According to Pew Research, 77-88% of youth leave their faith from ages 18-27. This is problematic forall churches because that means you will be missing a key element in your church. This age group will work the heavy duty ministry jobs, will start young families (with children nursery – age 9), and will also be instrumental in setting examples for the youth.
Not to mention, as Christians, we are not having big families anymore. In fact, our country (US) average childrate is 2.7 per household, with Christians bearing children at a rate of 2.9 per household. Which is not too bad, when we consider that France is at a low of 1.7 children per household. The sad realization is that Muslims in France are breeding at a staggering rate of 5.1, which means France will soon become an Islamic country. What do we attribute these low birthrates to? Prosperity is the number one factor for not having children. Our (speaking of Christians) main focus has become centered around acquiring things and going against the first command spoken to man in Genesis 1:28, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Children have become a hindrance so we have them later in life and fewer in number because we are so busy trying to make more money. In doing so, we have more things which causes us to neglect our children and give them TV, an Ipad, and video games.
Between these two facts, strong Christian faith will slowly begin to fade. I am not writing this simply to pronounce gloom and doom; I am writing this to express three main purposes:
1. To help Christian’s see the need for practical faith taught at home. Parents like to teach/preach Ephesians 6:1-2 to their children to let them know that they are to obey and honor them; however, we leave out the context of what Paul was actually writing. To see that, we must go back to chapter 5 in verse number 15-21:
“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” The goal of these relationships (husband/wife, parents/children, master/servant) was to teach those we are responsible for the wisdom of walking in the Spirit. We must understand that our time with our children in the home is limited because time is fleeting. We must be Spirit-filled so we can lead our home.
2. To give a reality check on materialism. We need to abandon the frivolous things in order to uphold the things/people that are truly important. Being drunk with wine is foolish because you lose control, the effect wear off, and the time spent drunk becomes a waste. Our lives spent drunk with materialism has the same effect in our families. We lose control of our fiances and now we MUST work in order to pay for things we shouldn’t have purchased to begin with. These things will never come with us after we die (Luke 9:25 “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?”) Also as society has shown recently, you can give yourself to a career and things only to have them taken away because the company/bank will profit more from your termination.
3. To help stir a love for children in the home. The Lord puts a premium on the home by making sure the first social sin came with a promise.
Ephesians 6:1-4 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” I don’t know any parent who doesn’t want their children to have a long life and prosper under God. However, without verse 4 children will not abide by verses 1-2. We need some fathers (and mothers) to not provoke their children to anger against the faith but “bring them up” in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Nurture leads us to training our children by we have been taught. God often had the children of Israel set up altars as a way to teach their children about God. We are missing out on that because children are unwanted and neglected by us, which leads them to get frustrated with the faith because it means nothing to them.
Let’s reach our children and change the outcome of our homes for Christ.
Joshua 4:6-7 “That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.”