Brace Barber presents a powerful and simple strategy, based on overwhelming evidence, for keeping kids in the faith. In this book parents and pastors will learn how to greatly increase the chance of keeping their kids Christian. You will learn the step-by-step method for properly teaching the Full Testimony of God and how it prepares our kids for the world. The objective of this book is to give churches and parents the tools to produce Scripture-following Christians who live out their faith and fulfill the Great Commission. You will learn how the current Church strategy, despite good intentions, is insufficient for solving the problem and how and where we can apply our efforts to make an immediate difference in the lives and futures of our kids. Brace is currently speaking and teaching to churches and organizations in support of this message.
Download specially formatted TESTED curriculum on subjects such as Is Scripture Reliable? Can you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? Life: Created or Evolved? and How can an all-loving God allow evil in the world.
The Majority of Kids are Leaving the Faith
Approximately 75% of kids raised in Christian homes leave the faith after high school. Multiple studies from organizations such as the Pew Research Center, Southern Baptist Convention and Barna Group over the past 15 years confirm the massive loss of kids. The kids who leave are our kids, not someone else’s kids. They are the kids of your friends that you chat with in the hallway of your church. These kids are the ones in youth groups, worship bands and travelling on mission trips. These are the kids who sit around your dinner table at home.
Why They Are Leaving
In 2002, the Southern Baptist Council on Family Life found that 88% of the children in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return.[1] The research summarized in the book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, found that the largest single reason students leave faith behind is because of intellectual doubt and skepticism.[2] Other sources are reporting that, 63% don’t believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God. 58% believe all faiths teach equally valid truths. 51% don;t believe Jesus rose from the dead. 65% don’t believe Satan is a real entity. 68% don’t believe the Holy Spirit is a real entity.[3] Still others report that no more than 15% of the total emerging adult population embrace a strong religious faith. They often have strong religious upbringing but tend to be more discriminating about what they will adopt.[4] The majority of teenagers are incredibly inarticulate about their faith, religious beliefs and practices, and its place in their lives.
Why I Became Committed to Changing the Situation
I have been a consumer of modern church teaching methods for the past 12 years as my kids have gone through the system and as I teach the weekly lessons from whatever curriculum the Church leadership has chosen for that semester. But I’m not just a consumer, I’m a strategist, educated at West Point, trained in the military, experienced in the corporate world and an independent developer of strategic-planning processes. I see major flaws to our current strategy that are causing us to fail to effectively train our kids. More than that, I’m the father of three teenage kids and I have a mission to do everything that I can do to ensure that they develop a lifelong personal commitment to a relationship with Jesus Christ as their savior. I can’t make that decision for them, but I can get them headed in the right direction so that they have the best chance possible of ending up where I want them to be with regard to salvation. I have limited time.
[1] The Southern Baptist Convention’s Family Life Council http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc02/newsroom/newspage.asp?ID=261
[2] Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, by Christian Smith Pg 89 Published by Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (April 13, 2009)
[3] Rethink: Is Student Ministry Working? Steve Wright, InQuest Ministries, Inc. (2007)
[4] Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults (2009) by Christian Smith, Patricia Snell (2009)
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