LifeWay: How Parents Can Impact the Church Drop Out

This article by LifeWay is a good reminder of what many of us give lip service to, but all to often fail to take into account when we decide how we are going to serve the students in our church in the following months and years: parents, for better or for worse, have a far greater impact on students than we do as youth pastors and volunteers. Of course, the ideals listed below won't always be possible in every family, but it should be something we shoot for.

I for one have been convicted as of late about how I lead our ministry in relation to our parents. I'm going through a study this semester with our junior high pastor and children's director using a book on family ministry titled Shift: What it takes to finally reach families today. It's good because while we may not ultimately use the ideas in the book, we are really talking about how we ought to be ministering to families. We have a long way to go, but I think we're headed in the right direction by simply sitting down and doing the theological work on the topic.

From the article:

Ultimately, church and culture don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The church should be the place where students learn how to interact with the culture without being swept into it. What are some practical ways churches and parents can help stem the tide of a young adult exodus?

1. Talk about your faith. The young generation not only wants to see faith in action, they desire for their parents to have a conversation with them about why their faith is important.
2. Give encouragement during life changes. Many dropouts we interviewed stated that a life change prompted their departure. One consistent way to help students through these life changes is to be a source of encouragement and support.
3. Empower students to serve. The more students serve in the church, the higher the likelihood that they’ll stay in the church. Don’t wait until students reach the age of 18 to ask them to serve. Find creative ways to get all ages involved in serving.
4. Surround students with mature adult believers. The greater the number of adults directly involved in a student’s life, the higher the probability that he or she will remain in the church. Conversely, our research also found that if students have few adults involved in their lives, the likelihood they drop out of church is greater. The heart of the church dropout problem exists within a short four-year window. If the dropout problem is solved with students in this age group, then the church dropout problem in general is remedied. I’m confident that parents, family members, friends, and other church members can rally behind students, connect with them, and model Jesus’ way of relating to the world.

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