I have a piece at the First Things blog today on some new research that Andrew Hess and I have done here at Focus on the Family addressing two important questions.
Are young people really leaving the faith in droves? And does it really do any good for parents to work to teach their children a strong Christian faith.
The straight forward answers, coming from very strong mainstream research, are:
1) no they are not leaving, at least in some churches and
2) yes, the influence of parents on their child’s faith retention in young adulthood and beyond is positively HUGE.
Real, substantive faith in God and Christian discipleship are growing and parenting still matters a great deal. Take heart!