Missing Millennials

I recently read some research that was put out by the Creation Museum that you can find in their little book called “Gospel Reset” by Ken Ham. The title caught my eye since many Christians cannot accurately tell you exactly what the gospel is. Research in this book shows that 61% of millennials that grew up in church leave the church by their twenties, and only 20% of kids that were in church as a teen are still active at age 29. The book goes on to suggest that we need to change the way we share the gospel since today’s millennials don’t know “church language." I do agree with the premise of the book that we need to share the gospel differently today, but what this book should be about is sharing the gospel clearly, and you can ONLY share the gospel clearly by sharing Paul’s gospel of the grace of God without mixing it with the kingdom gospel Jesus and the 12 taught. Young people are leaving church because they have not been fed meat, and the few scraps of meat they do get from the pulpit today is under-cooked. Churches are all failing today for the simple reason that none of them are growing from new converts. Growth comes from having better music and more entertainment to pull people from smaller churches with less money. Kids are not taught doctrine because pastors and youth leaders don’t know how to rightly divide their Bibles. They preach Calvinistic doctrine and Israel’s earthly promises, and the kids quickly figure out that God lets them down. The fact is that God did not let them down, maybe we shouldn’t have promised them things the Bible does not! Here’s one clear example: My whole life I was told that God has a mate already picked out for me and he will “show me” whom I’m to marry. This sounds very spiritual and sure preaches well; unfortunately, the Bible DOES NOT say this, so now you have a teenager who believes God is going to show them who their soul mate is, and they look for circumstances to show them God’s will and get married.  I ask this question: What is the divorce rate within the “church?” You probably already know the statistics are the same as in the world at right around 50%. Now, your early twenties children believe God has let them down because their mate cheated on them, and their life is a mess. If that same pastor or youth leader would learn how to rightly divide his Bible, he would have taught those kids that God is not showing you things through circumstances today like he did for Israel. God directs us through his completed word the Bible if you rightly divide it and follow the principles contained in it. So what happens to the kids that believed God would “show them” who their perfect mate was? They leave church because their own life experience, or the life experience they see with their own eyes does not match up with the false Calvinistic denominational teaching they were taught. The sad thing is marriage is only one example of the proof that we are setting our kids up to become disillusioned with church and leave in their twenties. They are taught that God is answering prayer just as he did in the OT and during the Acts period and they quickly learn from life experience that God is not answering prayer the same way regardless of what the pastor says, so when that loved one dies even though they prayed so fervently they lose hope in God and leave the church.  Here are the FACTS, God IS NOT picking a mate for you because he gave you a mind and clear Biblical instructions to follow in his word on how to go about doing this. I am not saying not to pray about it, but I am saying stop looking for circumstances in this sin cursed world to direct you. Here is another fact, God IS NOT answering prayer today like he did during the OT and the Acts period because we are NOT his earthly people with earthly promises. We are his heavenly people, and we ARE NOT promised deliverance from sickness and distresses like Israel was. We are promised GRACE while we are IN our troubles and trials. We need to stop watching Christian movies and start studying our Bible the way our apostle Paul told us to. IF we do this, we will see our kids stay in church because rightly dividing your Bible has the answers. The ecumenical preaching found in the vast majority of churches today is setting our kids up for failure because they go off to college, and the atheist professor seams to make more sense than what they learned growing up in church.  What happens when you blamed God for picking the perfect marriage partner and then you end up divorced? What happens when you tell someone God is healing today because he did it back in the gospels, and the sickness does not go away? There are probably dozens of examples like these we could find to show the way churches today are prepping kids to leave. The proof is in the numbers, and you can’t discount the numbers. Kids are leaving church at a staggering rate. Teach them right division, so they can actually UNDERSTAND the Bible, what they believe, WHY they believe it, and can actually STAND UP for the truth. Are your kids worth it?