Kids Who Don't Leave the Church

I recently came across an article on FaithIt.com entitled 3 Common Traits of Youth Who Don't Leave the Church.  (This seemed a fitting follow up to my most recent blog post, Where Are the Future Leaders?)  In this article, written primarily to an audience of youth leaders, the author identifies three characteristics of youth who remain engaged in their faith into adulthood.  Those traits are:

Converted - The author uses the term "unconverted evangelicals" to describe youth who have grown up in the church, learned the church culture and language, and are actively doing all kinds of church stuff.  And this no less true of youth in Christian schools; it is just another part of Christian culture to acclimate to.  I have often likened this to an inoculation, the process of giving a weakened form of a disease in order to prevent infection by the disease.  Youth are exposed to the culture which can "inoculate" them to their need of a Savior.  Toward that end, the author exhorts us to be
"praying fervently for the miraculous work of regeneration to occur in the hearts and souls of our students by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Equipped - Ephesians 4:11-12: "[Christ] gave teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry." Here the author issues a call to be "growing churchmen and churchwomen who are equipped to teach, lead, and serve."  I would add to that a call to train youth with a Biblical worldview, to be able understand and articulate how their faith in Christ informs their walk in every arena of life.

Modeled - Here the author addresses the critical role of the home in all this, saying that "the common thread that binds together almost every ministry-minded 20-something that I know is abundantly clear: a home where the gospel was not peripheral but absolutely central ... In general, children who are led in their faith during their growing-up years by parents who love Jesus vibrantly, serve their church actively, and saturate their home with the gospel completely, grow up to love Jesus and the church."

As I read this, I was struck that much like the old three-legged milking stool, all three elements are required:  God's role in conversion, the church's and school's role in equipping, and the parents' role in modeling. Of course, their is some overlap in the last two roles, but it simply reinforces the conclusion of that passage in Ephesians 4 - "We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.