 Christian Home Educators Curriculum Manual Elementary  US $4.98
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 Christian Home Educators Curriculum Manual 1997 98 US $.99
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Leaving the Church?
George Barna, Josh McDowell and others have statistics stating that 85% of teens raised in evangelical churches in America stop attending church in their late teens and early 20's. In addition, a SBC study conducted in 2002 found that 88% of all children are leaving the church (regardless of denominational affiliation) permanently once they leave home. My own experience as an educator at the collegiate level indicates this to be true as well. While not all are abandoning the Christian Faith - they are rejecting its current dominate form of expression (the congregational/traditional church).
I posted this info in my answer to another question and received 7 "thumbs down" - which got me to thinking. How do you respond to this information? Denial? Acceptance? Anger? Joy? Apathy? Apprehension? What do you think?
It looks like most of the people who answered missed the part where you said that not all of the people leaving the church are abandoning the faith. I found the question interesting because I just finished reading a book titled "Revolution" by George Barna who says that, if the current trend continues, 1/3 of Believers will be living out their faith outside of the traditional church model.
I really hesitate to speak against the traditional church, since it only gives amunition to the "enemy" but the truth is, the way we do church today is broken and very few are willing to admit it, much less do anything to fix it. They're so entrenched in the building mentality that, to them, leaving the church is a short cut to the road to Hell.
The sad fact is most young people find the church boring and irrelevant. They want more of God than they are able to find in the traditional church. They're tired of leaders that cast personal visions instead of God's vision and seem way too interested in money and numbers and building a legacy for themselves. They're not interested in sermons that drone on and do little or nothing to help those listening defend their faith. They're not interested in playing religious games and want no part of a Sunday Morning Social Club that's more interested about how to decorate the sanctuary than how to advance the Kingdom.
As Barna says, "millions of Believers have moved beyond the established church and chosen to BE the church instead." Some of us older people feel the same way. If it takes a "revolution" to wake the church up to these facts, then I'm all for it.
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The High School Handbook: For Junior High, Too List Price: $22.99 Sale Price: $24.99 Used From: $19.99 Average Rating:   |
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Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual : Junior/Senior High List Price: $22.95 Sale Price: $9.95 Used From: $7.19 Average Rating:  |
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Christian Home Educators' Curriculum Manual : Elementary Grades (Chrisitan Home Educators' Curriculum Manual (Elementary Grades)) List Price: $22.95 Sale Price: $4.55 Used From: $0.56 Average Rating:  |
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Christian Home Educators Curriculum Manual Elementary US $4.98
|
Christian Home Educators Curriculum Manual 1997 98 US $.99
|
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