Tag Archives: Christianity

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3 Kinds of Students That Leave Christianity After High School

The words that no Christian parent or youth leader ever wants to hear

I just don’t believe what you believe anymore….These are words that no Christian parent or youth leader ever wants to hear. After this bombshell hits and the shockwaves subside, we wonder if something could have been different. What happened to this student who was so active in church growing up? After all, they never missed youth group. Sadly, this scenario is not the exception. Approximately 50 percent of students will disengage from their faith after they leave home.


While students have to ultimately choose whom they will follow, I think there is a lot we can do to reverse this trend. First, we need to better understand the students who leave their faith behind after graduation. As I’ve worked with high school and college students over the years and studied the research, there are three basic kinds of students that leave Christianity after high school.

The Christian Relativist

To understand this first type, meet Jennifer. Jennifer grew up in a Christian home and regularly attends church. Over time, she observes a lot of her friends and older Christians in her life saying one thing, but living another. The takeaway? Christianity is (more…)

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Christians Never Outgrow the Gospel

Do Christians ever outgrow the Gospel? I mean isn’t the Gospel what you heard in Sunday school or vacation Bible school when you were a kid? Surely we are beyond that now right? Nope–not if we really understand how wonderful and radical the Gospel truly is.

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Asking the Hard Questions About the Bible

All of us have questions about the Bible. At the end of the day, what we have to figure out is what we will do with those questions.

Will we keep them hidden and allow unanswered questions to slowly erode our confidence that God has spoken? Or will we courageously question the Bible in a way that actually builds our faith?

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Why ISIS Attacks on Christians Should be Declared Genocide by United States

Some things are obvious–or at least they should be until political calculus and political correctness get in the way.

The rest of the world recognizes the brutal atrocities that Christians face in the middle east right now as Genocide at the hands of ISIS. Why can’t our government?

christians_persecutedHonestly, it is shameful that they haven’t. If you are not aware of what is going, please take the time to read and share this so people will know and reach out. There is support in Congress:

“The US House of Representatives has unanimously voted to declare the actions of ISIS against Middle Eastern Christians (and other minorities) officially “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.” (Read the rest)

Hopefully (more…)

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What Does Walking By Faith Look Like?

As important as an act of faith is at a point in time, the Christian life is a walk of faith—continuing acts of obedience. Sometimes the notion of “blind faith” creeps into our understanding of walking by faith as well. Didn’t Paul say that “we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7)? He did, but as David Clark explains,

“this means only that at times a Christian may rightly allow faith, in the sense of trust in God, to guide his thinking even though he has no direct evidence. For instance, if I trust my friend and he says he will do something for me, I may rightly believe he will do it, even when I lack direct evidence what he will fulfill his promise. . . . Loyalty and allegiance, based partly on past experience, may rightly guide my thinking and acting.”

This same sentiment is expressed in Hebrews 11 where these courageous men and woman did not allow their circumstances to have the final word. Rather, they continued to look forward to what had been promised with hope and trust.

Faith in this context is a confident expectation in the promises and faithfulness of God. This is what it means for the righteous to live by faith (Rom. 1:17). We trust God even in the midst of difficult times because He is faithful. We trust Him even when the fog of life rolls in making it difficult to see the way forward. This is the kind of faith God is pleased with (Heb. 11:6).

God give us the courage to trust you in the midst of what we don’t understand. Thank you for your past faithfulness that we can lean into in the every day circumstances of life.

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If you found this post helpful, you would enjoy “Should Christians Have Doubts?”

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