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Losing Young People

News - Current Events

Contributed by Phil Spadaro

Wednesday, 20 June 2007

Walking Away

The Christian Chronicle has published an article entitled, “Are we losing our young people?” Lynn Stringfellow is interviewed for this article.

The statistics quoted are staggering. “…45 percent of high school seniors leave Churches of Christ after they leave home…” (Flavil Yeakley). “61 percent of young adults in their 20s said that they had attended church at some point during their teen years but had since disengaged.” (Barna Group).

It is not just the churches of Christ facing this crisis but the ICOC as well is having a difficult go at keeping their children faithful (personal observation, correct me if I am wrong) and has experienced a high turn over rate.

Two quotes which stand out about what heart is needed are:

“We always want to blame the church that they aren’t doing enough to train our children when that role is actually the parents’ responsibility.” Carol Vawse
“Churches and parents that provide spiritual training for children tend to keep them, said Phil Sanders. Spiritual training is not entertainment and activities…spiritual training includes serious Bible study, memorization and involvement in the service of the Lord”

Interestingly, the Amish have a youth retention rate around 80%. (http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/5000/5236.html)

What is your experience with youth retention in your church?
Do parents expect the church to convert their children?
Do the families whose children are faithful have shared qualities?
Do we need to change how we think about the spirituality of our children and the role of the church? How?

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Comments

Spotty record
Written by Alan on 2007-06-20 13:05:18

Based on what I've seen, the children of leaders seem to have fared worse than those of non-leader members. By far, most of the men we once expected to be our future elders have unfaithful children today. IMO, a decade or so of placing ministry ahead of family has done a lot of damage.

The truth is, we were for the most part a group of young men and women pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Today we are reaping the consequences of having no older generation around to guide us. Just one opinion...

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 20 June 2007 )

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