In her article, Survey: Churches Losing Youths Long Before College, Lillian Kwon, discusses Ken Ham's book Already Gone and the shocking findings from a survey he commissioned.
Kwon points out:
Sixty-one percent of the surveyed young adults said they attended Sunday school while 39 percent said they didn't. When comparing the two groups, the survey revealed that those who attended Sunday school are actually more likely: not to believe that all the accounts and stories in the Bible are true, to doubt the Bible because it was written by men, to defend keeping abortion legal, to accept the legalization of gay marriage, to believe in evolution, and to believe that good people don't need to go to church.
Does this surprise you? Are you thinking, "That's simply not true!"?
We already have several studies that show: between 70% to 89% of children raised in Christian homes are walking away from the faith by their second year in college. What Ken wanted to do is find out what was happening before that. One can assume that these children didn't wake up one day and decide that they no longer believed in God. Ham's survey shows that it starts around middle school.
According to Kwon, Ham believes that the Sunday School Curriculum is one of the main culprits.
If only they taught a New Creation position and referenced the stories of the Bible not as "stories" but as "history," much of this problem would be solved.
Just change the curriculum and the vernacular, argues Ham.
I disagree.
What if instead of putting a band-aid on Sunday School, we encouraged and supported parents to take responsibility for their children's spiritual well being?
What if instead of encouraging the spiritual foster-care system that exists in the church, where parents drop their kids off and trust that nothing more needs to be done, we, as church leaders taught that parents need to model faithfulness to God in simple ways, like gathering their families together each day to read the bible, pray, sing worship songs, and memorize scripture?
What if we encouraged and supported parents to live an example of Christ in their homes and see their children as gifts from God and weapons for the Kingdom of God?
This survey proves what I have suspected all along: children are walking away from the faith in college but it was never their faith. It was their parent's faith. How do we give our faith to our children?
Lead from the front! Be the example of Christ your children need to see. Disciple your children in the Lord. Discipleship is not just teaching Biblical Truths but is living out these Truths in front of them. Take the time each day to be before God with your family and God will reward you with children that will remain faithful from generation to generation.
PRAYER- Father, we recognize that you are the giver of our faith and you are the giver of our children. We want to give our children the faith you have given us. Help us to be good stewards of our children. Help us to be faithful servants to you by the way we are examples to our children and show them the importance of your Word. Help us to make time each day to gather our families together and worship you. Amen.
