Looks like a recent study from [tag]George Barna[/tag] confirms my thoughts about why 85% of high school graduates never return to church. I think parents need to take their own [tag]spiritual growth[/tag] seriously and then intentionally model that at home. With a higher value placed on spirituality in the home, hopefully that will lead to a higher value of church. The home is where it needs to start, but the church could still stand to re-evaluate its strategies, too.
One of the more significant outcomes of the study was the challenge to churches. While most kids in the 8-to-12 age range are involved in a church, relatively few of them consider church experiences to be valuable. That is confirmed by the fact that so few kids consider prayer to be a critical part of their life. Parents must take the lead in establishing the centrality of faith experiences and practices for their children. That begins with parents modeling the significance of faith in their lives. It also highlights the importance of families taking the lead in the spiritual development process, rather than expecting or waiting for a church to produce spiritual growth in adolescents.
[tags]parenting[/tags]
About me: I am married to my beautiful wife, 
October 3rd, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Very good points. Typically if it’s not happening at home it’s not going to happen in the life of the student either.
I think the church needs to do some serious re-thinking as well as to how we approach ministry to students. I think we need to do a much better job of incorporating students into the overall body life of the church. Youth ministry has become too much of church within a church, which has only isolated students.
Great blog by the way!