The church isn’t doing a great job with the next generation.
For instance, a Lifeway survey shows that 66% of American young adults, who attended church for at least a year as a teenager, stopped attending church for some period of time when they were between the ages of 18 and 22.
Today’s show features Pastor Kevin Yi, the college and young adults pastor at Church Everyday in Northridge, CA.
As parents, sometimes we feel if we lack the skills to make youth ministry fun and exciting, we can’t volunteer in youth ministry. The prevailing mindset seems to be that the gospel needs to be wrapped in fun for it to be accessible to youth. Based on the experience of Kevin Yi, what became clear is that a fun program did not help the youth to stay in faith when they grew older! It sure is a wake up call for us parents to shoulder more of the responsibility of spiritual growth of our kids. If grown ups do not grow well in faith by listening to one sermon once a week at church, how can we expect that of our children? It would be difficult for what occurs in the the life of a youth one day a week to compete with what happens the rest of the week. Ideally, if the faith is prioritized at home, then when the kids get together, they can stir one another. A lot to think about on being a better parent and helping youth ministers at church!