It’s not big surprise that so many children raised in the church leave their biblical bubble and, suddenly barraged by opposing worldviews, end up walking away from the faith. In fact, Lifeway research showed that two out of three teens who attended church for at least a year when younger leave the church as a young adult. Two out of three. Is the problem that these kids, finally unshackled from these strict norms, find the freedom too enticing to reject? Or, is it that being raise with a solid biblical foundation simply wasn’t enough?
PROBLEM: Anyone with a senior in high school planning to attend college is no doubt worried what will happen when she listens to her first philosophy lecture! It’s not just freedom, but the constant barrage of un-biblical worldviews in the classroom, the dorms and on the street. It’s not enough to have been told for 18 years that “this is how you should behave”. What also needs to be stressed is why the biblical worldview is better and how it compares to others. And the consequences. So step one, we can’t be sheltered from bad ideas.
SOLUTION:
I recently revisited a BreakPoint commentary on this subject and needs to be shared with anyone who has a child. It focuses on how to best prepare children for the world that will hit them, sooner rather than later. Summit Ministries is highlighted. (https://www.summit.org/programs/ ) It’s a program that for decades has prepared teens by strengthening their Christian worldview.
In 1950s, psychology experiments of Dr. William McGuire at Yale University showed that bad ideas behave like viruses. He illustrated that the more exposure anyone has to bad ideas in a controlled setting, the less likely they are to fall for those ideas later on. The children most easily duped into believing a false idea: Those who only heard the truth reinforced. Without learning about other false ideas while learning the truth, they were more likely to believe those false ideas later when they heard about them from others. So, it’s not enough to simply reinforce biblical truths, as important as they are. The key: Not just telling the children what is the preferred behavior—-but also making sure they understand what the alternatives are and why they may look preferable, but actually aren’t. We can’t let the world be the first to show our children alternatives to the Christian faith.