Young People and Christian Ritual: Beyond Transactional Engagement

The purpose of the Young People and Christian Worship (YPCW) study is to listen deeply to how young people, including teenagers and emerging adults (aged 13-29), experience public Christian ritual in a range of liturgical expressions—Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, evangelical, and charismatic. This binational, multisite, mixed methods research is situated at the intersection of sociology of religion, ritual studies, and liturgical theology. The focus of this presentation is challenging transactional approaches to ritual and young people through (1) a robust description of the diversity of ways young people experience ritual in dialogue with sociological literature, and (2) a clear conception of the formation of young people within different traditions in dialogue with ritual studies literature. Attention to these dynamics frees young people to experience and value diverse dimensions of Christian ritual and illuminates what ritual is meaning and doing for young people today.

Theoretical Framework

The North American religious landscape is characterized by declining participation in religious institutions, especially among younger generations. Each generation born in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been less religious than the previous generation in measures of affiliation, belief, and practice (Voas and Chaves, 2016). Anxiety about these emerging dynamics in the mid-twentieth century is part of what initiated movements that linked Christian ritual and young people through a transactional approach characterized by an emphasis on determining what young people want, in order to give them what they want, to entice them to participate in Christian ritual (Ruth and Lim, 2021). In opposition to this approach, this research is focused on understanding the experience of young people who are already actively engaged in ritual practice in order to better understand both the experience of all ritual participants and the ritual itself. 

There is an abundance of sociological literature on youth and religion, including the National Study of Youth and Religion and subsequent studies of religious parenting (Smith, 2005-2021) and research undertaken by organizations such as the Springtide Research Institute (2020-2023) and Pew Research Center (2020). Often focused on affiliation, belief, and personal practices, rarely does this literature address how teenagers and emerging adults experience group religious ritual, including public Christian worship. To address this gap, this study centers on understanding the diverse ways younger participants relate to a range of expressions of public Christian ritual. 

Apart from discussion of rites of passage associated with adolescence (Turner, 1969) ritual theory tends to presume adult participants rather than young participants in the process of learning a ritual tradition. A focus on young people and ritual foregrounds how ritual participants are formed within specific traditions (Mitchell, 1999) in ways that are associated with the dynamics of what rituals do for groups and individuals (Grimes, 2014).

Understanding of the diversity of young ritual participants challenges transactional approaches that tend to assume young people share a common set of ritual preferences. Furthermore, recognizing the ways participants are formed through ritual participation in distinct traditions challenges transactional assumptions that presume uniform desires rather than values that are developed in distinct and diverse ritual contexts. 

Methods

This is a binational, multi-site, mixed methods, ecumenical study. The qualitative component of the research began during the summer of 2024 with a first phase of research conducted at six summer programs for teenagers held on university campuses. The programs represent six different Christian traditions and geographic regions and a range of ritual expressions. Research at field sites included focus groups with 185 high school students, individual interviews with 69 emerging adults, and 29 days of participant observation. Most participants in these summer programs are also engaged in local congregations, making these sites an excellent setting for listening to young people actively involved in multiple ritual contexts. A second phase of research at four additional summer programs will take place in summer of 2025 further diversifying the traditions and geographies represented. Anchored in a preliminary analysis of the first phase of qualitative research, the quantitative component of the study consists of a nationwide survey in the United States disseminated in the spring of 2025. The data is transcribed and coded in MaxQDA and analysis is ongoing. 

Analysis 

This presentation focuses on analysis of the first phase of qualitative data in the context of emerging findings from the quantitative survey to make two contributions that challenge the transactional framework. 

First, we develop a taxonomy to describe the diversity of young ritual participants. We consider the “thinkers” who value intellectual engagement in ritual, the “feelers” who value emotional connection or therapeutic effects, and the “doers” who value active participation, especially in the form of leadership opportunities. We also consider the “mystics” who primarily approach public Christian ritual as a context for personal transcendent experience, the “socializers” who focus on relationships expressed and strengthened through ritual, and the “activists” who are eager to translate their ritual experience to daily life. While presented here as ideal types, these are intersecting categories. While the experience of young people has much in common with all ritual participants, this research pays particular attention to both life course and generational effects that are distinct to this population. 

Second, we explore the formation of young worshipers within diverse and distinct traditions. For the purpose of this presentation, we focus specifically on how young people are formed implicitly through ritual participation and explicitly through formal instruction in three contrasting ritual traditions—Roman Catholic eucharistic liturgies, Evangelical praise and worship services, and worship practices in progressive Mennonite communities—in ways that are evident in the stories and values they highlight when reflecting on their ritual experience. At the same time, we note places where young people question or depart from the ritual formation they have received, often through formative encounters with liturgical difference (Cowan and Andrews, 2024). 

Dialogue with both sociologists of religion and ritual studies scholars will enhance the development of this research at a critical juncture when data collection is complete and preliminary analyses can be tested as we move toward key findings regarding young people and religious ritual that have interdisciplinary significance.