{"id":31196,"date":"2022-09-10T15:20:47","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/want-faithful-teens-and-young-adults-disciple-faithful-parents\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:20:47","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:20:47","slug":"want-faithful-teens-and-young-adults-disciple-faithful-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/want-faithful-teens-and-young-adults-disciple-faithful-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Want Faithful Teens and Young Adults? Disciple Faithful Parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image size-full wp-image-101629\">Jeremy McKnight photo &#8211; Unsplash<\/div>\n<p><em>By Aaron Earls<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For being small and on a dead-end rural road, the church I was a member of as a teenager had a fairly large and active youth group.<\/p>\n<p>Only a handful of us had parents who were active in the church at the time. We didn\u2019t see that as that significant until we grew up and saw what happened.<\/p>\n<p>When we looked around on Sunday morning, those who had faithful parents remained faithful Christians. Almost all of those who attended without their parents had left the church.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the perception of many teenagers (and their parents), it is difficult to overstate the importance of parental influence on the present and future religious devotion of their children.<\/p>\n<p>Significant studies from Pew Research and Lifeway Research demonstrate the outsized role parents play.<\/p>\n<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0;clear: both'> <\/div>\n<h3 style=\"font-size:22px\"><strong>Evangelical teens devotion follows parental priorities<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Pew Research surveyed both American teenagers and their parents about religious beliefs and practices.<\/p>\n<p>For around 4 in 5 evangelical Protestant (80%), Catholic (81%), and unaffiliated (86%) parents, their teenager shares those beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>Mainline Protestant parents are much less likely to have their teenager identify as mainline (55%).<\/p>\n<p>But beyond identification, evangelical teenagers are more likely than their other Christian peers to practice their faith and place a high priority on it.<\/p>\n<p>Close to half (48%) say religion is very important in their lives, compared to a quarter of mainline Protestant (25%) and Catholic (27%) teens.<\/p>\n<p>Evangelical teenagers are also significant more likely than other Christians their age to say they:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Believe in God with absolute certainty (71%)<\/li>\n<li>Attend religious services weekly (64%)<\/li>\n<li>Pray daily (51%)<\/li>\n<li>Participate in a religious education program like Sunday school (57%)<\/li>\n<li>Attend religious youth group activities (64%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><\/div>\n<p>That increased devotion among evangelical teenagers mirrors a higher priority evangelical parents place on passing their faith on to their children.<\/p>\n<p>Seven in 10 evangelical parents (71%) say it is very important their teenager is raised in their faith, compared to 51% of Catholic and 34% of mainline parents.<\/p>\n<p>When thinking about a future marriage, half of evangelical parents (53%) say it is important their teen marries someone who shares their faith.<\/p>\n<p>Far fewer Catholic (28%) and mainline (15%) parents say the same.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size:22px\"><strong>Faithful parents help prevent church dropouts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In a study of teenagers raised in the church, Lifeway Research identified several key factors in what predicts teenagers who drop out of church versus those that remain.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em\">\n<div class=\"centered-text-area\">\n<div class=\"centered-text\" style=\"float: left\">\n<div class=\"u891dacee84deb36d4b671d5fbeb997fb-content\">See also&nbsp; Why Pastors Must Acknowledge Their Own Needs<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ctaButton\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The actions and attitudes of the parent impact the faithfulness of the teenager as they become a young adult.<\/p>\n<p>Teenagers who dropped out of church are less likely to say their parents:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provided spiritual guidance (66% vs. 78% of those who stayed in church)<\/li>\n<li>Regularly attended church (77% vs. 83%)<\/li>\n<li>Genuinely liked church (44% vs. 59%)<\/li>\n<li>Actively served in the church (28% vs. 37%)<\/li>\n<li>Regularly discussed spiritual things (22% vs. 36%)<\/li>\n<li>Prayed together regularly as a family (23% vs. 35%)<\/li>\n<li>Read the Bible together regularly as a family (10% vs. 18%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other more indirect actions and attitudes also contribute to the likelihood a young adult drops out of church after attending as a teenager.<\/p>\n<p>Less than 1 in 10 teenagers who dropped out (7%) pointed to their parent\u2019s divorce as a reason they stopped attending church.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, young adults who said their parents were still married when they were 17 were more likely to continue attending church than other young adults.<\/p>\n<p>Teenagers who said their parents shared the same religious preference, the same denominational preference, and attend the same church were less likely to drop out.<\/p>\n<p>While it mattered that both parents attended church, the impact of the dad attending was greater than the impact of the mom attending.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"font-size:22px\"><strong>Likelihoods, not guarantees<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>There is no guarantee that faithful parents will raise a faithful teenager who becomes a faithful adult.<\/p>\n<p>Two in 3 teenagers who attended church regularly drop out for at least a year as an adult, that includes many who had faithful parents.<\/p>\n<p>Parents can only control their faithfulness, not their children.<\/p>\n<p>And the good news is \u201cGod doesn\u2019t judge parents on the actions <em>of<\/em> their kids. He judges parents on their actions <em>toward<\/em> their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, studies from Pew Research and Lifeway Research have found parents faithful actions toward their kids leads to an increase likelihood of faithful actions of their kids.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-profile-box square gb-has-avatar gb-font-size-18 gb-block-profile gb-profile-columns\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-avatar-wrap\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-image-wrap\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-content-wrap\">\n<h2 class=\"gb-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Aaron Earls<\/h2>\n<p class=\"gb-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">@WardrobeDoor<\/p>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-text\">\n<p>Aaron is a writer for LifewayResearch.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"gb-social-links\"><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box su-box-style-default\" id=\"\" style=\"border-color:#000000;border-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"su-box-title\" style=\"background-color:#333333;color:#FFFFFF;border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px\">Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box-content su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"one-third first\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"two-thirds\">\n<h3>Within Reach: The Power of Small Changes in Keeping Students Connected<\/h3>\n<p>Ben Trueblood<\/p>\n<p>  FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-template-thumbnails'>\n<h3>Related posts:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"yarpp-thumbnails-horizontal\">  Who Are \u2018Evangelicals\u2019 and Why Knowing That Matters for Your Church  Are Evangelical Parents Raising Evangelical Teens?  10 Characteristics of Churches That Keep Young Adults  3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeremy McKnight photo &#8211; Unsplash By Aaron Earls For being small and on a dead-end rural road, the church I was a member of as a teenager had a fairly large and active youth group. Only a handful of us had parents who were active in the church at the time. We didn\u2019t see that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/want-faithful-teens-and-young-adults-disciple-faithful-parents\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Want Faithful Teens and Young Adults? Disciple Faithful Parents&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}