I was recently reading in a book titled, "Equipping the Younger Saints" written by David Walters. Now with any books that I read of this nature I do prepare myself to take some but also leave some parts of the book behind that don't necessarily line up with where my faith or vision lies.
So here is a quote that stuck out to me from this book as follows;
'Unless our children receive a real vision of God, Who He is, What He is done for them and what He has destined them to become, we will lose them. It has been stated that 80 percent of all church-raised kids in the Western world leave the church by the time they become adults. This is the generation that we are fighting to save.'
Breaking this quote apart here, what impacted me the most is what already lines up with my very real experience through life - and that is, growing up in the church that I did - it was a highly religious and very traditional church. We were the product generations later of John Alexander Dowie who founded the holy city of Zion, IL. There is some great reading material about Dowie and all that he endeavored to do with the city and granted, not all of what he did missed the mark - in fact some of it was spot on and testifies to the large amounts of healing and deliverances that followed Dowie through the height of his ministry. To give you a very brief synopsis of what Zion was founded to be like;
1) there was no gum chewing
2) there was no spitting on the streets
3) Zion itself was a 'dry' town and just until about 5 years ago the town still would not have allowed alcohol within city limits
4) most of the streets in Zion are biblical names (shiloh, bethesda, bethel, elim, elisha, elizabeth, gabriel, etc)
5) Zion employed most of it's own people in factories that Dowie developed including the lace factory (very famous in its day), candy factory and others - and as they were developed by the church and run by the church your 10% tithe was automatically deducted from your check! Imagine if the church did that in this day and age, eh?
The list could go on and on however I think this is driving the point across - Zion was to be a utopia of sorts, let no evil in and let no evil abide within the town.
So the reason I'm going backwards through this history - these people that were originally in the transplant of Dowie followers from Chicago all the way up to Zion were people that experienced God in many ways that most of us have not. They did see the miraculous occur on an every day basis! And so yet here I was generations later, a by-product of families that had moved up to Zion following Dowie. The church at this age no longer encountered miracles and in reality, did not experience the presence of God as originally they had. What went wrong? I would be a theologian to answer that question in entirety which I dare not - but I would say my point in all this is to open up awareness of why a real vision, an every day real vision is what we need. It is not enough to try to ride it out on other's experiences of God as that well goes dry, time and time again. And so in looking at this quote and thinking of how we are raising this next generation of saints of God, I am in full belief that our children must have a real experience with God, a daily real expereince with God that they can personally call their own. They must 'own' this for themselves.
And to testify to this personally, I myself did leave that church later in life - right after high school - why? Because again, my experience wasn't real, it was tradition, it was just not life changing enough to me to shake me to the core and capture fully my heart in living my life out for Christ. I did not have a true awareness of what Christ's death and resurrection meant for my life - I didn't know the cost of it either and so took certain things for granted. (quick disclaimer here - for the church in mention, this was at least 15 years ago and I have no idea really where this church is at today with these things!!)
We will endeavor to teach our children as often as possible what Christ has done for them and to usher them into the presence of God on a consistent basis so they grow up with opportunities to experience God. And through all of this, completely trusting God for their salvation and their care. Above all, proclaiming that His Will be done for them in all of life.
This quote may spark fear in some of the 80% that do leave the church or rather it can raise within us a fighting spirit on their behalf to commit ourselves to let these children have real experiences with God. I am confident of this - that these boys and girls that grow up experiencing God throughout their lives will never be able to escape Him. In fact they will be ruined for everything and anything else having tasted His Goodness and His Mercy and His Love.
Amen and so be it in the name of Jesus!
