Parents, here’s a wake up call for you – 70% of our church kids will leave the church after they graduate high school. Four out of ten of them will never return. Did that get your attention? I hope so. What will your teenager do? Will he/she stand when many others fall?
As your pastor, I urge you to do anything necessary in order for your teen to attend this summer class. The class, Confident Faith, is designed just for teenagers, taught by our minister of youth, Nathan, beginning June 3, 9am.
The class will cover this great little book, Truth Matters, by Andreas Köstenberger. It was written to equip teens with a stronger foundation for their faith so they will be able to stand strong when they leave home and face the winds of false belief systems out in the world. Your teenager needs this big time! Make sure they get it.
Evangelical leaders such as Ed Stetzer, of LifeWay, and George Barna, of Barna Research Group, describe our church teens as having a very weak foundation for their faith. They are not equipped to deal with the non-Christian views they will face in the workplace and college classroom. They don’t know what they believe and they don’t know why they should believe the Bible. So as a church, we have decided to work hard to equip our teens much better than that. This class will help.
In the book you are introduced to a university professor, Bart Ehrman, at the University of North Carolina. He’s well-loved by all his students, like a rock star. He’s super intelligent, well spoken, lots of fun and a self-proclaimed atheist. And guess what he teaches…religion classes! He prides himself in dismantling the faith of the incoming freshmen. They come into his class as professing Christians but they leave no longer believing that the Bible is true and no longer calling themselves Christians. Many church kids are just not prepared to survive that and they don’t. What will your child do?
And don’t think your teen will be safe because they don’t plan to go to college. They will hear these exact same things in their workplace, in the media, and from the Hollywood stars they look up to. Oh, and those going to a Christian college, yea, them too. You’d be shocked to hear how many of those have professors who believe nearly the same things about the Bible as Bart Ehrman says. It’s shocking!
In the class and book they will learn why we should have confidence that the Bible has not been change over thousands of years and numerous translations. They will see how the Bible message has been preserved and is completely reliable today. Those so-called “contradictions” in the Bible will be addressed. They’re really not contradictions at all. And the worst attack of all, that God is not loving and good, will be addressed – He truly is good.
Parents, my advice is for you to read the book too. Learn along with your teens. Talk about what you’re learning around the dinner table or during family worship. Listen to your teen process what they’re reading. You’ll be amazed to see how God works in their heart. And you’ll probably learn some things you need to know too!
Go here to register teens for the class.
Go buy the Kindle version of the book, here, for only $2.99!
