Arrows and Arks

Gò0dNews from the Pastor’s Desk

Arrows and Arks

by Larry Lane

In his book, The Last Christian Generation, Josh McDowell opened with the sentence, “I sincerely believe unless something is done now to change the spiritual state of our young people—you [parents] will become the last Christian generation!” Most might consider such a brash statement as hyperbole and fear-mongering, the kind of exaggeration broadcasted to sell a book. But McDowell’s concern may not be unwarranted. Pollster George Barna administered twenty-five separate surveys of more than 22,000 adults and 2,000 teenagers—Christian kids. Some of the results were as follows: 20% had maintained a level of spiritual activity consistent with their HS experience and 58% who attended church every week did not attend church at all by age twenty-nine. As I have spoken in churches around the country, I have asked a show of hands of how many in the congregation had prodigal children. My anecdotal observation was that, consistently, two-thirds of those parents in the pews raised their hands.

Christian parents face a formidable challenge from a society and culture that has grown increasingly hostile to the faith. OneHope, a Christian research and resource ministry based in Miami, FL, conducted the largest worldwide study of Gen Z. Surprisingly, the responses remained consistent across national and cultural boundaries. It is well known that only 7% of Gen Z-ers attend church. OneHope uncovered other startling statistics like: one out of four in this generation have thought about having a same-sex relationship in the last three months and one out of fourteen have considered suicide in the last three months.

A recent Gallup poll indicated that 16% of the Gen Z generation identify as something other than heterosexual. This is up from 2-3% in the previous generation. If you can do the math, that is one out of eight young people. However you measure or observe, this generation is in crisis and statistics are telling us that our children are being swept out of the church. In their book, Sticky Faith, Dr. Kara Powell and Dr. Chap Clark make this startling statement: “If you raise your kids the way you were raised, you’ll lose them in today’s world. They won’t survive with the belief system you and I were raised with.”

Earlier this year, as I was having my quiet time with the Lord, God arrested my attention with this verse in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” A still small voice in my heart asked me this question, “What kind of ark are you building for your family?” The ark was an instrument of preservation and salvation. My response to that question began a journey of prayer and research with my daughter and others who joined with me to develop a curriculum to equip parents to disciple their children. Somewhere along the road of Church history,

Christian parents outsourced the responsibility of discipling our children to the experts—children’s pastors, youth ministers, Sunday-school teachers, and a host of para-church organizations. They have tirelessly worked to accomplish a task they were not called or designed to fulfill. We applaud these efforts, but Christian families must come to grips with the crisis at hand. They must determine what kind of ark they will build for their families and step into their God-given role to disciple their children and prepare them to engage this decaying culture. An old leadership adage I have often quoted over the years applies well here: “It is easy to predict rain. It is harder to build arks.” It is time to build arks for our children.

About The Author

Larry Lane serves as the Chief Execute Officer for the Sentinel Group—a non-profit dedicated to researching and telling the stories of God’s transforming work in revival. Before joining the Sentinel Group, Larry pastored churches for over thirty years in Chico, CA, and Rockville, MD, with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. His wife, Carol, and he have been married 44 years and have five adult children and fourteen grandchildren. You can contact Larry at larry@kingdomc.org.