Are you presently attending church?
Have you left church? Or do you know someone who's left church?

Unsuprisingly enough, there's a good chance you or someone you know has left the Korean church in the past decade.

Statistically, 90% of Korean-Americans leave church by the time they graduate from college, 75% by the time they finish high school.

What, in your opinion, are some reasons for this?

i wonder if there are stats on people who come back to church. i've noticed that trend at a few churches.

I also noticed that people usually come back to church when they get married and have kids.

I think for some people... they arent happy with the church they grew up with.. after the highschool stage.

For example when I used to go to Young Nak Pres. Church of LA. When I was a high school senior,at this point I probabaly accepted Jesus Christ in my life during one of the last retreats,but it was hard for me to be in the popular crowd or the active church members crowd. I wanted to find a way to get involved. At that time I slowly started to try out for praise team and started to fit in the crowd so I wouldnt feel like an outkast...but at that time it was time to move on to college service.

So I believe thatpeople leave church if they arent active member at church doing things like praise team, media/audio tech.,educational teachers etc...maybe they need someone to find a way for them to get started or their sermons from their pastor just doesnt reflect their lifes.

They leave their own church and start searching for other churchs where they can start fresh, find a way to get involved,make new friends, and so on.For example after I left my Home church at Young Nak i start attending Choong Hyun Mission Church ever since and now I feel blessed to be apart of a church where I know everyone and also being apart of praise team for many years using my musical talents and also teaching students at educational dept was a good experience. Now iam teaching jr high 8th grade students.

I left church for about 1.5 years (2003-2004/5-ish)
But by the grace of God, I found my way back to Him.
I wonder if there are a lot of cases like mine...

Sadly to say, I think for a lot of young people church is a phase. Much like the latest music, fashion, or movie, they'll devote themselves-whole heartedly for a short period of time and move on to the next distraction. Again, I'm not speaking for all the youth out there, but I think for a lot of young people their level of understanding is just not there. I think you have to reach a certain age level to really appreciate spirituality/religion and how it ties in to your overall life experience.

i believe the reason why people leave church is because their parents forced them to come to church rather than giving them the choice to
of course this is some people
another reason could be that college students that go out of state don't know anyone at other churches so they just don't go

I've learned from being a Christian for 4 years that most children grow up in the church not knowing why they're there to begin with. Obviously to worship God, but what does that even mean to them? God is probably not as real as He should be and just one little distraction can change a person's mind. Afterall, we're all sinners. Sin is rebellion from God. We're rebels by nature.

Obedience and loving God is the most important thing.

"And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets

-Matthew 22:37-40

I think maybe one reason why people leave church is because they are discouraged by how much hypocrisy can exist in a church. We think that church is holy, but we can easily despise it all the same. The reality of it though, is that a church is not just a facility. A church is a group of people that come together to form a body of worshippers, so when the people themselves become corrupt somehow (which IS possible seeing that NONE of us are perfect), others can become discouraged and leave. This person might be thinking, I can worship on my own, but it never works. Christians NEED community to grow, even if those around them are struggling just the same.

Anyway, I agree with all the others have said too, especially reasons why graduated high school students leave church.