A Statistic That Every Parent And Church Leader Should Know
"Up to 75 percent of students who were significantly involved in church in high school are no longer even attending church as twenty-somethings, and only 35 percent return and attend regularly (defined as at least twice a month). Many blame higher education, but those who don’t attend college after high school are even more likely than college-goers to curb their church attendance." (Jeff Myers, The Secret Battle of Ideas About God, p. 37, 2017)The church's most important and best mission field are its children. But the world is reaching our kids more effectively than we are reaching the world. It's time to seriously reconsider our approach to reaching the next generation.
One thing to consider is that parents are uniquely equipped to reach their kids for Christ. They spend significant amounts of time with their children daily. They know their children deeply. They love their children more than anyone else does. Their children love and trust them more than anyone else. But instead of using this influence to disciple their children, most parents outsource discipleship to the church. Even if the family is highly involved in church, this means that their children are getting very little real, deep discipleship.
This is why we do things differently at Church Acadiana. Our goal is to maximize the natural parent-child relationship to reach the next generation. When families are at church, we keep them together instead of dividing them. This way parents can disciple their children even at church. And then we equip parents to disciple their children at home. We want to see parents sitting down with their kids several days a week for discipleship. To turn their homes into little churches. To focus their best energies on raising their kids to be lifetime followers of Jesus.
If you are interested in learning more about how to disciple your kids at home, or about being a part of a family-integrated church, I'd love to help!
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