The New York Times on teenagers leaving the faith
Just in case you have not read it yet, as a courtesy Smart Pastor is providing a link to the New York Times piece on the growing "crisis" among Evangelicals and their loss of teenagers.
The crisis is this:
Their alarm has been stoked by a highly suspect claim that if current trends continue, only 4 percent of teenagers will be “Bible-believing Christians” as adults. That would be a sharp decline compared with 35 percent of the current generation of baby boomers, and before that, 65 percent of the World War II generation. (Italics added by smart pastor.com)
Apparently in order to qualify for the 4% number one has to adhere to a strict definition of what Bible-Believing is. My guess is that at least 1/2 of the readers of Smart Pastor would not qualify.
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October 10th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Youth ministries take a lot of blame for this, but I think there is a lot more to this than just ineffective youth groups.
1. If students aren’t returning to church, then maybe the church needs to rethink how they “do church.”
2. Students need to see genuine godliness lived out by parents at home and in the lives of their youth workers.
3. Students need to have a solid understanding of bibliology and why then can trust scripture.
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