Why we are losing our children...

[Juanita]

They say that many of the youth are not following Christ as they move into adulthood. It is an epidemic. Why?

One reason is that we have lost sight of our mission. Our mission needs to be what Jesus' mission was. He came to seek and save the lost. He did many other good things along the way: He healed people, fed people, etc. And he left us with the instructions to do the same.

Yet, we have strayed from this simple mission. A home that is not reaching out to seek and save the lost is unfruitful. That unfruitfulness can trickle down to the youngest member of the household. A generation of believers that do not try to reach their family, friends, community and world for Christ will find themselves losing their children as well.

We need to focus. We need to learn the skills of sharing Christ with others! Saving the world is saving our children, too!

[Ron Amundson]

I'm not so sure, I've seen more sparks, and more hard core questions from the teen and young adult crowd in the last few years than ever before. They are asking the hard, and often times unanswerable questions, and truly exploring faith, rather than letting things go status quo, as was common when I grew up.

Granted, such can be more than a tad uncomfortable at the time, but I rejoyce at them becoming active and growing disciples for Christ, rather than accepting a label and attending a church out of tradition or obligation, only to put on lampshades for the rest of the week. Alas, such is often going to cause conflict in the church, and likely rather than engage the institutional church, they end up either in perpetual church shopping mode, or not attending at all. My prayers is they will find a place, even if it means instead of institutional churches, society ends up with kazillions of home churches.

I also concur with the previous posters that such does begin in the home. The all too common practices of faith isolationism, Sunday only Christianity, cultural Christianity, overly programmed youth activities, including the elevation of after school activities to the downfall of faith based education has set the stage for problems.

Yet, its also the church... granted, I'm jaded a bit having spent likely too much time on the inside of ministries, but as anyone on the inside knows, greed and power predominate (at least if one is truly honest), its not unlike whats exemplified on Wall Street, but on a smaller scale. Kids are a lot more aware, and things are nowhere near as transparent as they were... and granted, way back, when I got whacked upside the head with the economic realities and power struggles of ministry, I was appalled for sure, but plowed through it, accepting it is what it is. Kids of today on the other hand, are much more likely to shake the dust off their feet and go on in search of other pastures. I dont know that such is necessarily a bad thing.

[Juanita]

Kay, you make good points! We, the believers, need to 'set our house in order.'

[Barbara Sargent]

I would like to add that I have attended many churchses and quite a few including my own, do not have youth ministries. My own personal church is a church of the elderly. Even though I do not like to admit to it, seems to be true. There are 4 children in our congregation and they are only there because they attend Sunday school because their parents are in church. After they have reached a point where they are too old for Sunday school, they never come back. I have been to churches that have absolutely wonderful "Youth Programs" and ministries and as a result, many children and young adults in the church services. When I was young, I was told I had to attend Sunday school, did not know why, I was just supposed to get dressed up every Sunday and go. Now, I find myself looking for a better church for my gradchildren someday and to teach them a better reason to go to church. Thanks for listening .

[Heather]

I had the privilege of witnessing over 2000 young people at "The Silver Ring Thing" in Williamsport. It was amazing and a little humbling. Thousands of teenagers paid money to come and be told not to have sex. What I noticed missing were a lot of parents. I mean here we having teenagers begging to be told "NO" and their parents weren't the ones dong it. For the most part it was a bunch of strangers or youth leaders. The two young girls I took with me came back on fire and were actually texting friends about the program.
So what do I think is standing in the way of young people coming to the Lord, their parents! As parents we have gotten lazy and we rely too much on other people to raise our kids for us! Parents need to start being parents and be there for their kids. Teaching them, and yes telling them "no" and even "yes" sometimes. One more thing we need to do is listen to them and not be so quick to judge.

[linda]

Juanita, you asked WHY children are not following Christ as they move into adulthood .

In my opinion, parents are failing to discipline their kids, instead of being concerned about discipling their children into a fully committed, personal relationship with Jesus.

The family that prays together stays together.

Biblically and really, parents are the primary educators of their children (Dt 6:6-7).

Secondly, Pastors. Pastors are failing to educate their flock!!

If your children absent themselves from the assembly (Heb 10:25) and cut themselves off from the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:21), they condemn themselves to isolation and powerlessness.