Breaking The Cycle

Everyone's heard about the Barna study from a decade ago that indicated up to 70% of kids raised in the church end up leaving the church when they're out on their own. Yeah, some come back later, but most don't. I always figured that the numbers were skewed by non-Pentecostal denomination trends. Surely that's not our church. But as time goes on, it feels like we're affected, too. My oldest granddaughter has gone over to the dark side, though she refuses to see it that way. Most times, I feel helpless against the culture. That's when I turn it over to the Lord and ask Him to intercede. I'd sure like the cycle to be broken. I don't want to be the operator of a conveyor belt system that dumps kids into a furnace.

I was driving home today and passed the Jehovah's Witness hall. Noticed a young couple all dressed up checking the mailbox and I wondered how their teens are doing. Maybe we could learn something from them. Did a little research and found that up to 75% of their young people are checking out, and 45% of Mormon kids do, too. So it seems that everyone is struggling. What's the answer?

While working on my sprinkler system, I wondered how it was that my two boys stayed close to the Lord. And then it hit me. In their teens, they both filled ministry spots. It was more than just a building to go to a couple times a week. It was where they went to worship and serve. They were living a life of faith, their own faith, and so it stuck.

You already know that my wife and I are taking over children's ministries again. In the past, I was twice turned down by the youth pastors in an attempt to work together. I'm going to try again with the lay youth leaders that we now have. Two things to potentially work on...
1) How can I get kids ready for the youth group?
2) How can we create opportunities for the youth to minister to the kids?

Anybody out there with any experience or ideas?

I think that in case of many churches (Especially Non Pentecostals) kids don't see God there. All they see is people going through the motions. Come in, sing a few songs, listen to a feel good message & leave.
Too many Christians these days are what I call Sunday Christians. Play Christian on Sunday & then drink, swear, lie, cheat the rest of the week.

Kids can spot a phony a mile off.

When I was a kid we went to church, but my parents made no effort to follow Christ the rest of the week.
Church was boring & pointless & I got out of there as soon as I could.


Too many churches have become comfortable & predictable. No challenging messages, God is kept in a box & not allowed free reign. Too many churches have traded God's Holy Spirit for comfortable & predictable services.

That is in my opinion what is wrong. How do we fix it?

Be real.
Preach the Word & let the Holy Spirit do His work of convicting & encouraging etc.

Kids that see God moving, will know God is real & will be far more apt to stick with him.

That is my 2 cents worth