Posted on Wednesday,

3 Kinds of Students That Leave Christianity After High School

The words that no Christian parent or youth leader ever wants to hear

I just don’t believe what you believe anymore….These are words that no Christian parent or youth leader ever wants to hear. After this bombshell hits and the shockwaves subside, we wonder if something could have been different. What happened to this student who was so active in church growing up? After all, they never missed youth group. Sadly, this scenario is not the exception. Approximately 50 percent of students will disengage from their faith after they leave home.

While students have to ultimately choose whom they will follow, I think there is a lot we can do to reverse this trend. First, we need to better understand the students who leave their faith behind after graduation. As I’ve worked with high school and college students over the years and studied the research, there are three basic kinds of students that leave Christianity after high school.

The Christian Relativist

To understand this first type, meet Jennifer. Jennifer grew up in a Christian home and regularly attends church. Over time, she observes a lot of her friends and older Christians in her life saying one thing, but living another. The takeaway? Christianity is (more…)

Posted on Friday,

Will Your Teenagers Graduate from Their Faith After High School?

Welcome to College in Post-Christian America

This is a question I recently discussed on the Christian Parenting website.

Will your teenage son or daughter still be walking with Jesus when they graduate college? Or will they leave their faith behind as they walk off that graduation stage to start a new chapter of life?

As parents, we want what’s best for our kids. As Christians, we know that means following Jesus for a lifetime. That’s certainly what I want as a father of three. But we’ve also seen the stats and they’re not encouraging:

– Depending on the study, approximately fifty percent will disengage from their faith during the college years (there is no indication from the research that they are or will come back).
– Forty-seven percent of American emerging adults agreed that “morals are relative, there are not definite rights and wrongs for everybody.”
– Fifty-four percent of “conservative protestant” teenagers affirmed that there was more than one way to God.

Dear Parents: Welcome to College in Post-Christian America

Did you know that (more…)

Posted on Wednesday,

3 Lies Students Believe About Freedom That Will Ruin Their Lives

Our culture worships freedom. The only problem is that real freedom doesn’t mean what most people think it means. And the next generation of students are paying the price because they are being robbed of the life they are really after.

True happiness–“flourishing”–is only possible if students are able to break free from the lies and embrace genuine freedom.

3 Lies Students Believe About Freedom

(1) My choices only affect me. “You can do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt someone.” This slogan is everywhere! Our culture perpetuates this lie but you need to know there are several fatal flaws with this way of thinking. First and foremost it (more…)

Posted on Monday,

#4: Are Christians Judgmental? [Podcast]

Taking a Closer Look at What Jesus Was Really Against

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In this episode of Your Worldview Minute, we’ll be talking about how to respond when people say that Christians shouldn’t be judgmental. What did Jesus mean (and not mean) when he tells us not to judge? What was Jesus against? As you will see, context matters!

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