That’s what Voddie Baucham quotes in the introduction to his book Family Driven Faith. It’s a sobering thought. 7 out of 10 kids who are now in church won’t be there in the future (he’s not talking about unchurched kids; he’s talking about kids whose parents assume they’re Christians until one day they reject their faith). I thought about my children’s Sunday School classes and all the little kids running around – according to this, 70% won’t make it past college. Wow. One of the reasons I’m reading Baucham’s book is that we’re developing a new curriculum on family worship, and it reminds me that the only way to change these numbers is at a grassroots level, one family at a time. If you’ve got children yourself, I recommend getting Baucham’s book – it’s a good reminder of what’s really at stake for parents, as well as what can be done to build up the little ones in our care.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I also haven’t read the book, though I’m glad to see more attention paid to this very important topic. Many studies in addition to the one by the Southern Baptist Convention have documented the trend of teens leaving the church, though they disagree on the exact numbers. A study by Youth for Christ in Great Britain suggests that the main driver of this trend is that most teens do not have the tools they need to live out their faith in young adulthood and then get pulled away by the distractions of life.
I’m also glad to hear that you are developing a family worship curriculum. Our research at the Center of Bible Engagement has shown that how often a person (child, teen or adult) reads or listens to the Bible is key to their spiritual growth and living out their faith. In fact, among children and adults, Bible engagement is a much better indicator than church attendance and among teens, Bible engagement is the only predictor. Unfortunately, many teens today do not realize that God communicates with them through the Bible.
When I presented this research at a recent children’s ministry conference, many participants felt that having different members of the family following different Bible study curriculums made it more challenging to get the whole family engaged in the Word.
I haven’t read the book, but I wondered if it included the findings of a study conducted by Dr. Steve Henderson using HERI data. His work shows the strong correlation between attendance at public and non-sectarian institutions of higher education and corresponding decreases in prayer, Bible reading and church attendance. While it is not 1 to 1 the correlation, it is so strong as to indicate that probably only those students who are prepared and called to attend those institutions as missionaries, should ever do so. All others, it would seem do so at their spiritual peril.
Baucham is citing the Report to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee of 2001. He also says to see the 2002 Report of the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life “which reported that 88 percent of children in evangelical homes leave church at the age of eighteen.” I believe George Barna has a lot of material that supports this argument, too.
There is some push back on those stats here:
http://www.youthministry.com/busting-drop-out-myth
FWIW.
That’s a great book. Glad you guys are using it while you develop new curriculum. I’ll look forward to seeing what you come out with!