Irreplaceable role of Christian Parents

One of our mentors in ministry and parenting, Steve Wright, recently sent out an email that had some really interesting statstistics about the role that Christian parents play in their kids lives. I thought it would be helpful to share some of those findings with you.

In Altemeyer and Hunsberger’s book Amazing Conversions, we are told the stories of forty-six college freshmen they call the “Amazing Apostates.” These students were identified in a survey of more than 2,000 college freshmen as being among those who were raised in church-going, Christian families but had abandoned their faith by the time they reached college. Here are a few excerpts from their extensive research.

• All of the different approaches to studying parental influences in the religious socialization process converge on a single conclusion: Parents play an extremely important role in the developing religious attitudes and practices of their offspring. In fact, few researchers would quarrel with the conclusion that parents are the most important influence in this regard.1^[i]

• We acquire our religion from our parents almost as certainly as we inherit the color of our eyes.2^[ii]

• You can make a pretty good prediction of how a university student, raised as a Christian, will still accept Christianity if you know how much the family religion was emphasized while he was growing up.3^[iii]

• Parents of those who “kept the faith” emphasized religion twice as much as the parents of those who became apostates.4^[iv]

• If today’s young people seem less religious than their parents, it may be traced to their parents’ neglecting to pass on the grandparents training.5^[v]

• During their research they asked these freshmen to identify who they most turned to when the experienced doubts or questions specifically in regards to religion and their faith. The responses were, in order:

- Talking with parents

- Reading the Bible

- Talking with friends

- Spending time in prayer

- Talking to a minister or religious leader

- Going to a camp or retreat to renew their faith.6^[vi]

Research and common sense tell us the importance of parents in the future success of teens, but it also points to the role of the church. What is needed, and is rarely the case, is a partnership between church and parents.

As parents, we cannot force our faith on our kids and ultimately they have a choice.  It is encouraging, and also a little frightening, to know our kids are taking notice of our faith. How we live and what we believe truly matters to our kids- they are watching.  So don't grow weary and keep living out your faith through the good and bad.  Our kids desire and need to see firsthand genuine faith lived out before them. We desire as a student ministry to work with parents to partner together to build a  foundation for a lasting life-long walk with the Lord.

For more info about Steve Wright and his wonderful resources on parenting and ministry you can go here:

http://www.inquest.org/cgi/commerce.cgi?display=home

We highly recommend these two books of Steve's that have really challenged and helped us in ministry and parenting!

 

New ESV Student Study Bible

There are more Bibles available than ever. There are Military Bibles, Bibles for hunters, Just for Girls Bibles and on and on...

We are often asked what type Bible we recommend. While we embrace and use many different versions within our student ministry there is a great one that we want to make sure you know about.  We are in the process of writing our own Sunday School curriculum. We have encouraged our writers to use the relatively new ESV(English Standard Version) Study Bible. It's unbelievable the amount of information, maps, word studies, and charts that are included in this study Bible.  ESV is the version that our pastor and student staff primarily use.

This is how the ESV's website describes it:
The ESV Study Bible was created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper way. Combining the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV text, it is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published.

The ESV Study Bible features more than 2,750 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources, including completely new notes, full-color maps, illustrations, charts, timelines, and articles created by an outstanding team of 93 evangelical Christian scholars and teachers. In addition to the 757,000 words of the ESV Bible itself, the notes and resources of the ESV Study Biblecomprise an additional 1.1 million words of insightful explanation and teaching-equivalent to a 20-volume Bible resource library all contained in one volume.

Well, now they have a student version.  Lifeway describes it like this:

"Perfect for those who want to learn more about God's word, this Bible includes 12,000 clear concise study notes;120 character profiles;nearly 900 "Did you know facts?", 80 full color maps,80,000 cross-references, and more."

 It's a theologically sound Study Bible for students that is well worth the money! (and Lifeway has it on sale right now)  Great Back to School gift for sure!! 

College Rankings

The Princeton Review's college rankings came out this week. While there are numerous college lists and rankings the Princeton Review prides itself on surveying current students at the different universities.

 "The Princeton Review’s 62 college rankings are “top 20” lists entirely based on the company’s survey of students attending the 376 colleges in its book, The Best 376 Colleges. The Princeton Review surveyed just over 122,000 students at the 376 schools in the book (not at all schools nationwide). On the 80-question survey, students were asked to rate their own schools on various topics and report on their campus experiences at them"


They rank everything from best food, best professors, most religious to who parties the hardest. It a very interesting list to say the least. It might be helpful as you and your student start looking and thinking about college decisions. Whether it helps with the decision or not- it could definitely be a conversation starter. 


For instance:


It would be a great time to tell them how you chose the college you attended.
Also great to hear what is important to them when they think about the future.
You could see if any of your favorite schools made the list.
Or you could scrap the Princeton Review altogether and make your own based on your experience as a family.


Here is the website:
http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx


You will have to sign up to see the whole list. It's free and doesn't take long and make sure you uncheck the box if you don't want them to send you emails in the future. Take a few minutes and look at it together and see what you find. 


Here is also a quick overview from "The Today Show"


The best colleges for food, dorms, athletics and more

Good Reads and Website

 

 Vicki Courtney is one of my favorites when it comes to parenting books and blogging.  She has great resources for parents of girls and boys. Two really good books by her are "Your Girl" and "Your Boy". Both of those books are about raising godly sons or daughters in an ungodly world. More recently she has come out with "5 Conversations you must have with your daughter" and "5 Conversations you must have with your son". It deals with conversations you need to have with your children about the lies that surround them in our culture. I have just started the son one and definitely recommend it. The daughter one has a workbook that goes along with it. The son book just came out this summer so I'm sure a workbook will follow at some point.

I love her because she is a real not a perfect mom. You don't have to read very far on her blog to see that she and her family struggle like the rest of us. But she does have a great passion and love for her children and connecting with them where they are. I admire her humor and honesty. Her books are very practical and feel like you are having a conversation with her.  Also you could pick and choose the chapters that apply most to what you and your children are dealing with at the time. 

Her website is interactive and very informative- it includes videos, a bookstore, blog and more. You can also sign up to receive email from her if you wish. Hope you find it as helpful as I have! http://vickicourtney.com/

So what's this all about?

This blog was created out of love and years of experience my husband and I have with teenagers. In fact- we love them so much we have made a career out of it. We have each been in youth ministry since the mid-90s. We each felt called to student ministry before we met and got married in 1997. We have seen many changes in youth culture during that time but some things have not. No matter what the decade, teenagers still need adults in their lives that love them and understand their world. So this is an attempt to keep you updated on what their world is like today- the good, bad and ugly. I'm by no means an expert but would like to make sure you are aware of all the great articles, websites, blogs, and books that are out there. In my opinion, there are better resources out there today than ever. I hope this helps keep you connected to them and their world during this important but ever-changing time in their life.