Comments on: Three Myths about Church Dropouts

By: Losing Religion? « The Accessible Generation Y

Losing Religion? « The Accessible Generation Y — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:57:26 +0000

[...] later in this post, he says that going to college really has nothing to do with [...]

By: Joseph

Joseph — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:50:10 +0000

Boy…we spend a lot of time on this stuff. The research is always interesting. I personally love the statistics. Our conferences feed on such data, etc. However, does anyone care what the Word of God says? The Bible speaks extensively about the true and the false. For example, the parable of the sower, the wheat and tares, the good fish and the bad fish, etc. The book of 1 John highlights the differences between the true and the false convert - as does MUCH of the Scripture. When the Gospel has been perverted as it is today (i.e. come to Jesus and He will make your life great; just repeat this prayer if you want to go to Heaven; etc - these ideas are foreign to Scripture), is it really surprising that so many false converts are created and in the end they fall away from the faith? This grieves me and burdens my heart. The only way to “fix” it is to return to Biblical Christianity - which will involve repentance on our part. The answer is not in “programs” - we are already program poor.

What do our youth need? The same as adults - they need a “relationship” with Jesus Christ. That will only come when they see the exceeding sinfulness of their sin, the deserved condemnation of an eternity in the Lake of Fire, and they turn to Jesus Christ in faith (the One who paid the penalty for their sins and rose from the dead).

Well, I am not arguing with anyone. I love you in Lord. I just wanted to toss in some Biblical insight into this conversation. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him.

Joe

By: born again church dropouts

born again church dropouts — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:52:10 +0000

[...] born out of the water and the … Three myths about church drop-outs Trackback on January 17, …http://samrainer.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/three-myths-about-church-dropouts/Born Again Redneck: July 2007… armed terrorists broke into your church and starting attacking your [...]

By: Mike (San Antonio)

Mike (San Antonio) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:37:54 +0000

What seems particularly elusive to me is cohesive assimilation that is not exclusively generational by design. So, how do you effectively retain 18-22 year olds without creating a generationally defined sub-church that serves to only push the transition gap down the road. I think of many highly successful 18-20-something ministries (even AXIS at Willow), which in their zenith really became a church-within-a-church, where a transition from “young church” to “main church” was a foreign and alienating experience for many. It would seem part of the retention strategy has to precede the actual transitional periods…how are adolescents integrated into discipleship processes with adult ministries to set a pattern of living that is less vulnerable to changes in school/setting?

The myths are not surprising. Disengagement happens because of disillusionment (not getting anything out of it anymore), isolation (self-induced?) or disorientation and being unplugged from an activity sphere that failed to establish a discipleship dependency that would transcend environmental flux.

By: go4jesus

go4jesus — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:50:35 +0000

Hello there!
We have a couple that pastors our church, they are in the early 60s and don’t see the need to use or facilities more. Gym/Kitchen/etc. We currently do not have a college/young adults group. After High School they are put into the main adult CE class. It is sad that we do not have anything for this age group 18-22 but we are barely released to do fun activities in our own youth group 13-18. Please share your thoughts about how to propose ideas of change in youth and young adults to deepen their relationships with God.

go4jesus