WELCOME to the debut episode of my new podcast with LIFE AUDIO… CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD! Yes, I have a new podcast. It’s the perfect time to start a podcast, isn’t it? I’m kidding. The timing is terrible. Everyone and their mother and their mother’s brother has a podcast. Literally. Leave it to me to wipe up the tail end of a wave. But hey, I’ve got five kids and the youngest just turned four, so I’m wiping up the tail end of everything. Ahem.

So how did this podcast happen? Well…

Late last fall, the podcast director for Life Audio, the audio section of the Salem Web Network which houses Christian Headlines, Crosswalk, iBelieve, and Bible Study Tools (who I write for), contacted me about doing a podcast. They offered to finance this venture and market it to their entire audience base and beyond. The hand of God was so clearly on this opportunity, I couldn’t say no. And I didn’t want to. My heart is completely in this, despite the massive sea of podcasts out there. Yes, I am braving the densely populated podcast world in search of what God has for me there. 

I know that my website has had crickets chirping lately. That is because Life Audio needed five completed podcasts to launch. Up front. I’ve birthed five babies, so I’m familiar with the gestation process. But it takes time. So for the past five months, I’ve been developing the concept for this podcast, choosing images & logos, picking theme music, outlining the episodes, and recording.

And finally… this week I GAVE BIRTH. Here is my new baby:

CHRISTIAN PARENT/CRAZY WORLD is a podcast about raising Godly kids in an ungodly world. In each episode, I will answer a critical question that threatens to derail your parenting and steal your kids faith. This podcast will prepare you as parents to help your kids stand strong in their faith after they leave the nest. 

This FIRST EPISODE examines the massive youth exodus we are experiencing from the church. Discover the truth about how many Christian kids are leaving the faith, why they are leaving, and what our youth believe that makes it so easy to fall away.

You can listen to EPISODE 1 HERE:

You can subscribe to CPCW on SPOTIFY, APPLE PODCASTS, and POCKET CASTS.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think! And feel free to post an idea for a future episode.

EPISODE 1 RESOURCES & LINKS:

Here are links to all the statistics and sources that I site in Episode 1.

WHAT DO THE STATISTICS TELL US:

A new LifeWay Research survey (Jan. 15, 2019) Two-thirds of young people say they stopped regularly going to church for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22.

 Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies, by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, “Most studies indicate between 45%-48% of youth leave the church after their freshman year in college and never return” (pg. 27)

You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church… and Rethinking Faith,  (link is to reprint 2016 version) by David Kinnaman ,found that after age 15, almost 60% of young Christians had disconnected from their church.

Assemblies of God Study:
Dayton A. Kingsriter (2007)

Study Findings: At least half and possibly over two-thirds of Christian young people will step away from the Christian faith while attending a non-Christian college or university. Between 50% and 66.7% of Assemblies of God young people who attend a non-Christian public or private university will have left the faith four years after entering college.

Southern Baptist Convention Data:
Pinkney, T.C., Remarks to the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, Nashville, Tennessee (2001)

Study Findings: Data from the Southern Baptist Convention indicates that they are currently losing 70-88% of their youth after their freshman year in college. 70% of teenagers involved in church youth groups stop attending church within two years of their high school graduation.

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Family Life Council:
Southern Baptist Council on Family Life report to Annual Meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (2002)

Study Findings:  88% of the children in evangelical homes leave church at the age of 18

WHY ARE THEY LEAVING?

“Young adults are dropping out of church in large numbers, survey finds. This is why.” By Holly Meyer, USA Today.

“The Tops Reasons Young People Drop Out of Church,” by Griffen Paul Jackson, Christianity Today.

Why Christian Kids Leave the Faith, Tom Bisset, Discovery House Publishers (1992). Please note, I said 1997 in the podcast because the online source where I found this information mistakenly said 1997. The publisher says 1992.

WHAT EXACTLY DO TODAY’S TEENS BELIEVE THAT MAKE IT SO EASY FOR THEM TO LEAVE THE FAITH?

Mama Bear Apologetics: Empowering Your Kids to Challenge Cultural Lies, by Hillary Morgan Ferrer, “Most studies indicate between 45%-48% of youth leave the church after their freshman year in college and never return (pg. 29)