This illustrates that there is considerable biblical
illiteracy among the twentysomethings and significant
compromise among church leaders. In most cases, the
twentysomethings said their high school teachers
convinced them not to trust the Bible! Many of them
said they wished someone had prepared them better, but
no one did.
Not only is this a warning to parents about where they
send their children for education, but it is a warning
to church leaders and parents about the importance of
training the coming generations to be able to defend the
Christian faith and strengthen their belief in God’s Word.
One of the key reasons kids don’t embrace their parents’
and church’s faith in adulthood is because they never
learned how to “own” their own faith. They never asked
tough questions about their faith in a safe environment.
Perhaps they were raised in a church or home where
questions and doubts were discouraged. Whatever the
case, they never worked through some of these difficult
issues while they were young; therefore, they were never
challenged with what they believe or why they believe it.
Every generation has the same decision to make: Will I
serve the God of the Bible or a false god? Every newborn
must be taught the truth from scratch, or that soul could
be completely lost.
I believe the Christian faith is very much like a relay
race. One generation carries the responsibility to pass on
the faith to the next. As we have seen from the new ARG
research, the church is currently failing this critical task
in many areas.
How Do We Break the Cycle?
So that’s the bad news! And in reality, it’s much worse
than the summary I’ve given you above. Many other
areas show that many in the twenties group in the church
do not have a Christian worldview.
But before we get depressed and feel like giving up, we
need to listen to how God’s Word instructs us. In Luke
19 we read a parable by Jesus: “A certain nobleman went
into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and
to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to
them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I
come’ ” (Lk 19:12–14, emphasis added). One translation
states, “Occupy till I come.”
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Jesus gives Christians talents and gifts that they are to
use until He comes. The point is we need to be faithful in
being about the Master’s work—regardless of what we see
happening around us. If anything, we need to be more
fired up and more urgent in proclaiming the truth of
God’s Word and the gospel.
No doubt we are in a war—a fight for the minds of a
generation. Our ultimate enemy is not people but rather
an entity whose mission is to destroy those whom God
loves. Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers, “We do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly
places” (Eph 6:12).
Paul tells us that the solution is to take a strong stand.
“Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may
be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,
to stand” (Eph 6:13). This courageous spirit is modeled
throughout the Bible. It is what separated men and
women of faith from the vast compromising crowd. It’s a
ferocious faith that refuses to give up.
Nowhere do we see this spirit of courage, faith, and
perseverance displayed more than with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jesus fought and endured to the end because He
had a passion to honor the Father. He fought because He
longed to return to His rightful place of authority at the
Father’s side. And He persevered because he knew there
was something worth fighting for. You.
Jesus did not allow the Pharisees and religious teach-
ers of His day to misinterpret and compromise the Word
of God. He corrected them, showing God’s people a
better way (Mt 5–7; 23). When Christ ascended back to
heaven following His resurrection, He gave His disciples
the responsibility of carrying on the task of “making
disciples” (Mt 28:18–20). Deputized with the power of
the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), they were to take His life-
changing gospel to the nations, even to the “uttermost
part of the earth.”
Start at Home
So where do we go from here? To begin with, it’s no
secret that there is a crisis of leadership today in the
Christian home. And unfortunately, men are often the
most difficult to motivate toward spirituality. This spiri-