Millenials Leaving Church in Droves, Study Finds. This is the big news circulating this week. In reality, it’s not that concerning since it’s really just a decline in cultural Christians, not committed followers of Christ.
However, the inability of Christians to pass on their faith to their children is a concern. Increasingly, university students are not taught critical thinking in their classes, they are indoctrinated into a religion of secularism in the name of “tolerance.” Yet our churches, and often even our Christian high schools, are simply not preparing students for the real-world onslaught of secular ideas.
The article above states: “Christianity in the United States hasn’t done a good job of engaging serious Christian reflection with young people, in ways that would be relevant to their lives.” After spending 13 years in ministry with high school and college students, I absolutely agree. True, disturbing, and yet inspiring. Let’s change that.
So I’m writing today with a plea to every Christian parent. If you want your child to take their faith past high school and college, if you want them to really be able to impact culture, if you want them to not just know and love the gospel, but have a confidence in the gospel, then you must train them in worldview analysis.
If I was talking to you right now, I would probably be getting way too loud and way too passionate, and Gil would gently remind me that I’m sitting right next to you and I can talk in a normal voice.
Oh, my friends. I have sat with so many college students in my living room, who are attending some of the best universities in America, and had long talks with them about the intellectual challenges they are facing in their classrooms. The war is on in our culture, and the pawns are our children. Yes, the gospel is what saves them. But they must have the tools–they must have the confidence–to know why it is true. Why Christianity is superior any other philosophy. Why they don’t need to be ashamed of what they believe. How they can learn to ask the right questions which will disarm any secular philosophy–even in their college classrooms.
My point today is to make a passionate plea for every Christian parent to read this book.
Finding Truth: 5 Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes
Nancy Pearcey is my all-time favorite author. Her first book, Total Truth, is by far the most influential book I have ever read. It’s still my favorite, but Finding Truth is shorter and more practical, so it’s a really good place to start.
This book is not an easy read, but it is utterly fascinating. Nancy Pearcey has an amazing way of taking complex topics and bringing them down to a level that even a non-academic person can understand. Worldview and philosophy are not light subjects. However, understanding them is absolutely essential to giving our kids teeth to their faith and giving them the chance to really impact our culture.
This is not an apologetics book for Christianity. This is a book that trains the reader how to think–how to analyze any concept, take it back to its origins, and determine its truthfulness.
If you do not start with God, you must start somewhere else. You must propose something else as the ultimate, eternal, uncreated reality that is the cause and source of everything else. The important question is not which starting points are religious or secular, but which claims stand up to testing. (Nancy Pearcey)
I would love for every young person to read and digest this book before college. But if that’s just not going to happen, then every parent needs to read it and teach these things to their kids. The concepts in this book, once learned, apply to everyday life–movies, books, newspaper headlines, cultural trends. The possibilities are endless for teaching kids to learn to think both philosophically and biblically–which really go hand-in-hand.
Will you join with me in this quest? Read it and tell me what you think!
