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Author: Pastor Wally Glucklich
Source: October Newsletter
Oct. 1, 2009
Will Our Children Follow God's Ways?
Many parents are concerned about their teen children's commitment to the Christian faith. Many wonder if their response is only an apron string relationship or a person conviction from within their own hearts. As our children leave the nest, will their choices reflect their convictions or will they be susceptible to the influences of our society?
Ken Ham and Britt Beemer wrote the book, Already Gone, Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it. It's the tabulation of interviewing 24,000 Christian twenties through 25 separate surveys. The results are very eye opening. These twenties all had attended church and Sunday School as children.
* 9 out of 10 said that their Sunday School (S.S.) classes taught them that the Bible was
true and accurate
* 8 in 10 said their pastor or S.S. teacher taught that God created the earth in six 24-hour days.
* 1 in 10 said their pastors/S.S. teacher taught that Christians could believe in Darwinian evolution.
* 2 in 10 said their pastors/S.S. teacher taught they could believe in an earth that is millions or
billions of years old.
* Only 1 in 16 said they were taught in church that the Book of Genesis was a myth or legend
and not real history. P. 45
For most of these young adults they had a very conservative religious teaching. Yet in comparison to non-S.S, attendees this same group responded to the following questions in a remarkable way.
Question from P.41 - 43 | S.S. Attendees |
Non S.S. Attendees |
1. Do you believe that God used evolution to create human beings? | 24.6 % Yes | 18.5% Yes |
2. Do you believe that God used evolution to change one kind of animal into another? | 27.2 % Yes | 18.8 % Yes |
3. Do you believe that premarital sex is wrong? | 40.8 % Yes | 47.7 % Yes |
4. Do you feel good people don't need to go to church? | 39.3 % Yes | 28.9 % Yes |
5. Do you feel the Church is relevant to your needs today? | 53.6 % Yes | 60.4 % Yes |
6. Do you believe that you have become anti-church through the years? | 39.1 % Yes | 26.9 % Yes |
These are startling responses. How is it that these twenties came to these conclusions? Is our teaching in the church and home sufficient to develop a God-centered view of life? The authors make this observation. "Part of the concern is that the mere existence of youth ministry and Sunday School allows parents to shrug off their responsibilities as the primary teachers, mentors, and pastors to their families. The other part of the concern is that, again, what we are doing just isn't working," p.47. These are two concerns we, the church, must address.
Every time we dedicate a child we are reminded that the church is here as a supplement to biblical teaching in the home. This implies that parents are teaching their children a God-centered lifestyle and that the church is complementing the home through it's teaching ministries and by providing a community of faith for children to grow up in.
Therefore as a church we have a great responsibility to encourage parents to personally grow and live out the Word of God, to train them in Biblical parenting skills like Growing Kids God's Way and to develop an understanding of a biblical worldview, like the Worldview Seminar on Oct. 8th that helps them teach their children a God-centered way of life in the home.
If we want our children to think and live biblically, we need to teach them to live and defend their biblical faith both at home and at church.
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