questions...

This is the latest article I submitted for our church newsletter.....

Last week I got a call from a college student in total distress because her upbringing in the Church had not prepared her to defend her faith or to never waver while standing upon the rock of Christ. Her church taught her the Bible was true; it is the Word of God. They taught her Evolution was wrong and that the Bible holds the story of creation. And she believed it. Then she got slammed in more than one class in the same day. It wasn’t like people ganged up on her in lecture, or like anyone even said, "You’re wrong." It was more like her professors and textbooks spoke quite matter-of-factly and never even acknowledged there might be another perspective. She went to class and read for class and thought, "hmmm, that sounds pretty believable." Then she had to reconcile the two in her mind. If her professors were right, was her upbringing wrong? If her textbooks were true, did she not really believe in God after all? She was heart broken. She thought she was failing. She thought she was letting everyone down, especially God.

I was listening to a seminar about preparing youth to go off to college. And Chuck Bomar talks about how we’ve become really good at telling our kids things. We’ve gotten to be great at behavior management and making sure our kids have consciences. HOWEVER – conscience does not equate with faith. The kids in our youth group know all the things their parents and teachers and coaches and I hope that they won’t do. But do they know why? For example, Chuck talks about growing up and being told not to put his elbows on the table. Why? Because it’s rude. Ok, no elbows on the table. So as an adult, if he is out with someone – he will not put his elbows on the table unless the person he is with does it first because to that other person – it MIGHT be rude. His Mom told him. He can still hear her voice. He doesn’t think that it’s rude… and yet it is still with him and he still acts on it.

Chuck goes on to talk about how we hand our kids all this information – we teach it to them as fact and truth. THEN they go to college, and they don’t have Mom and Dad, or Mr. Pierson, or Coach Metheny, or Teri to answer to when they come back from a date. Things get hot and heavy and they might want to wait for marriage to have sex, but they want to know how far is too far? Well, chances are they know they think they want to wait – but they have NO IDEA why they are waiting, or they wouldn’t be asking anyone else how far is too far. See – their behavior has been successfully managed - but the faith issue of how sex before marriage might effect their relationship with God was never established. Our kids go off to school and find themselves surrounded by piles upon piles of NEW information – and for the first time they are being forced to think through it all FOR THEMSELVES. They have to decide what they think about the stuff we told them, AND all the stuff they’re hearing now.

Chuck gives a great parable. If you sit on a tack you don’t go to the doctor to get painkillers so the tack won’t hurt. You pull out the tack and toss it. Apparently, 68% of the kids we think are Christian when we send them to college pull the church out of their backsides – and don’t come back. SIXTY EIGHT PERCENT. That breaks my heart. But I don’t think this is just an issue concerning our college kids. I mean, we were all that age once. Have you and I finished examining all the things we were told? Have we even started? And what about the kids? I mean, we promise to help raise every child we baptize. Are we handing them answers or are we helping them discover their relationship and what they think about God?

I think need to praise God that my student is wrestling with him and pray she comes out knowing exactly who she is to him. And I’ll make sure to be there to help her ask more questions. The rest of this was just something to chew on…