National Study of Youth and Religion Conclusions

I was recently impacted by a LifeWay article entitled Why Parents May Be Losing Their Teenagers, written by True Love Waits co-founder and seminary professor, Dr. Richard Ross.  I emailed Dr. Ross to express appreciation and ask if there were additional parenting resources he might recommend.  In his reply I learned that he and best selling author, Dr. Ken Hemphill just released an awesome parenting resource, Parenting with Kingdom Purpose. 

Most of Ross and Hemphill's conclusions are drawn from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), a recent survey based on telephone interviews with over 3,300 youth/parent pairs.  Soul Searching:  The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith and Melinda Lunquist Denton was the first important book based on this study. 

Chapter 5 of Parenting with Kingdom Purpose is titled Introducing Children and Teenagers to God.  In it a progressive chain of facts are laid out that, soberly considered, should send a chill down the spine of any loving parent.

1.  No parental duty matters more than introducing one's children to Jesus.

2.  Even though teenagers and children tend to be religious, the great majority have not grasped the basics of salvation.

3.  Parents who do not teach what the Scriptures say about salvation almost guarantee their children will simply make up their own ideas.

4.  Children who make up and trust their own ideas about salvation likely never will be saved.

5.  Children from Christian homes who never are saved spend eternity in hell.

Comments

[Andrew]

James - sobering points at the end of you post here. I have 6 children and am blessed they are all believers. Nuturing them continually is so important....thanks for the book ref...

[Tracy]

I came from a very strict Christian home where it was their way or no way and that was not healthy either. They raised us with Christian values, but no grace. There is a fine line in raising your teens with love and grace and shoving religion down their throats where they would rather vomit then accept the truth.

[James Paul]

Point taken, Tracy. Legalism is a legit concern for all Christian parents to ponder. So far I'm reading a lot of grace in the pages of Parenting with Kingdom Purpose.

Thanks to both you and Andrew for visiting!