Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Church, Children, Parents - Connection

It has been common knowledge that a parent's commitment or lack of commitment to God and His church will influence their children. Now, there is a study that confirms this.

Scripture repeatedly reinforces the important impact that parent's have upon their children's faith. Deuteronomy 6 could not contain more clear language outlining parental responsibility to teach their children their faith.

Of course, children learn most clearly what they see in their parents. If mom and dad are lackadaisical about Christ and the church, then that is exactly what the kid's will learn. If they see that a sporting event is more important than church that is what they will learn.

For years I have seen children and teens who are dropped off at church while the parents stay home. The parents think that they are doing something good for the kids by leaving them at church. The church does have some impact, but it cannot parent. The pastor or youth teacher cannot parent other's children. Children will learn from their parents.

It has been my observation that these kids when they come of age leave the church way behind. This normally starts to occur late in high school or early college. These future adults have received the message loud and clear: "God is not important enough to us to be regularly committed to His church."

I will include the complete article in the next post.

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