Growing up Christian

I was privileged to grown up on the foreign mission field as a teenager and was oblivious to the battles many of my childhood friend's struggled with. I had no youth group per se, no youth pastor, and no teen Sunday School class or Wednesday night group. When I was back in the U.S. for my tenth grade year, I was really taken aback by how important these things were to the average American teen christian and their families. I quickly came to realize that these things were important for the socialization aspect and not for the Gospel's sake. Not that the Gospel meant anything to me at the time (it did not-I did not accept the Gospel for myself personally until 17 yrs old, while in college) but I enjoyed, even relished the socialization.

Being in the ministry for over 18 years now, 8 of those years as the wife of a youth pastor and the last 10 as a pastor's wife,  I look back on those we've had the opportunity to love and be with. How many of those teens, now grown adults have "denied" the faith they grew up in. Why is this? Is it because they were made to go to church and it was just a ritual? Are we raising our youth to stay in church because that is what they've "always done" or because they truly understand and have applied the Gospel to their own hearts, thereby changing them to become like Him? What are we teaching our children? What do we as parents believe about church and the Gospel?

As I raise my four children with one being a junior in high school and one in eighth grade, I think about these things. I want the Gospel to be so embedded in the hearts of my children that it is not about church or a religion, but about Christ and His glory. Take a moment to read this linked article about Why Youth Stay in Church When They Grow Up