Dear Mosaic,
According to recent statistics 75-88% of Christian teenagers are walking away from Christianity after they graduate from high school.
WHY? What's not to like about Jesus?
You guys had some great answers.
Peer pressure in college
Independence from parent's rules
No one to tell them what they have to do or not do.
May be they weren't really Christians
Too many temptations and not enough good influences when they are living on their own
All of these are really great answers and very likely for a lot of the teenagers that graduate high school.
Did you know that there are more youth ministries, youth leaders, youth resources and youth groups today than ever in the history of mankind? We know more about today's culture and how to market Christianity than ever before. The problem is that more teenagers than ever before continue to leave the church each year.
When Alaina and I heard those kinds of statements, it made us want to do things differently. How do we stop this from happening? Because we don't want to lose you guys or any teenager to the empty lies of the world. Rather we want all of you and your friends and families to be 100% in love with Jesus in whom we find real, true life.
Remember we read in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Here it is just to refresh your memory:
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Some of the things we saw here were:
God chose a family.
We are commanded to love God (and others).
The teachings of Scripture are to be impressed on the children.
Those teachings are to be lived out everywhere, all the time.
!IMPORTANT! Since it looks like the family is a huge part of passing on a passion for the Word of God from one generation to the next, we decided that may be YOUR parents should come have a look at this too. Don't get us wrong, we think your parents are probably doing a GREAT job raising you, that's why we want them to involved for the next few weeks.
So, if your parents can come next Sunday, we are going to get to know them some and we are going to dive into the Word of God together. This may not be the normal thing to do, but we are going to try it for a few weeks. If your parents can't come or don't want to or only one of them can come, no worries, but make sure they know that we REALLY like them and would love to have them here. We want YOU here even if your parents can't come. Come and study the word with us, worship with us and pray with us, we want you here.
NOTE: We are going to ask that younger siblings NOT come this time. A lot of you are excited that you can now come to Mosaic and we want to keep that special for you. They will join us soon enough.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Love you guys,
Loren and Alaina plus Zane
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