Hi Friends,

I want to strongly encourage all my readers to visit the White Horse Inn this week and listen to their latest podcast, Almost Christian.


You can listen right on the webpage, or subscribe to the podcast and download to your mp3 player.

This podcast addresses a lot of the issues that I am concerned with, and a lot of the reasons that I write what I write. Most young people raised in the church never develop genuine faith. It is an interview with Kenda Creasy Dean, one of the researchers involved in the National Study of Youth and Religion Project, about her new book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church.

"The problem doesn't seem to be that churches are teaching young people badly, but that we are doing an exceedingly good job of teaching youth what we really believe: namely, that Christianity is not a big deal, that God requires little, and the church is a helpful social institution, filled with nice people."

One of the most alarming findings of this study was that it didn't matter what denomination of church they were raised in--or even if they went to church at all!--most of the young people interviewed in this five year longitudinal study did not take their faith seriously. Rather than believing anything that could be considered truly Christian, they were "moralistic therapeutic deists". In other words, God makes me feel good about myself, helps me to "be good", and gives me the things I need to be happy. Ouch.

There are some real, tangible, applicable solutions to this problem but it requires a lot more effort and motivation than we've been willing to put into the spiritual formation of our children in the past--especially by parents. Please, if you care about your children and the young people at your church, take a half-hour of your life and listen to this important interview.

By His Grace,

Tiana


p.s.--Please pass this one on to your friends...and once you've listened, please come back here and let me know what you think!