Hey gang! I was trying to figure out what this past Sunday was like. The best description I could come up with is this, Sunday was like going to a Duke University football game. Everybody on the team is playing hard but usually not much to cheer about (sorry Duke fans). Sunday was a tough day in many ways for us, but God always finds a way to come through. What amazed me was under the worst of conditions we had 14 new children enrolled in Kingdom Kidz and what a great response to Happy Hour. Wow! Thank you Lord for "pouring" out your blessing.
I read an article by George Barna recently that said only 12% of the youth who are raised in church stay involved in church after they leave high school. How disappointing! Obviously what the church has historically done with youth has not been adequate to develop mature Christ followers. I believe the key to changing this is to help our youth learn the habits necessary to feed themselves from God's Word instead of always depending on someone else to feed them. That means helping kids develop their own time alone with God and finding their place of ministry in the Body of Christ. That is the reason we put so much emphasis on our FaithTrac 101-401 classes. They give young believers the necessary tools to grow and helps them find their place of ministry. In fact it is for those reasons we ask every new member of our church to attend these classes.
Of course the main reason kids stay in church is because they have seen a model of what it means to "be the church" at home. Home is the greatest influencer of youth when it comes to following Christ as an adult.
Pray for Carole, the parents of our youth' and our Student ministry leaders as they seek for ways to grow disciples who will follow Christ "all" the days of their life.
Pastor, I am so proud of your blog. You are the coolest preacher ever!! You always keep up with technology and work so hard to reach every generation. I miss you and your sermons. I will be back soon. I love ya.
Posted by: Heather Driggers | April 20, 2007 at 07:07 AM