Why is the church losing its young people?
Editorial
by Jonathan Sarfati
Compilation of ©iStockPhoto.com/THEPALMER ©iStockPhoto.com/KStork ©iStockPhoto.com/aldomurillo
Many churches have a glaring shortage of people in their twenties and thirties.
And polls of teenagers in church youth groups consistently show that about 75% of
them intend to leave the church after they leave home.
In the recent university days of one of my CMI colleagues, one of her workmates
had a son who had apostatized after entering university, using various easily-refutable
village atheopath arguments. My colleague offered to teach her the answers, or even
talk to her son herself. But the mother refused, claiming that the problem was spiritual
rather than intellectual; in other words, the sinfulness of the human heart.1
This reminded me of a typically insightful quote from economist Dr Thomas Sowell:
“Blaming economic crises on ‘greed’ is like blaming plane crashes
on gravity. Certainly planes wouldn’t crash if it wasn’t for gravity.
But when thousands of planes fly millions of miles every day without crashing, explaining
why a particular plane crashed because of gravity gets you nowhere. Neither does
talking about ‘greed’, which is constant like gravity.”
Similarly, blaming the universally corrupt human heart for the apostasy
of this young man, and church youth in general, gets nowhere, because it fails to
explain why it was particularly corrupt in so many related cases.
Blaming the universally corrupt human heart for the apostasy of … church
youth in general, gets nowhere, because it fails to explain why it was particularly
corrupt in so many related cases.
One church youth worker in Melbourne, Australia, told us, “I used to beat
my head against a wall wondering why we lost all our young people at about age 16.”
But then she discovered, “Age 16 (year 10) is when they teach evolution in
depth in science. … some of the teachers actually identify the Christian
students and make a special point of explaining the differences and difficulties
in reconciling Genesis and the ‘facts’ of evolution. It’s no wonder
we lost them. I come near tears just thinking about it.”2
But what a difference having answers can make. My colleague mentioned above is a
classic case. As a teenaged schoolgirl, she never had answers to questions. But
after finding our website, she says:
“I was surprised to find the answers to the questions I had been asking for
over ten years in literally the first day I was at your site. [It] helped me realize
that true faith and intelligence aren’t mutually exclusive.
“I didn’t get saved right then and there, but God had His foot in the
door. All the objections that I had always had to faith were crumbling around me,
and I found myself with no excuse to disbelieve. A few months later, I became a
Christian. God has used your ministry to affect so many lives, mine among them.”3
Naturally, she has no time for those who claim that creation is “just a side
issue”—it certainly wasn’t for her!
… some of the teachers actually identify the Christian students and make
a special point of explaining the differences and difficulties in reconciling Genesis
and the ‘facts’ of evolution.
So how can we help get the answers to people like her? One proven method is this
magazine. We have hundreds of testimonies of people who gave their lives to Christ
after reading this magazine… It always has a wide range of cutting-edge articles,
presenting both a positive case for Christianity (1 Peter 3:15, Jude 3) and demolishing arguments against it (2 Corinthians 10:4–5).
In this issue, for the positive, we present the amazing design of the dog’s
supersensitive nose, outdoing man-made “sniffers”(p. 56) and continent-wide
layers of rock just as a global Flood would produce (p. 50), document how the biblical
worldview provided the foundation for modern science (p. 32), and how even some
atheists recognize Christianity as essential for social progress in Africa at least
(p. 48). And every issue, we interview a Bible-believing scientist to show that
true science and the Bible are allies not enemies. On p. 42, we feature a top Finnish
biochemist and world-renowned enzyme expert. We also have a clear presentation of
the Gospel in every issue (p. 20).
For the demolition, we show that natural selection is not evolution—it’s
a culling force, not a creative one, as shown by bighorn sheep (p. 12).
The idea of ‘junk’ DNA is junked on p. 37 by showing some of its vital
functions. Alien life is shown to be science fiction due to an insurmountable energy
crisis (p. 40).
This magazine goes to over 100 countries around the world, providing easily digestible
but thorough answers. With your help, it can immunize more Christians against evolutionary
attacks.
Readers’ commentsWouter J., Australia
This site I can see has helped many young people, me being one of them. As ever since high school the confrontation form evolutionary thinking has always been a challenge to faith, however here I can find answers to those arguments that attack my fiath through supposed “science”. I've seen many young people in my church also being able to withstand the onslaught of evolution through your help. God Bless keep up the good work.
simone B., Australia, 14 April 2012
I know a girl at our church that suffers this very thing with teachers picking the creationist believing students out for ridicule. And the worst of it is she is in a Catholic high school that preaches belief in God. The teacher accepts the fairy tale of evolution and regularly points out to her why creationists are wrong in front of the whole class. What hope has any young person got when the creation view in a supposedly Christian school is not taught. Teach both sides of an argument and let young people become truly open minded I say. |
Related articles
Further reading
References and notes
- Cosner, L., Who has an answer? Providing real answers
may arrest the hemorrhage of young people from the church once they leave home,
creation.com/answer, 27 August 2009. Return to text.
- Schmid, G. to Tas Walker, 10 October 2004. Return to text.
- See creation.com/lita, 6 February 2004. Return to text.
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