Can we stop Christian kids from leaving the Church?

I said a few weeks ago that we would have some comment on a new study released on why Canadian youth are leaving the Church. The study, “Hemorrhaging Faith,” was sponsored by several different groups, including the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. This trend seems to be the subject of a growing number of discussions among church leaders in the past few years. This study is apparently the first one providing a useful amount of Canadian data and analysis. Christian leaders involved in the project have, therefore, said that it’s a very important piece of work. The results, though, weren’t unsurprising so I’m not sure how important the project really is. In an article on the report published by EFC’s magazine, Faith Today, John Wilkinson, chair of the EFC’s Youth ad Young Adult Ministry Roundtable, said “For those of us who are close to what is going on in youth ministry across Canada, the research findings are not so much surprising as they are confirming.” There may be one important exception to this, which is what we want to consider here. At this time, we have not yet read the original report. We have been following some of the comments made by others.  Read more... (3133 words, estimated 12:32 mins reading time)