{"id":2594,"date":"2013-05-25T07:55:20","date_gmt":"2013-05-25T04:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/?p=2594"},"modified":"2013-08-03T01:03:02","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T22:03:02","slug":"why-are-our-youth-losing-the-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/why-are-our-youth-losing-the-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are Our Youth Losing the Faith?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s no secret that the Church has a hard time holding onto her youth! <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B005LOPNRU\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B005LOPNRU&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=sukfam-20\" target=\"_blank\">David Kinnaman<\/a><\/span> of the Barna Group says that of Christians in the 18-25 age\u00a0category 38% have significantly doubted their faith and 59% have dropped out!<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IxNUxlWOgZE\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nRecently I was part of a discussion where the questions was asked<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;How can we prevent our young people from losing the faith?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here was my response:<\/p>\n<p>I would propose that the question asked makes an assumption that is not correct and that assumption is also one of the main reasons parents and churches struggle with this issue.<\/p>\n<p>Asking &#8220;How can we prevent our young people from losing the faith?&#8221;\u00a0assumes that our young people had faith from the beginning. This is a very dangerous assumption to make however, it is also very common among Christian parents. In my experience many churches have built their children&#8217;s programs around this false assumption. I believe we need to change the paradigm and instead ask <strong>&#8220;How can we reach our children effectively with the Gospel?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The answer to this question may not be as easy as we think. Children who grow up in a Christian home and have always gone to church tend to know all the right phrases to say and behaviors to show, however, they may have completely missed the Gospel. We need to think deeply about how we are communicating the Gospel to them. The Gospel must be repeated on every level and in varied ways.<\/p>\n<p>We should also not assume that a raised hand during VBS is always indicative of a true conversion. Further more I would advocate far more caution in the practice of baptizing young children, especially if those children have believing parents. Waiting until at least the teen years can help ensure that the child is acting on their own will and has a complete understanding of the Gospel.<\/p>\n<p>It is also important that the church realize that most youth do not have believing parents and even if they do have believing parents it does not mean that they are receiving solid Biblical instruction at home. The church must assume that in most cases the only Biblical instruction a child will receive is when they are in Sunday school, Awana or other church ministries. This should in no way lessen the importance of the parents role but simply understand that most parents are not capable of effectively teaching God&#8217;s Word to their children.<\/p>\n<p>Finally if the church wants to reach the children with the Gospel she must focus her attention on the parents and make sure there are effective ministries in place that teach parents how to raise their children in a Biblical way and how to communicate the Gospel to them.<\/p>\n<h4>Questions: Are churches losing\u00a0their youth or did they never have them in the first place? What does the church need to change in order to effectively reach and keep the youth?<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s no secret that the Church has a hard time holding onto her youth! <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B005LOPNRU\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B005LOPNRU&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=sukfam-20\" target=\"_blank\">David Kinnaman<\/a> of the Barna Group says that of Christians in the 18-25 age\u00a0category 38% have significantly doubted their faith and 59% have dropped out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[72,83],"class_list":["post-2594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing","tag-church","tag-youth"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/youthleaving.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3izZc-FQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2956,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/black-sea-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2594,"position":0},"title":"Black Sea Baptism","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"August 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thank you for praying for our baptism. Our church gathered on the shore of the Black Sea at 8:30 on Sunday morning to watch 13 young people show their faith in Jesus through the act of baptism. I had the\u00a0joyful opportunity of baptizing several of the youth alongside two other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Capture.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Capture.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Capture.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4997,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/pray-they-dont-draft-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":2594,"position":1},"title":"Pray They Don&#8217;t Draft Me!","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"February 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Please pray that they don't draft me into the army!\" That was one of the prayer requests as we concluded our youth meeting this past Sunday night. I was grateful for the chance to speak with these young people who are not very much different from any other young people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/DSC02919.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/DSC02919.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/DSC02919.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9650,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/a-funeral-a-few-youth-and-the-faithfulness-of-scritpture\/","url_meta":{"origin":2594,"position":2},"title":"A Funeral A Few Youth And the Faithfulness of Scripture","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"September 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn't tell any jokes, I didn't share any funny stories, and my sermon was only a few minutes long preaching to handful of mostly elderly people uncomfortably gathered around a thin wooden coffin. They quietly gazed at the undeniable, terrible truth of death and wiped the sweat from their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ministry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ministry","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/ministry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/40564499_280593889332517_9026494640131407872_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/40564499_280593889332517_9026494640131407872_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/40564499_280593889332517_9026494640131407872_n.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/40564499_280593889332517_9026494640131407872_n.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/40564499_280593889332517_9026494640131407872_n.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/40564499_280593889332517_9026494640131407872_n.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9659,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/black-sea-baptisms\/","url_meta":{"origin":2594,"position":3},"title":"Black Sea Baptisms","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"September 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Sunday our Church gathered on the shore of the Black Sea for the baptism of four people. What a privilege it was for Pastor Vadim and I to go into the waters with these two young men and two young women who want to publicly declare their faith\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/baptism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/baptism.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/baptism.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/baptism.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/baptism.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/birthplace\/","url_meta":{"origin":2594,"position":4},"title":"Birthplace","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"August 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend we traveled down to Salem, Oregon, where Caleb was born. It was God's timing that Sunday was Caleb's birthday, it was also only the second time he had ever been in Salem on his birthday. Of course the first time was when he was born. We enjoyed speaking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Updates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Updates","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/updates\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9199,"url":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/how-to-raise-a-billy-graham\/","url_meta":{"origin":2594,"position":5},"title":"How to Raise a Billy Graham","author":"Caleb Suko","date":"April 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"On February 21st 2018 aged 99 Billy Graham passed into the presence of his Savior. Graham preached the gospel to more people in person than anyone else in the history of Christianity. Over 210 million people in 185 countries heard Graham preach in person! Some estimate that around 2.5 billion\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Writing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/billy-graham-4.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/billy-graham-4.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/billy-graham-4.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sukofamily.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/billy-graham-4.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2594"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2678,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions\/2678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sukofamily.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}