The Absence of Children in the Church

There always has been a full-blown, spiritual attack on children.  But now it’s bolder.   The church must engage in the battle like never before.  Barna Research shows that what a young person believes by the time they are 13 years old is most likely what they will believe until death.  After the age of 19, someone’s probability of accepting Christ drops to just 6%.

     The battle is more difficult because children are not taken to church.  The social center of the community was the church, now it is the school.  In 2018 before the pandemic, church attendance  had dwindled to a mere 18% of the USA population.  Church attendees tend to be older, meaning far fewer than 18% of children were in church.  Now we have the additional phenomena of people who never got around to returning to church after the pandemic.  

     “The percentage of people (with ) a biblical worldview declines in each successively younger generation…to only 4 percent of Gen Z (teenagers).  This is a foreboding statistic for the Gen z children who are coming next.

     When a church loves and encourages children, parents appreciate it like nothing else.  Parenting is such hard work that when a child comes home with a new attitude, parents take notice and want to meet whoever is responsible.        

By Lydia Kaiser  CHURCHLEADERS

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”  Proverbs 22:6

“And He took the children in His arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them”     Mark 10:16