Suppose you attended an open house at your child’s school and the principal told everyone that the drop-out rate was running at 75%. Would you be alarmed? Would you try to get your child into another school? Would you home-school? What if you discovered that the drop-out rate in every school was 75-88%? You might decide that it was time to get involved and demand some major changes.
The drop-out rate for our kids attending church is 75-88% by the end of their first semester of college. That should scare us into getting involved and demanding major changes. Yet, at least twenty times a year I conduct a three hour parenting seminar and about 10% of the parents in the church attend. My most recent experience was with a children’s pastor who told me he sent out over 100 invitations and about fifteen parents showed up. He was disappointed, but didn’t know what to do.
Are we in the battle to win or surrender? I’ve searched the scriptures and I don’t find a single indication that we should surrender. But at the current drop-out rate we could have less than 50,000 true followers of Christ in the U.S. in just five generations. Unless we find a way to get the attention of the parents, the future is looking dim.
“Greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world.” We don’t win battles sitting on the sidelines. We can win this most important battle, but we can’t do it alone. Somehow, someway we must get the whole church involved. Is it possible that 75% of the parents don’t care that their kids won’t consider God relevant to life in a few short years?
Dick, this is a great comparison – how do we sound the alarm to a Church that doesn’t even see the crisis of faith? It’s a daunting challenge for sure.
Enjoyed this so much, I put a link out there on twitter. I like Karl’s question above and would enjoy seeing more of us entertaining that question as well.
Dick, this is great. Can I use this as part of my “advertising” for your appearance at NSCBC in Beverly Farms this September?