Reaching The Next Generation

Introduction

Talk about 3 things:

Discipleship

Parenting

If we want to reach the next generation, we need to be thinking two generations ahead!

Embrace the cultural norms

Charles Francis Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams and grandson of President John Adams, kept a diary. One day he entered: “Went fishing with my son today—a day wasted.”

His son, Brook Adams, also kept a diary, which is still in existence. On that same day, Brook Adams made this entry: “Went fishing with my father—the most wonderful day of my life!” The father thought he was wasting time while fishing with his son, but his son saw it as an investment of time.

The only way to tell the difference between wasting and investing is to know one’s ultimate purpose in life and to judge accordingly.

Pasotr Niks Sermon

66% of young adults drop out of church for a year or more

Underneath this percent is only is 89% who weren’t given a solid faith

Top five reasons

I moved to college and stopped going to church

Church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical

I didn’t feel connected to people in my church

I disagreed with the churches stance on political or social issues

My work responsibilities prevented me from attending

Focus on Family article

Only 11% of young adults that left the faith said they had a strong faith as a child, the other 89% reported no real faith

In other words, our kids don’t retain what they never really had

How do we respond to these things? There are 2 needs you have to meet.

First thing we need to do is give them a solid Biblical worldview

teach them to think about stuff like Christians (sexuality, politics, social life, etc..)

The Holy Spirit is just as interested in getting you to think like a Christian as He is to get you to love like a Christian

Young people aren’t finding a space where they can safely bring their questions and be heard

If we shame people, then they won’t ask it again

When you listen to other peoples questions you find out how little you know and how little you’ve thought through it

Silence and unity are not the same thing

Give them a solid family life

34% dropped out of church because they left for college

They are dropping out because they aren’t being shown why they need to stay plugged in

The church needs to fill in the gap