds of teenagers in 1997 (63%) to less than half of Christian teens in the December 2009 study (45%).

Kinnaman noted: “Christian teenagers are taking cues from a culture that has made it unpopular to make bold assertions about faith or be too aggressively evangelistic. Some of the Barna Group’s other research shows that the vast majority of these students agree with the statement it is ‘cool to be a Christian.’ Yet fewer young Christians apparently believe it is worthwhile to talk about their faith in Jesus with others.”

George Pytlik, who helped launch the Internet ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ in 1993, is deeply troubled about this loss of spiritual values. Pytlik points out that if this rate of decline continues unchecked, evangelism by youth will reach zero by 2024.

“If faith sharing by teenagers continues to slide at the present rate, it will end in just 14 years,” he warns. “We’ve known that secularization is having a negative effect on Christian young people. This study confirms that youth are not sharing their faith as much as before. As they respond to cultural pressure that faith is something they should keep to themselves, they’re losing touch with the power, joy and relevance of living a disciplined Christian life.”

“Young people used to be the most vibrant of all Christian demographics when it came to sharing their faith,” he says. “Their purity of faith has inspired millions. It is a tragedy to see that passion fall away.”