Ouch many of you say.  Big topic right?  Well maybe not so big.  I am going to try to keep this brief for the sake of Monica and Kimberly (my friendly editors in their hearts...Teehee).   The question of church attendance keeps coming up for so many people and believe me so many people are disenchanted with church.  I have been disenchanted with church at times in my life.  I am human, not super human.  

A few years ago Vernon and I looked at this from a lot of angles.  The first question we had to consider was how to keep the youth in church as they age out into young adults; mostly because the season was fast approaching for our own children.  Churches are losing membership as a children graduate from high school in alarming numbers.  But why?  We truly believe it MAY be a result of some of the following...

• Teens are not stupid for sure.  
  
• Teens want the truth.  Not what you think but the truth shown to them in the scriptures.
• Teens don't want a red ribbon week lesson in Sunday School.  They get that it is wrong.  
• Teens want to know why they do things.
• Teens want to see that you live what you say at least some of the time. 
• Teens don't want more of the world.  They have that the other 6 days and 22 hours a week.  That want something else.  That don't want peer pressure and your expectations that are not God's expectations.  They can read. 
• Teens don't trust teachings on tithing especially when they are having to make a car payment and insurance and they only make $7.35.  So teach them about stewardship instead of tithing.  Besides, tithing is not a word in the Bible and they are going to question that and probably refuse it.  
• Teens want ways to defend their faith.  Proof.  Movies like... "THE SEARCH for the Real Mt. Sinai" will open their eyes and give them answers from watching the scriptures come alive.  Those men could literally show you the biblical outline for where the real Mt. Sinai was.  They weren't flowery, smiling constantly, using loads of "religious" words in their speech.  Those men were real men that lied to sneak into a country and risked their lives in an attempt to find the proof that the Bible says there is.  That will teach them how to prove the Biblical stories. 
• Teens want to know why to not believe in Evolution if you are going to teach against it.  Show them the book of Job and how God told Job to consider the Leviathan and the Behemoth.  Look at the descriptions God gave and show them even in the footnotes of the Behemoth, humans have inserted that it was an elephant but look at that description.  A tale like a cedar, a neck that drinks the river.. sounds like a long neck.  If the Bible is true, then man did walk with dinosaurs.  Introduce them to Ken Ham, former high school science teacher, Creationist and now jailed man.  Let them see the court records for themselves and see if there is persecution and if so, for what.  That will jolt them.   
• Teens want to know if the medicine of the Bible is for real.  Do some research, have them research.  Are seeds of fruit meat for our bones?  Really?  Have them eat different seeds from fruit and research what chemical compounds make them up.  Have them research how these particular compounds vs synthetic compounds of the same name interact in our body.  
• Teens want to know if it is true that without a good relationship with their father, their ways will become wayward.  They want to know how to stop the bad behavior, build a relationship with their own earthly father.  They need to know that even a good, no great relationship with their father still isn't a guarantee that they won't mess up.  The Brookland School District had a few teachers do a study of the involvement of dads in girls lives.  Why?  They were targeting a few girls that were always in trouble, fights, etc.  They asked the dads to just come eat lunch with their daughters of these selected girls once per week.  They didn't tell the girls what they were doing but after a short period of time, the girls stopped getting into so much trouble.  The Biblical standard was proven and the study was not even faith based.  Real life situations that prove God's Word, not just for instances or because the Sunday School lesson said so...  hmmmm...  Then the tough one... they want to know what relationship they can have if they don't have their father in their life and how to trust an invisible father and why they should.  
• Teens don't want to waste their time getting up for 2 hours on Sunday for a feel good lesson/sermon that doesn't really prove the Bible to be truth.  Meatless messages, lessons, they all just serve to let them know that they would feel good just sleeping in.  They know that God is good and what sin is.  They want to know how to serve outside the walls without being made to look like a freak in school.  They need to know that they don't always HAVE to stand out for the Light of Christ to shine.  They are still teens and they are persecuted enough so teach them how to get respect for their beliefs and the fact that there will those that will never respect that.  
• Home schools that have teens that don't have a church life, what about you?  Everyone thinks that everyone homeschools for religious reasons right.  The bar is set higher for your kids if you go to church and that isn't fair either.  How do get encouraged as a family?  People the reasons for home education are now as varied as fingerprints.  I know many of you out there have tried church.  I know many of you are foster parents that may have just gotten a heartbroken, maybe even angry child that just got removed from his/her home at 2 am and now you are so exhausted from consoling a child through the night that you just have no physical strength to go.  I know that many of you are viewed for the income that you have and looked upon for good tithes.  They want to promote you to positions that you don't want because you want to learn just like everyone else.  Money does not always equate with Biblical knowledge.  I know that many of you are barely keeping bread on the table and may even have to ration that out (been there, done that) but when you come to serve, you are turned away because you are new and you need time to grow but yet you have seen the Hand of God and He has held your hand.  You have the relationship with Christ that is sweet, serene and one that others only long to have but yet you are viewed as not worthy.  Some of you have disabled children such autism and church attendance means that you get up, fight to get everyone dressed and go to church only to have to sit with your child in the back to keep him/her quiet just so others are disturbed.  

These are all issues that come up over and over. 
 
Wait, did I say teens?  I think this applies to most everyone.  Am I a member of a perfect church that always gives in depth lessons and sermons?  Well no.  No one is.  We are all human.  So why am I pointing out the church?  Because parents, the church starts in your hearts.  You need to research all these things.  You need to prove these things to yourself.  You need to find a biblical based church and go every chance you can.  

If you attend one that you feel is not meeting the criteria you need, talk to your Pastor.  People will never know where you stand if you just stay home.  Home church is not what God had intended but neither is church without faithfulness.  

Finally, as Christians we are to encourage one another.  Don't judge others that don't attend church.  If you don't have a personal relationship with those that don't/can't/won't you probably don't know the reasons they don't.  Church is the place to get filled up with the Word so that you can survive the week in the world.  It is a place that you can fellowship and grow in the Word.  So Christians, pray for one another, pray for those that don't have faith and serve as Christ served you so that others might want to serve.  Don't beat them over the head.  It absolutely never works because who wants to join up with something that says if WE convict them and tell them to pay up for blessings, they will come.  Wrong.........  

It is your walk that shines the Light of Christ or turns others away.  People like the truth.  God will do the convicting.  

Wait, did I say you?   I meant.... I    

Where are you on this issue?