What in the world?

Recently I posted two articles from Relevant magazine on the effects of pornography in relationships.  I then had several conversations with students dealing with sexual sin in their lives. 

Today, I retweeted an article on the over sexualization of our young daughters.  What is going on around here?

I’ve never been more convinced as a student pastor and father, that the only answer is Jesus Christ.  The real problem, as I see it, is that the church is failing in communicating that.

In recent studies done by Barna Research, Pew Research, and LifeWay Research, millenials are far more disconnected from faith than any other previous generation.  Millenials have lived in a much more complex and saturated culture than past generations and this has led to 1 in 4 millenials not associating with any particular faith.  This is more than GenX at the same point (20% in the late 90’s) and twice the amount as Boomers (13% in the late 70’s).

This is manifesting itself in a myriad of ways.  The biggest of which, is that most upper classman high school students no longer attend a church service.   For those that do make it through high school, anywhere between 70-90% (depending on who you read) drop out of church during their freshman year of college.

It’s time we stopped worrying about pizza parties, and started teaching our children God’s word.  Not only must we do this, as parents- we HAVE to live it out in front of our kids.  Parents/ mentors/ pastors must begin to put flesh on the words of Christ.  We can talk all we want, but the moment we starting living it out- that’s where the impact comes from.

If you’re a parent, I’m going to highly encourage you to get involved in a local church with a thriving youth ministry.  Here are some questions that you need to be asking your student pastor:

• What can I do at home to follow up w/ what is being taught?
• What scriptures do I need to research so that I can discuss and answer any questions they (my child) may have?
• What topics are going to be discussed or taught in the ministry and how can I help?

Just start here and see where God takes you!  Parents that are involved with the spiritual development are the very thing that will reverse this trend.

Blessings