Monthly Archives: September 2009

The majority of young people who grow up in the church will stop going. They will quit on Christianity.

Think about that for a second.  That’s a real statistic.  I am not making it up.  I’ve heard it cited anywhere from 60 to 80%. That’s 2 out of 3 young people who grow up in the church will walk away from the faith when they are in there 20′s.   The truth of this is absolutely heartbreaking. It is so sad to consider that so many students are on the dreadful path to apostasy.  This means all of our efforts at Sunday School, Youth Ministry and personal discipleship have been an epic fail!

This is the conclusion of the new book Already Gone.  The book is written by Ken Ham, the founder of Answers in Genesis.  Ken worked with his friend Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group, to interview 1,000 people in there 20′s who used to go to church and find out why they quit.  Many of them blame it on hypocrisy in the church.  Others have different moral standards like pre-marital sex is acceptable.  Most of them do not believe that everything in the Bible is true.

Reading this book gave me an in-your-face reminder of the challenge for youth ministry today.  In fact, working with high schoolers for the last seven years has shown me the reality of these statistics. I can literally see the faces of students who have fallen away.

At True North, we are ready to redouble our efforts at training the next generation of Christians.  We want to teach them the truth of the Bible.  We want to challenge them to live out what God says.  We want to show them an example of authentic Christianity.

This year specifically we are teaching through the book of 1 Peter in our series DON’T STOP STANDING!  The theme verse of the book is:

- “I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God.  Stand fast in it.”

I am praying that God will rise up a group of young people who will not give up, but that the students growing up at Compass Bible Church will keep standing for Jesus for the rest of their lives.  I pray that their faith will remain strong until they receive their heavenly inheritance in the presence of our Lord.

This is what I am fighting for every day in our ministry.

Please join me in being a prayer warrior for our young people.

If you want to watch the introduction to our Don’t Stop Standing series please go here: http://www.compasschurch.org/hs/sermons/dont-stop-standing/video