I came across a telling paragraph recently. It is from Jim Burkett of Foundations Ministries International and is dated September, 2005. With a few facts, the author makes a telling case for Biblical truth directed toward the young of our nation.
Last Sunday I made the following statement at Destiny Christian Church in Del City, Oklahoma” “WE ARE LOSING OUR YOUNG PEOPLE!” We are losing our young people to destructive philosophies and influences that lead them to spiritual emptiness, sexual exploitation, and sometimes physical harm through disease and death.
Consider this:
- 70% of the university students in the United States have a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and do not know it.
- 88% of Southern Baptist young people leave Christianity within four years after graduating from high school.
- Among the Boomer generation (bo
rn betwee4n 1946 to 1964), there are 35% Bible-based believers;- Among the Busters generation (born between 1965 to 1983), there are 16% Bible-based believers;
- Among the Bridgers (or millenials, born 1984 or later), there are 4% Bible-based believers.
THE MISSION FIELD for teens and young adults (60 million plus) is real and critical!
Never before in our history has the need for presenting the truth of the Word of God been more urgent and imminent. We need a new Haystack Revival on our campuses, not to reach the world but to reach our nation!
There are many churches, movements, and ministries seeking to win the youth of America. Some are very traditional, some highly innovative. The ultimate success of all these different approaches will lie in their ability to motivate Believers to grasp the percision of the Savior’s life and insights. The new and exciting is always appealing to the young and it is our job to show them that the newest and most exciting thing in life is learning to live in Christ. Only in so far as our young people learn to focus on the Christ Life can the distressing trend seen in the statistics quoted above be reversed. All of our programs and innovations are inadequate until we learn how to be centered on the adventure of Christ in you. Older Christians with a dull view of the wonders of Jesus will never compel their youth to seek the fullness of the Gospel.
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