#0134 “You Lost Me” - The Young American Church
02/15/24 • 72 min
“You Lost Me” - The Young American Church
Introduction: How has the Church lost the youth in the West? Why do we see so many teens and young 20s fleeing the Church? Let's explore that problem as we watch our culture stray further every day.
Introduction of the Panel:
So what is happening with the youth in the West? Let's look at some numbers:
What Children Currently Believe
Noting that a person's worldview is typically formed before they reach the age of 13, Barna provided data from a Cultural Research Center national survey of adolescents conducted for the Raising Spiritual Champions book. That survey revealed that of the seven cornerstone beliefs, a majority of adolescents believes only one of those points of view.
• 69% - God exists and is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect Creator and ruler of the universe
• 36% - As a sinner, the only solution to the consequences of sin is to acknowledge your sins, ask
God to forgive you through Jesus Christ, and rely on Him to save you from those consequences
• 35% - Sin is real, and significant; we are all sinners, by choice
2
• 27% - Your most important reason for living is to do what God wants
• 25% - You trust the Bible because it is completely true and personally relevant to your life
• 21% - The Bible provides a complete and reliable understanding of right and wrong
• 17% - Success is consistently doing what the Bible teaches
In terms of developing a solid foundation for a biblical worldview, just 3% embrace all seven of those
perspectives. That does not bode well for adolescents building a stable foundation that will lead to a
robust and biblical worldview.
Adolescents clearly are exposed to many different points of view related to the subject matter of the
cornerstones. The Cultural Research Center study revealed that most of today's adolescents (58%)
believe just two or fewer of the seven cornerstones.
Cornerstones Embraced Percentage of adolescents
So no wonder we see exits from the church like this:
So is it Youth Pastors? Are they to blame? You might make that argument if you take this information in vacuum:
https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AWVI2022_Release05_Digital.pdf
However, let's zoom out a bit and look closer at the Church as a whole:
https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/
It's almost like there's a cancer of unbelief in the Church at large. Do you REALLY believe that God is real? If you did, what would you do about listening to Him, seeking council of Him? Would you not have a desire for a stronger relationship with those who call Him Lord?
Chair of Theology:
What does the Bible say about generational knowledge of God? Joshua 4:9, Judges 2:10-19
Judges 21:25, 2 Chronicles 33:1-6. How long does it take to lose such respect for God?
Chair of Philosophy:
If this world is not our home, how should we go about preparing our children for the next world? How should WE live in this world?
Chair of Culture:
The world has had its way with the Church instead of the Church promoting God to the World. What is the process by which we can see Godly change in our Culture?
Chair of Politics:
What have we seen happen to our freedom of worship and the sovereignty of the parent in the political sphere without God in the Culture? Voting is important, but how can we correct this problem at its root?
Chair of Economics:
Where one's treasure is, so is their heart. If we are to be wise stewards of our time and treasure, what would that look like on this Earth and how would that translate into a lifestyle?
Outro
Final Question: Favorite Youth Group Game
“You Lost Me” - The Young American Church
Introduction: How has the Church lost the youth in the West? Why do we see so many teens and young 20s fleeing the Church? Let's explore that problem as we watch our culture stray further every day.
Introduction of the Panel:
So what is happening with the youth in the West? Let's look at some numbers:
What Children Currently Believe
Noting that a person's worldview is typically formed before they reach the age of 13, Barna provided data from a Cultural Research Center national survey of adolescents conducted for the Raising Spiritual Champions book. That survey revealed that of the seven cornerstone beliefs, a majority of adolescents believes only one of those points of view.
• 69% - God exists and is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect Creator and ruler of the universe
• 36% - As a sinner, the only solution to the consequences of sin is to acknowledge your sins, ask
God to forgive you through Jesus Christ, and rely on Him to save you from those consequences
• 35% - Sin is real, and significant; we are all sinners, by choice
2
• 27% - Your most important reason for living is to do what God wants
• 25% - You trust the Bible because it is completely true and personally relevant to your life
• 21% - The Bible provides a complete and reliable understanding of right and wrong
• 17% - Success is consistently doing what the Bible teaches
In terms of developing a solid foundation for a biblical worldview, just 3% embrace all seven of those
perspectives. That does not bode well for adolescents building a stable foundation that will lead to a
robust and biblical worldview.
Adolescents clearly are exposed to many different points of view related to the subject matter of the
cornerstones. The Cultural Research Center study revealed that most of today's adolescents (58%)
believe just two or fewer of the seven cornerstones.
Cornerstones Embraced Percentage of adolescents
So no wonder we see exits from the church like this:
So is it Youth Pastors? Are they to blame? You might make that argument if you take this information in vacuum:
https://www.arizonachristian.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AWVI2022_Release05_Digital.pdf
However, let's zoom out a bit and look closer at the Church as a whole:
https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/
It's almost like there's a cancer of unbelief in the Church at large. Do you REALLY believe that God is real? If you did, what would you do about listening to Him, seeking council of Him? Would you not have a desire for a stronger relationship with those who call Him Lord?
Chair of Theology:
What does the Bible say about generational knowledge of God? Joshua 4:9, Judges 2:10-19
Judges 21:25, 2 Chronicles 33:1-6. How long does it take to lose such respect for God?
Chair of Philosophy:
If this world is not our home, how should we go about preparing our children for the next world? How should WE live in this world?
Chair of Culture:
The world has had its way with the Church instead of the Church promoting God to the World. What is the process by which we can see Godly change in our Culture?
Chair of Politics:
What have we seen happen to our freedom of worship and the sovereignty of the parent in the political sphere without God in the Culture? Voting is important, but how can we correct this problem at its root?
Chair of Economics:
Where one's treasure is, so is their heart. If we are to be wise stewards of our time and treasure, what would that look like on this Earth and how would that translate into a lifestyle?
Outro
Final Question: Favorite Youth Group Game
Previous Episode
#0133 How Did The Church Lose It's Cultural Authority
When Did The Church Lose The Culture War? Introduction: When did the Church lose the Culture War? Spoiler Alert, she lost something much more important LONG before she lost the Culture War. What is that, you may ask? Let's explore that as we watch our culture stray further, every, day. Introduce the Guests and Panelists What happened in the 1940s-1960s with the Church, what happened to our view of Biblical Inerrancy? Well, since the 1800s, there had been an attack on the integrity of the Bible's Historical translation and preservation. By the 1940s and 1950s, seminarians were being taught things like Mark 16:9-20 was not originally in the Bible and Jesus did not rise from the dead, in contradiction to all evidence to the contrary. However, this showed in the belief of those in the pews: https://news.gallup.com/poll/166613/four-report-attending-church-last-week.aspx We then see a slow decline in those who even believe in a God leading up to today: https://news.gallup.com/poll/393737/belief-god-dips-new-low.aspx All of this to say, when we see how the Bible had taken back seat to Human Philosophy, the Church truly lost its power within its own borders. Shortly after that she lost her authority in the culture. Just a few years later, the Supreme Court reversed its long standing view on prayer and God in schools and the following happened: SAT Scores Plummeted: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Historical_Average_SAT_Scores_%28Vector%29.svg Unwed Teenage Pregnancy Skyrocketed: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/US-birth-rates-for-ages-15-19-and-percent-of-nonmarital-births-Source-US-vital_fig1_310512785 Now we see a rapid decline of Christianity within the last decade, and the rise of not atheism, but spirituality: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/09/13/how-u-s-religious-composition-has-changed-in-recent-decades/ It's almost like we shutout the authority of all knowledge and excellence from the Pulpit and as that trickled into the rest of the Culture, we saw a regression in every sphere of American Life. How can we as Christians in this nation begin to reverse this course? Chair of Theology: What should our fundamental mission be in our world today, and I don't mean the Earth, or the USA, but in our Families, Friends, and Work Relationships? Chair of Philosophy: With the above in mind, how should we order our lives? If we know that our relationship with God directly affects our ability to witness and be effective in our day to day world, how will this knowledge affect our daily lives? Chair of Culture: What must we do in our lives and in our Churches to regain an Authority in the Culture? Is it possible to further damage the view of Christ in the Culture during our outreach? How do we avoid this? Chair of Politics: How has the Christian often confused Politics and Theology? How have we divorced them? How does one go about living as a Citizen of both this world and the next? Chair of Economics: How have we lost the value of the Gospel in whitewashing it to make it more “applicable” to the “seeker”? In the 1960s, the Church focused on making itself more “accessible” to the world. There is something to be said for dispensing with the us 4 and no more attitude that develops in Churches, but how has the Church devalued Holiness in America? How have we become more focused on seats filled and money raised, as opposed to lives changed? Final Thoughts One last thing: What is your favorite thing from the 1960s? #respect #goodguyswinning #Guns #trans #nra #transgender #brettcooper #mattwalsh #changemymind #stevencrowder #michaelknowles #benshapiro #fed #woke #podcast #christianity #furthereveryday #america #rights #listenable #abortion #deathofthewest #israel #palestine #hamasattack #israelhamaswarnewstoday
Next Episode
#0135 Why Hollywood Hates Prince Charming -Further. Every. Day.
Why Hollywood Hates Prince Charming Further. Every. Day.
Fairytales, Fables, parables, these are all names for the ideal of stories that we tell children to represent the world as it ought to be, not necessarily as it is. We teach our children about morality via these stories.
In 1937 Snow White, hit the Theatres and the world was in awe at the story of the technical achievement and the beauty of the story of Snow White, the animated masterpiece captured even the hardest of hearts. Today, the story is seen as paternalistic and harmful, but why? And it's not just Snow White, but every princess or woman who is saved by a man is considered a harmful archetype, to be replaced only by the woman saving, and rejecting romantically, the man. Why the shift? Let's talk about that today as we watch our culture strays Further Every Day.
To get context, let's watch two clips of Snow White:
Here's where Snow White wishes to meet the Prince and gets that wish granted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54QeNL5ih6A
Here's the controversial scene where the Prince kisses the deceased Snow White:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bOwgBV_IbU
Rachel Zegler is the embodiment of the Woke Culture's view on the above scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUdwH4lqaUQ
There are three things that can be seen here in Zegler's remarks:
- A disdain for Traditional Gender Roles and Men
- A disdain for history and the desire to remake the world into a woke world
- A disdain for everyone who came before her and gave her the privileges she enjoyed as a Disney Princess
Let us look at another re-characterization of a classic story, Sleeping Beauty.
Here are the scenes that have sparked controversy:
Once Upon A Dream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXbHShUnwxY
Here's the culture's take on both of these stories:
https://sites.middlebury.edu/disneyprincesses/perpetuation-of-rape-culture/
Here's the substitute that we see placed in the prince's kiss for both movies: https://youtu.be/ZPrAFHAfpng?feature=shared
Jordan Peterson on the valuable lessons from Sleeping Beauty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pavFsm5ZL8U
Peterson also goes onto a different interview to say that the story of Snow White has other valuable insights about how a woman must sort through the 7 Dwarfs of her life, each with a piece of what she specifically needs, until she can truly understand and “wake up” to or understand what type of man she truly wants, in Prince Charming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyWkgWsdPXY
All of these are valuable lessons that postmodernism shuns, as a woman doesn't need man, and men are basically evil. The root of this lies here: A Disdain and Hatred for Natural Gender Roles and Marriage. If the Enemy of Our Souls can destroy marriage, then how can we ever enjoy the picture of Christ and the Church that was inlaid into the framework of marriage? In the Bible, we see the and and woman specifically given roles that look like Christ and His Bride.
There is nothing wrong with the female protagonist. No one here wants a world of only Prince Charming movies, but if you look at the trend against men saving the day and only becoming the lesser, dumber, or even the completely villainous suitors, you see a move by the postmodern world against the value of traditional marriage. To say that such men do not exist is to be a blind as to say that no princesses are in fact shrews. However, the fairytale genre is focused on the idealist interpretation of the world for the minds of children so as to shape their worldview.
If we tell our youth that men tend to be evil and women should invariably be the leaders alone without a family, then we rob children of their God Given Roles. God designed men to be the Savior (with a role of sacrifice, provision, and protection) of the family. This makes him accountable to God for how he leads his family. God designed women to desire children and to nurture them. When we make the man the villain and the woman the Lone Ranger, men never fulfill the purpose of “Saving the Day”, and women grow old in a childless state, only comforted by professional accolades and cats.
Theology: What are the traditional roles for man and Woman?
Philosophy: Why is the world breaking down these roles, even to the point of mockery?
...If you like this episode you’ll love
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