“Segregation causes kids to shelve their faith.” Segregation has a certain connotation. Segregation makes most people think, “bad” or “outdated” for a good reason. The segregation Sticky Faith talks about is children being separated from adults in the congregation. There are times to be apart to have age appropriate conversations, but children need more caring parents in their lives.
Chapter 5 of Sticky Faith is something I wish everyone in church would read. There are many quotes that cut to the heart in this chapter. The research team hoped to find a ‘silver bullet’ to give to everyone to help keep kids in the faith besides trusting Jesus. They didn’t. Everyone’s faith is too complicated. The closest thing they found was everyone integrated in the same worship service. This isn’t revolutionary to Concordia, but it is to others. This chapter had more to say.
One youth said, “I wish that there had been an intentional effort by the church to integrate the teenagers in the body with older believers.” My oldest daughter doesn’t understand, but I tell her, “Your sister looks up to you.” My children watch how others act in church. The teens and older kids watch older adults too. Hopefully, we are all being good role models for children in church. Younger kids help older ones too. “Students who serve and build relationships with younger children also tend to have sticker faith.”
A heart breaking part of the research states, “We weren’t all that surprised that of five major sources of support (adults in the congregation, parents, youth workers, friends in youth group, and friends outside of youth group), high school seniors ranked in the congregation last. What did surprise us was how far behind the other four groups they were. One youth group graduate reported that his church ‘would like to talk about having students involved, but they never really did.’ Another reflected that church members ‘wanted nothing to do with us….’ The current chasm between kids and adults in church is greater than we had expected. By far, the number one way that churches made the teens in our survey feel welcomed and valued was when adults in the congregation showed an interest in them. More than any single program or event, adults’ making the effort to get to know the kids was far more likely to make the kids feel like a significant part of their church.”
It was found that, “Contact from at least one adult from the congregation outside the youth ministry during the first semester of college is linked with Sticky Faith.” It doesn’t matter how the individual is contacted and ongoing contact has greater impact.
Parents and members of the congregation need to be intentional about including children in everything. We don’t need to be candid about the inclusion. We can tell others we want to get to know, help, and watch them grow. In this chapter, there is a story about the son of an NFL coach. The son started High School football season and didn’t listen to his father about needing a large breakfast. The son made a large breakfast one day and said the High School football coach said he needed a big breakfast. Even before I was a parent, I related to this story. Parents (and others) need the help and support of others to guide them in physical, emotional, and spiritual ways.
Knowing this research, Pastor and I are intentionally planning multigenerational service activities into the church calendar. This will give families and the family of Concordia a chance to serve together and build memories. Hopefully, some of these projects will cover the idea of “justice.” Once again, it’s another word that has certain connotations. Sticky Faith explains it as God desiring justice and peace for each of His created creatures. They explain justice may look like righting the wrongs of those in poverty, hadicapped, imprisoned, and etc.
Surveyed High School youth group graduates wanted time for deep conversations, then mission trips, then service projects. Last was games. However, research also shows that short term mission trips don’t necessarily correlate to lasting transformation. Those involved in activism of some type were encouraged by their parents. Kids also care more about something if someone they know is impacted by it. We know this well too. We hope and pray, that we’re able to serve God’s people in the way God would have us serve.