Child evangelism - Where are they

Child Evangelism: Where Are They?

In 2002, a Southern Baptist Council on Family Life reported to the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting that 88% of the children raised in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18, never to return. Regardless of how we may regard such reports, we must admit that this data is very alarming. I think the reality will hit home if we just begin to consider the evangelistic efforts among the churches we are familiar with. Who are the “converts” in the majority of churches? Children, right? That is well and good. We often rejoice at the reports of their conversions; however, have you ever stopped to consider what happens to these converts? We count the numbers each year, then, they are gone. Sure, some parents continue to bring them along while they are still in school, but what happens to these same children when they depart home for college or work? How many young adults do you see growing in a vital love relationship with Jesus and for the brethren? Where are earnest Christ-followers in the 20, 30, and 40 year age ranges? After all, those individuals were the converts we boasted about during the last three decades. Have you ever stopped to consider what is being produced through the modern evangelistic message and methods? Our churches, having more zeal than Biblical knowledge, have hardly allowed any child to depart high school without making them a notch on our belts through bus ministry, vacation Bible school, Sunday School, and church camp efforts. But now they are gone. Now, anytime an ambassador for Christ approaches them with the Gospel they say, “I have already done that. I am saved.” We have generations of false converts who will one day open their eyes in Hell and we continue to produce more. But we would never admit that… Yet, the Bible is clear that the ones who are truly saved will not depart from the faith (John 8:31; 10:27). The Bible is clear that those who depart manifest that they are not saved (1 John 2:19). The truth is that people are not being genuinely saved through the message and methods of our day. The Gospel of Christ has been perverted and diluted. God have mercy upon us! It is time to ‘consider our ways’.