by
Jason Sneed
April 2,
2023
YOUT350-D01
Campus Ministry
“You Lost Me” Book Review
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Submitted to Dr. Vandergriff
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
In David Kinnaman’s book, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church…
And Rethinking Faith, he describes a problem that is all too familiar in todays culture. The
problem of the Church loosing young people, as referenced by the title, is persistent and growing
as demonstrated in the first chapter of the book. Kinnaman goes on to explain in the remaining
chapters in the first section, some of the types of cultural challenges that restrain the current
generation from attending church. The graphs and figures in chapter two show the stark
differences in generations and begin to show the cause for separation. The important issue to
flesh out from this first section is that these issues are restraints and not constraints, therefore
they can be adapted to and addressed in order to remedy the issues.
In the second section of his book labeled “disconnections”, Kinnaman turns from broad
strokes in generational differences to chapters dedicated to the specific perceived issues that
separate these younger generations from church attendance. The first perceived issue he
addresses is the thought that the church is overprotective and lays out the case for why this
generation is overexposed to that quality and turned off to it. Secondly, he addresses the
perception that the church is boring and shallow and why that does not foster any desire for this
generation. Third, he addresses the perception that the church is anti-science and how this issue,
though it be far from the truth, causes a disconnect with the current generation. Next, he
addresses the issue of repressiveness and how that thought transfers specifically into sexuality
and becomes a point of contention with the present generation. The point of perceived
exclusiveness is likely the wildest and most unsubstantiated perception that he addresses, none
the less, one can see how those thoughts might form in our youth. Lastly, the perceived issue of
the church being doubtless or a place where thoughts of doubt can not be spoken or addressed is
covered in the final chapter of this section.
1 David Kinnaman. You Lost me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church…and Rethinking
Faith. Baker Books, 2011.
While each of these issues can be understood, and Kinnaman does well to point hem out
and describe them. My personal focus would have been geared more towards the perceived anti-
science and repressive points because they have a more substantial nesting in the culture than the
others that seem more superficial. However, Kinnaman does explain well that each of these
named reasons for youth dropping out of the church are all based on perception and are in fact
unfounded.
In the final section of his book Kinnaman lays out ways to purposely overcome the real
and perceived issues previously alluded to. Kinnaman provides a direct response to each issue:
overprotective-discernement, shallow-apprenticeship, anti-science-stewardship, repressive-
relational, exclusion-embrace, doubting-doing.1 Each of these, and the fifty ideas to specific
groups in the final chapter could be simply labeled “follow and apply the Gospel”. However, it is
helpful that Kinnaman takes the time and effort to flush out each and thoroughly explain each
part individually for maximum understanding.
The book as a whole was very helpful in identifying and addressing issues that might
otherwise separate a younger generation from the church.
