Churches Can’t Overcompensate for All Parental Problems

We often blame the church for younger generations disconnecting, but what if it has more to do with the home? We should not be surprised if children physically check out if they were raised by parents who spiritually did years before.

Churches must address the fact that many children raised in the church walk away from that institution once they leave home. For most congregations, the significant investment in children and youth provides a minimal return.

While these students are active in church when they are at home due to sincere desire or parental prodding, once they leave home for college, churches will lose a large percentage of these students.  

Although the research varies slightly, most records indicate that between 70 and 88 percent of Christian students are absent from the local church by the time they enter their second year of college.

Those numbers scream that something is missing. Every dollar spent on nursery cribs, youth trips, and graduation Bibles seems to be in vain when students apparently vanish from church for years after graduating from high school.

Many students stop growing in Christ because a walk with Christ is not witnessed in the home. Instead of modeling that type of relationship with God, parents hope that by bringing their children to church, someone else will take care of their children’s spiritual health.

If that is the sole parental input into a child’s spiritual development, a child will experience great spiritual struggles once he or she leaves the home.

Bringing children to church will not save them.  While parents ought to bring children to church functions, the probability of children remaining involved in a church once they leave home based upon mere church exposure once or twice a week during childhood is minimal.

Many children in America are so busy with activities in academics, athletics, or some other endeavor that their spiritual lives are not valued or prioritized.