Wednesday, October 30, 2002
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Wednesday, October 30, 2002 |
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Brighten the churches and the kids will stay By JOHN HATCHER According to the Southern Baptist Convention's Council on Family Life, 85 percent of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return. This tragic statistic can be interpreted to mean that 85 out of 100 kids presently enrolled in our children and youth departments will be out of the church when it comes to their own personal choice! Indeed, the law says that at age 18, the youth are free to do what they like. And one of the things they like to do is drop out of church. Why? Let me give you what I think. First, too many kids who live in "evangelical" homes see a whole lot of hypocrisy. Mom and Dad, thinking they take their cues from the radical right of religion, pose themselves at home as pious parents who are more interested in their kids doing right than in their kids. They dig a huge gulf between themselves and their kids by placing un-attainable expectations that only Jesus and maybe the Apostle Paul could fulfill. Basically, the kids can't find any fun in home life, which is interpreted by them a resultant of church. Therefore, they don't want any more of it. Out of here, they say. Second, I believe another reason 85 percent of the children never return is that in many homes, they see their parents live a different life than what their parents present at church. It is another form of hypocrisy. At church, Mom and Dad are sweet, wonderful, and Christ-like. Get them at home, however, and they cuss like sailors, drink like fish, and never have a spiritual thought. Children, again, see this kind of life as insincere. Children, consequently, learn that Christianity is empty and full of deceit. They prefer to relate to people who are honest whether they go to church or not. A big third reason that our children stay away in droves is that our churches are too stiff and starched. I have been in churches where one would be afraid to show the slightest amount of emotion or even motion. The service is dry and dead (have you heard the joke about the little boy who asked his mother in which (branch of service) his father died in, "Mom, was it the morning or evening service?)." More churches than not fairly well resemble a funeral. As I think about it, I have seen more life in some funeral homes than in a whole lots of churches. But, you know what I mean, that is, how people whisper as they visit a funeral home. Who will they disturb? Children and teenagers want to go where the action is. That's why folks flocked around Jesus everywhere he went: he was the life of any party going on. Most churches today act like they serve a pre-resurrection Christ. Some way, we must brighten our church houses; we must stir up the musicians to bring in some upbeat music. To conclude, what do we do as we face this alarming statistic: yawn and live through another boring service or do we take action? If we want the pre-18 crowd to hang around when they don't have to hang around, we must come around to their ideas of what looks alive. Jesus is alive. But, we portray him as dead. All our young people want is the truth. If we say that Jesus is alive, then present him as alive, not dead. Don't know about you, but I want to go paint some of our drab church walls with bright colors. We've got to do something! The Rev.
Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of |
