Why so many young people fall away from the faith?
- crossroadscaloundr
- Mar 2
- 6 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
There are several reasons:
1) It is prophesied in the Scriptures that the last days the love of many will grow cold & many will depart from the faith.
2) But that does not mean that this takes away our responsibility as Churches, Christian Institutions & last but not least parents to do our part & I believe that we have contributed to this by forsaking our responsibilities & not teaching a Biblical worldview & defence of the faith.
3) Youth groups & churches have focussed to much on entertainment & quantity but not quality & discipleship: and the "fruit" starts showing.
4) As a result most of our young people are not prepared for University nor the workplace or life in general in this "woke", harsh, worldly, atheistic / anti-Christian world as it is today.
What is the solution, what can we do better?
1) Pastors & Youth pastors, stop entertaining your flock & start teaching your flock & young people apologetics, history, creation vs evolution and a Biblical worldview in general.
2) Christians schools: Vet your staff well & teach a better curriculum, and also do the same as in point 1.
3) Parents: Don't shun everything of to the churches & schools. Your influence, lifestyle & instruction will have much more influence then churches & schools. If you don't do your part, they are "mopping with the tap open"
Resources that can help you educate your children / class / Sunday school / youth group etc:
Testimony from a Christian School Teacher:
I'm a principal at a Christian school. Last year, I decided to track our graduates. What I found made me sick. 68% of our kids—kids who spent 12 years in Christian education—walked away from faith within 5 years of graduation.
We're charging parents $15,000 a year.
And we're preparing their kids for atheism.
I've been in Christian education for 18 years.
I believed we were different from public schools. Better. Safer.
Chapel every week. Bible class every day. Prayer before every meal.
We were building strong Christian young people.
Or so I thought.
Last spring, I decided to survey our graduates.
Every student who graduated between 2010 and 2020.
287 responses.
The results destroyed me.
68% no longer identified as Christian.
68%.
Kids who spent 12 years in our school.
$180,000 of their parents' money.
Chapel, Bible class, Christian teachers—all of it.
And more than two-thirds walked away.
I didn't believe it at first.
I called some of them personally.
"What happened? You were in Christian school your whole life."
The answers were almost identical.
"I got to college and couldn't answer basic questions."
"Someone asked me why I believed, and I realized I didn't have reasons."
"I knew all the Bible stories. I didn't know why any of it was actually true."
One graduate—Marcus, class of 2016—put it bluntly.
"Mr. Harrison, I spent 12 years in your school. I could tell you every story in the Bible. But when my philosophy professor asked me for evidence that Christianity is true, I had nothing. You taught me content. You never taught me how to defend it."
I hung up and sat in my office for an hour.
He was right.
Our curriculum taught Bible knowledge.
It didn't teach apologetics.
We tested kids on what happened in Scripture.
We never tested them on why Scripture is reliable.
We assumed knowing the stories would be enough.
It wasn't.
That week, I called an emergency meeting with our board chairman, Pastor Williams.
"We have a problem. A big one."
I showed him the survey results.
68% walking away.
His face went pale.
"How is this possible? These kids had Christian education for 12 years."
"Because we taught them what to believe. We never taught them why. And when someone challenged them, they had nothing."
"So what do we do?"
"We need to change everything. We need to teach apologetics. Evidence. Reasons. Starting in elementary school."
He was quiet for a moment.
"There's a workbook I've been hearing about. Systematic theology for kids. A church in Texas rebuilt their entire children's ministry around it. The pastor said their kids can now defend their faith better than most adults."
"Can we use it in a school setting?"
"Let's find out."
We ordered copies that week.
I took one home and read it cover to cover.
Lesson 1: How Do We Know God Exists?
Not "the Bible says so."
The cosmological argument. The moral argument. The teleological argument.
Explained clearly. Logically. At a level kids could understand.
Lesson 5: Why Trust the Bible?
Manuscript evidence. 5,800 Greek copies. Dating within decades of the original events.
More documentation than Homer, Plato, or Caesar.
Lesson 12: Evidence for the Resurrection.
The minimal facts approach. Five facts even skeptical scholars accept.
Every alternative explanation systematically refuted.
I sat there stunned.
I have a master's degree in Christian education.
I'd never learned this material clearly until now.
We started a pilot program.
Sixth grade. 24 students.
Every Friday: one lesson from the workbook.
The first week, I sat in to observe.
The teacher asked: "Why do you believe God exists?"
Same answers I expected.
"Because the Bible says so."
"Because my parents believe."
Then she taught the cosmological argument.
"Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. What caused it?"
A boy named Daniel raised his hand.
"Something that doesn't need a cause. Something outside the universe."
"Like what?"
"God?"
"You just made a logical argument for God's existence. Without opening a Bible."
I watched 24 sixth-graders lean forward.
Not because of a grade.
Because it made sense.
Week 4: Why Trust the Bible?
The teacher taught manuscript evidence.
A girl named Sophia raised her hand.
"So we have more evidence for the Bible than for stuff everyone just accepts as true?"
"Yes. Far more."
"Why didn't anyone teach us this before?"
The teacher looked at me.
I had no answer.
Because we'd spent 18 years teaching Bible stories without teaching why the Bible is reliable.
Week 8, something happened.
One of our sixth-graders, James, went to a family reunion.
His cousin attends public school. Atheist parents.
The cousin said, "You go to Christian school? You know the Bible is just mythology, right?"
James didn't panic.
"Actually, there are 5,800 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, some dating within 25 years of the original events. We have more documentation for the Bible than for any ancient document. If you don't trust the Bible, you can't trust anything we know about ancient history."
His mother called me on Monday.
"What are you teaching my son?"
I explained the pilot program.
"He defended his faith to his atheist cousin. He's 11. His uncle—the atheist—asked where he could learn more. This is what we've been paying $15,000 a year for. Why did it take until now?"
She was right.
Week 12, other parents started calling.
"My daughter explained the cosmological argument at dinner. She's 12."
"My son corrected his youth pastor on something about the resurrection. Where is this coming from?"
"Can the younger grades get this too?"
Week 15, I presented the results to the full board.
24 students in the pilot. Every one of them could now articulate reasons for their faith.
I showed them video of a 12-year-old explaining why the resurrection is the best historical explanation for the evidence.
Pastor Williams spoke up.
"This is what we should have been doing for 18 years. I move that we adopt this curriculum for all grades, K through 8."
The motion passed unanimously.
We spent the summer training teachers.
This fall, every student in our school will learn systematic theology.
Not just Bible stories.
Evidence. Arguments. Reasons.
We're updating our marketing too.
"We don't just teach your kids the Bible. We teach them to defend it."
Last month, a family toured the school.
The father was skeptical.
"My oldest went to a Christian school. Walked away from faith in college. Why should I trust you'll be any different?"
I told him about the survey. The 68%. The changes we made.
"We're not just teaching Bible content anymore. We're teaching apologetics. By the time your child graduates, they'll be able to defend their faith against anyone."
He enrolled both his kids on the spot.
I'm 52 years old.
I've spent 18 years in Christian education.
And for most of those years, I was charging parents $15,000 to prepare their kids for apostasy.
I can't get back the 68% we already lost.
But the kids in our school now?
They won't be part of that statistic.
If you're trusting Christian school to build your child's faith...
If you're assuming Bible class and chapel are enough...
If you think $15,000 a year guarantees anything...
I need you to know: it doesn't.
Education without apologetics creates believers who can't defend what they believe.
And believers who can't defend their faith become adults who walk away.
68% of our graduates proved that.
52 weeks of systematic theology is changing everything.
Make sure your kids—wherever they go to school—are getting the WHY.
Not just the WHAT.
Before they become another statistic.
Comments