Christians in America have gotten careless when it comes to using their God-given minds. The impact of neglecting the intellect has had deleterious effects on the American church, and it is driving young christians out of churches at the fastest rate in history.
We are losing our young people. A 2019 PEW research poll found that more than 8 in 10 young Americans described themselves as christians, but only 49% of millennials describe themselves as christians today. A 2007 Lifeway Research Study found 7 in 10 will leave the faith in college. In 2002 the Southern Baptist Convention Family Life Council Study found that 88% of children in evangelical homes leave church by the age of 18, and 90% of youth active in high school youth programs drop out of church by the time they’re in college. The number of young people leaving the church could reach 40 million according to one study.
Most youth said they had troubling unanswered questions about the faith. They had Intellectual doubt and skepticism, and many said that scientifically there is no proof of christianity.
Christian youth lack a knowledge of what they believe and why they believe it. In a 1999 Barna study 63% of young christians didn’t believe Jesus is the son of the one true God, 58% believed that all religions teach equally valid truths, 51% didn’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, 65% didn’t believe Satan was a real entity, and 68% didn’t believe the Holy Spirit was a real entity.
“If teenagers lack an articulate faith, it may be because the faith we show them is too spineless to merit much in the way of conversation.” Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling The American Church
“Unless the American church can fight back and prevent the anti-God culture from capturing the minds of our youth, the future of the church in this country is grim. We need to be able to equip the minds of our young people, and we need to have intelligent, well reasoned answers for the questions that they have.” Timothy Alberino
Here is Timothy Alberino’s video, the source of this information, and I strongly recommend you watch this video. It is worth your time.
The subject of God’s creation in Genesis, and the deep doctrinal meaning of creation all the way through the Bible requires intellectual work, and we are living in a generation that has been encouraged and taught to ignore intellectual effort in the christian faith. Our youth have been taught to embrace intellectualism fully when it comes to science (aka pseudoscience). Scientism as a philosophy, a religion, and a pseudoscience has captured the minds and hearts of millennials. No wonder we have an entire generation leaving the faith.
