Why does the Church FAIL to attract, retain, and incorporate the upcoming generation?

One of the great concerns for leaders in the Church today, is that less that 8% of youth between the ages of 13 to 30 do not consider church attendance as an important part of their lives. They believe it is OK to be "Spiritual", but "we don't need church to be a Christian" is a common feeling among this age-group/generation. What is happening to the Church? What will Christianity look like in 10-20 years if we don't reach this generation?

While I don't necessary advocate that we must always do church as we have always done church (We DON'T do church like the book-of-Acts-church did - when did you last worship/live in a cemetery?), I strongly feel that church-going is necessary... at least in SOME form of community of believers coming together to worship, teach, disciple and baptize, and to "send" (go).

I think that a very large part of the problem is due to the fact that WE DON'T DISCIPLE DISCIPLES . We the church have forgotten how, or have somehow lost how to do it, or have just stopped doing it.

How many of us out there can really define what it means to "disciple" or to BE a disciple.. and it is MUCH, MUCH more than just "a follower of Jesus Christ." What doe THAT look like, anyway? How many who call themselves disciples, disciple disciples to disciple disciples?

How many of us have been mentored to multiply & reproduce ourselves... (frankly, there are SOME out there who we would rather NOT reproduce themselves... ;-) )

When I ask, "How you YOU define "disciple?", I get a blank stare. Or, better yet, "Don't YOU know what a disciple is?", or "Everybody knows what a disciple is!"..

Do we? Why not answer the question, instead of skirting it? Is it too hard? Don't want anyone to know that you are guessing? That you really CAN'T define "disciple"?

At the core, I really wonder if Jesus really IS Lord in the church, in peoples' lives? And if He IS Lord, wouldn't we be retaining a significant number if we were truly filled with the Holy Spirit in discipling them?

WHAT IS THE ANSWER? I believe right relationship is a good beginning... discipling through right relationships is part of the Master's-teaching. It's how He began His discipling of disciples. A right relationship FIRST with God, cleansed, filled with His Spirit, and secondly (out of that), right relationships with people, opens the door for trust, respect, and confidence.

Discipling has to be done on purpose, with focused intention to mentor and disciple a disciple to disciple disciples.

If we can get our hearts around that, we might retain some of the 13-30 year-olds, by making church relevant through holy disciplship.