Will The Youth Stay?

Here is an interesting article discussing a current concern in evangelical circles that only 4% of the teens will remain in the church when they grow up. I'm not sure how true the numbers are, but I debate some of the approaches I have seen that are attempting to keep the youth. If we think that we can do so by putting on a better 'show' than the world or by providing things like rock climbing walls, I think that it is doomed to fail because the world will always do that better. Those may be tools to get them in a place where you can teach them, but too often the teachings I have seen in those settings are mere moralism, not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Too often the attempt is to inculcate Christian 'values' without realizing that the problem is one of world-view. I am still thinking of this, and having few teens in our congregation due to a church split that happened long before I arrived on scene, I am far from an expert, but, I do that the word of God seriously when it teaches that faith comes from hearing the word of God preached. That faith bring a change in world-view so one is no longer modern or post-modern or whatever else, but Christian in their world-view. I am rambling, and the brakes of our car are calling. I will have to re-read this and think more to clarify things.