Does Church Need Change?

Answers Magazine Online version ^ | 9/27/09 | Mike Matthews & Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

[OneVike]

Statistics indicate that around two-thirds of children who grew up in conservative churches are now leaving by the time they reach their twenties. What seems to be the problem?

The pattern of young people leaving the church is different than it was even in some recent generations, where it was more temporary. It now appears, in the lives of millions of young people raised in our churches, to be a rather permanent alienation from the church and from the truth claims of Christianity.

Their worldview was evidently not shaped adequately by biblical truths such that they were able to withstand the tide of the secular culture and the allure of the other worldviews around them.

You raise the issue of a secular culture. Does the church need to change its strategy, recognizing that we’re fighting a postmodern world?

We’re not really in a postmodern age. We’re just kind of in “post-modern moods” because we still live in a world shaped by the Enlightenment as well. A lot of what we face in the battle over science and origins, in academic debates and the new atheism, most of that is really not postmodern.

It’s the same old arguments going all the way back to questions of how we can know that something really happened. How can we know there really was a Christ? How can we know these things? Those are old Enlightenment questions, and they are still around.

So we are really going to have to be sophisticated enough to be able to fight something like a two-front war.

What is the church doing wrong in this “war”?

Churches in many ways have actually, I think, added to the problem. They promote the idea of

[OneVike]

Good article on how the conservative churches are failing to prepare their children for the onslaught of the public school systems indoctrination.

I said a long time ago that if the churches do not aggressively teach the children the truths about God's Creation and how evolution, global warming, and sexual freedoms are all evil and wrong, we will lose them long before they ever get to college.

Well the study in this article backs up my warning, and answers the question of how to keep it from happening. Now the question is, will Christian parents demand that their church leaders begin teaching their children that the Bible is not just true, but we have scientific evidence to prove the schools are wrong about the lies they teach, instead of making Sunday school a place to play games while the parents attend church in the main sanctuary.

This is a picture of children playing during Sunday school instead of learning the truths and gaining a defense against the lies they will be taught in school during the week. Many churches across America have turned their Sunday school classes into playtime like this, what do you think will happen when they get to school and are told that Darwin's creation is scientifically proven and the Bible story of creation is just that, a story. Like the study shows in this article, they will lose faith in God long before they ever get to college.

[the invisib1e hand]

Does Church Need Change?

Yes. And Hope. But don't worry. Barack has a plan.

[OneVike]

Religious Ping,

Interesting article about the way churches need to start fighting the lies children learn in schools along with the truth of the Scriptures, instead of playing games and teaching the Bible like it’s just a book full of cute stories.

Freepmail me if you want added or removed from my ping list.

[LearsFool]

What seems to be the problem?

Let's see...wide gate, narrow gate....

Hmm, no real surprises here after all.

[Niuhuru]

We need to stop promotiing Christianity as something soft and fuzzy with so much flexibility. The fundamental appeal of Islam is that it has core values that are not negotiable. It sets standards in a world without any.

[stuartcr]

Maybe they don’t believe the truth claims? I think as the world progresses, people tend to need more empirical proof to some things than before. Probably due a lot to mass communications and technological advances.

[OneVike]

You are correct, when Christianity compromises, it stops being a viable alternative to the world.

So as you said, Islam looks real good to those looking for a place that sets standards of what is right and wrong.

[chuck_the_tv_out]

If we could get vouchers or tax credits to the tune of 1/4 what public schooling costs, church schools would spring up like daisies.

[OneVike]

True, but this article points out that we are not even fighting the worlds lies in Sunday school classes. Too many think that apologetics is not for junior and high school children, but if we do not start using apologetical arguments against the secular worlds teachings of evolutionism and other lies, then we will continue to lose them to the world.

[Rightly Biased]

Southern Baptist ping?

Al Mohler article.

[Nosterrex]

It would be easy to blame it on the church, but what exactly is the church. It’s like blaming things on the government. The church is composed of people, fathers and mothers. Jesus taught the parents and blessed the children. If parents were teaching their own children by word and action, maybe the children would not be falling away. Maybe it’s not the church that needs to change, but the parents. Today, the parents don’t want to learn. They want to be blessed, and the Sunday School teacher and minister/priest are tasked with the responsibility of teaching children. If anyone wants to blame the church, I suggest that you first look at your own family.

[leftyontheright]

Thanks for the ping. I agree.

IMO, churches need center themselves on the person and work of Jesus Christ and preach the gospel. Somehow we’ve gotten off track.

I don’t know about other places, but where I live, churches spend A LOT of time developing programs, entertainment, figuring out how to get people to come with a “relevant” message that the gospel has been diluted.

Our family has been blessed recently in finding a church that exists for the person and work of Jesus. I’m experiencing Christ in ways I cannot believe, and He is completely rocking my world.

[MrB]

James 4:4 says you can’t compromise with the world’s values lest you be an enemy of God. It’s clear as day.

Those churches that teach strict biblical authority are growing, by the way, while those that compromise (and therefore offer nothing) are shrinking.

All this being said, it’s not up to the church, in 45 minutes a week, to “counter” 35 hours a week of indoctrination in a government school. Discipleship is the father’s responsibility, in the home. And if you think you can counter the 6 hours a day with a half hour of “unschooling” at night, you are also dreadfully mistaken.

This is your kids’ eternity (and their kids’, and their kids’, and so on for generations) that we’re talking about. Take it seriously.

[WVNan]

Speaking from inside the walls, if you go to most of the "Mainline" churches today, you will see mostly elderly women attending. The other attendees will be young women with small children who firmly believe that bringing their children to Sunday School will insure the children a place in Heaven and that life will somehow be better for them. How did this happen?

Well, let's see....when did this start? Late 60s, early 70s? The Feminist movement which put men on the defensive. So, men being easily led by females, sat down and dropped out of the parent business. They then dropped out of being the spiritual leader of the family. A massive study in Sweden shows that the one factor that keeps children in church for life is the father who "takes" the children to church regularly. Why is that? Because the father is the one who "sets" the principles and values of life for the children. Mom is the nurturer.

We have seen this same principle play out in the black families. No father, no values. I see it in my own congregation. Mothers who try to bring the kids up to be Christians, and failing miserably because the dads refuse to come with them. The church has been feminized to death. That is my theory and I'm sticking to it.

[WVNan]

Exactly.

[US Navy Vet]

They probably cannot find Sunday School teachers or Nursery workers. The modern young parants of today seem to think that it is beneath them to do either. My wife and I worked as both Nursery and Sunday School teachers when we had our kids in both.

[OneVike]

I don’t completely disagree with you, however as you appropriately pointed out, the people are the church and when they decide that they will leave the battle to the parents only then they will lose the children.

In my church the junior and high school ministries do a good job of meeting more then once a week. They have something going on almost every day for the kids. They teach the Bible and they also teach apologetics that prepares the kids for the battles they will face in the classroom at school. When the teachers bring up evolution, global warming and other scientific theories that are wrong they speak up and defend the truth.

In too many churches however, they do only meet Sunday morning and leave the rest to the parents. parents who themselves are not prepared to teach their children the truth because they have never been taught the truth. When the church ministries do not step forward and fight the fight then the children will lose in the end.

It is the responsibility of the pastors and the church to make sure that the lessons they teach are taught in a way that the students will not be undermines by the secular world, but too many churches have compromised and even teach theistic evolution as a viable alternative to what the Bible teaches. When they do that they have set the children up for a big battle they will lose.

[WVNan]

And I don’t completely disagree with you. Of course the churches must teach the children what they need to be solid Christians. But the fathers must be part of that by making sure that he considers that teaching extremely important, indeed mandatory, by coming to church with them. If it’s not important to dad, how necessary must it be to the child?

[stuartcr]

This would require the children and parents to join or stay in a church to start with. I think the real problem, is that they don’t want to.

[stuartcr]

I believe Islam requires a certain mindset also, one that I don’t think exists very much in our culture.