Page 5 - Principles for Discipling Others-Student textbook

Ken Ham in his book Already Gone [See Bibliography] provides us with a survey that reveals alarming
statistics about 1000 young adults in their 20’s:

61% of today’s young adults who used to be regular church attendees are now “spiritually
disengaged.” They are not actively attending church, praying, or reading their Bibles.

20% of those who were spiritually active during high school remain spiritually active.

19% of teens were never reached by the Christian community, and they are still disconnected
from the Church or any other Christian activities.

When asked “Why not go to church?” there was no single answer. The top 10 reasons given were:
1. 12% - “Boring Service”
2. 12% - “Legalism”
3. 11% - “Hypocrisy of leaders”
4. 10% - “Too political”
5. 9% - “Self-righteous people”
6. 7% - “Distance from home”
7. 6% - “Not relevant to personal growth”
8. 6% - “God would not condemn to hell”
9. 5% - “Bible not relevant/not practical”
10. 5% - “Couldn’t find my preferred denomination in the area”

Other reasons listed were:
“I simply wanted a break from church.”
“I moved to college and stopped attending church.”
“Work responsibilities prevented me from attending church.”
“I just didn’t feel good.”
“I wasn’t there because I chose to be someplace else.”

It is painful to note that out of the 1000 young people surveyed:
95% of them attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years.
55% attended church regularly during high school.
Only about 11% were still going to church during their early college years.
*It seems we are losing many more persons by middle school and many more by high school
than we will ever lose in college!

Finally, let us consider one more set of statistics that came out of Ken Ham’s survey….about those who
no longer believe that all of the accounts and stories in the Bible are true:
39.8% first had doubts in middle school
43.7% first had their doubts in high school
10.6% had their first doubts in college

“What a reminder to parents (and Christian leaders) to do exactly what God’s Word instructs us to do---
to ‘train up a child in the way he should go.” (Prov. 22:6). Ken Ham Already Gone, p32.

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