I am reading a wonderful book called "World Proof Your Kids" by Tim Sisemore....well, wonderful so far! I am only a couple of chapters into it at this point! But I read something the other day that startled me and made me think....it got my thought processes going and I wanted to throw it out there to all of you -
Tim wrote that a study was done evaluating the "retention rate" of Protestants vs. Mormons with our teenagers....the results? The "church" of the Latter Day Saints maintains more of their teenagers, not only in their congregations, but more of them actually say that their "faith" impacts their daily lives! Let me show you what they found:
75% of Mormon teens say that their religious beliefs are the same or similar to their parents whereas only 45% of Protestant youth make this statement.
43% of Mormon teens state that their faith shapes their daily lives while only 29% of Protestant youth see the need for faith in their daily life.
SAD...this states that 2/3 of conservative Christian teens in the US do not see their faith as important in their daily life! Do you realize the weight of that statement?
Did you know that 33% of our Protestant teens believe in some form of reincarnation? 33% believe in the authority of astrology? 31% in communicating with the dead? 21% believe in psychics and fortune tellers! What are we doing????
Why? You have to ask yourself - if you have children - you must search this out, right?
Well, the author quotes some ideas from Tom Bisset - who cites 4 major reasons children of Christian parents leave the faith (not that they lose their salvation, but rather that they never really had genuine saving relationship with Christ):
1. Their troubling questions regarding their faith go unanswered - meaning that when they ask the difficult questions, we are too busy entertaining and trying to look as much like the world as possible, and we miss the opportunity to have a voice in their life. I think he may be right! I would venture to say that the teenagers today see more "compromise" in churches now than ever before! We have more groups entertaining and praying to the "big daddy in the sky", and trying to be their pals...and we have less and less truth and doctrine! We are too busy with pizza fellowships to get them in the door so we can build a friendship with them, and we won't say anything that is "uncool" for fear that they won't come back - that we somehow forget that we are supposed to be growing them in a relationship with Christ! Without doctrine, do they really have any solid footing to grab onto when the storms of teenage years hit their lives? Do they really ever understand the answers to questions like "why was I created? What is my purpose? Why does He care for me? Why do bad things happen to good people?" They are naturally at a place in their lives for critical thinking - but our churches in our society are too busy trying to be like them and look like the world, to ever see that what they need is the security of knowing that there is an unchanging, solid and clear WORD out there! Mr. Bisset stated "This [the thought that we must be and look like the world to attract them] flows from the naive idea that teens love the world as it is and wouldn't be interested in Christianity if it didn't look like the Western world of the 21st Century. I fear that our young people take our silence on important issues to mean that we can't answer their questions and our failure to offer them anything more substantial than a good time as a sign that our faith has little depth to offer." Ouch....
2. The second reason Bisset gave for our children "leaving" the faith is that they discovered their faith really was not "working" for them. This reminded me so much of the Way of the Master series and their warnings against presenting the Gospel as if you were selling a used car.....you know, "come to Jesus, He can fix your marriage, your work, your life and, if you come today, He will throw in a brand new bank account!"....ok, so most churches are not that overt - but what do we really tell people when we give them the Gospel? Are we really honest in telling them that the Bible PROMISES that we will face persecution and suffering? That "woe to you" if all men speak well of you? Are we honest in that God does not promise to "fix" anything in our lives the way WE think they should be fixed - we are simply surrenduring our lives to HIS will and what HE KNOWS....No, most of the Gospel messages I have heard out there now make me so fearful - there are so many souls that think coming to Jesus is praying a little prayer and then living like you want to....after all, if you mean it will all your heart, He is obligated to come into your life and then give you ABUNDANT life, right? Surely that abundance does not include facing difficult circumstances??? A God of love would not want me unhappy, right? Oh ya'll....we have got to be careful! We sell Jesus like He is the "quick fix" pill to your life - if you just ask Him into your hearts, He will make it all better....then, when the storms of life hit, they look around and think - "something didn't take!" so, what do they do then? Rededicate? Maybe they didn't pray the prayer the right way, so they "get saved" again, just in case! Maybe they think, "this isn't worth it - it doesn't help my circumstances....why do I need it?" and they leave the church.
The Way of the Master presentation called "Hell's Best Kept Secret" presents this thought....if you give a passenger on an airline a parachute and tell them to wear it for the flight - it will make them uncomfortable and it will cost them room and sleep, etc....but they need to wear it for a better flight - they will think you are crazy and, as soon as the parachute bothers them (if they even put it on in the first place), they are going to take it off! But, if you explain to the person that there is a reason that the plane is going down, within minutes you will be crashing and their life is in imminent danger, they are not going to refuse the parachute because it is uncomfortable! You see, we say "put on Jesus - He will make things better for you" and, when things get uncomfortable - they take off this false religious chute they are wearing and discard it.....but if we accurately and rightly describe their lost condition and the danger they are in as a sinner/enemy of God, their imminent lot for eternity and the sometimes unpleasant and difficult jouney ahead of them, then they rightly view Jesus as their salvation in the midst of their peril....Someone they will cling to in times of trouble and suffering! Does that make sense?
We've got too many teens (and adults for that matter) that have been window shopping their religion and their faith is grounded in a false sense of hell insurance. WE MUST RIGHTLY DIVIDE THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR YOUTH! My boys MUST see the truth about the Christian life and they must see that NOTHING is more important than faith in Christ! There are NO QUESTIONS in our lives that CHRIST and HIS WORD are silent on....everything matters to HIM!
Ok....enough soapbox for today - I will try to post the rest of this tomorrow - we have 2 more reasons that Mr. Bisset gives and that I would like to try to explain here....
No comments:
Post a Comment