It is not the hostility of the culture. It is not the education system. It is not social media. It is not peer pressure. The primary factor is the inability of parents to pass on their faith – and the failure of churches to equip parents to do so.
While mental health concerns top the list of worries for parents today, and studies suggest religion is good for mental health, passing on their religious beliefs to their children is not highly prioritized by US adults with children younger than 18, new data from the Pew Research Center show.
New, just published research has suggested that a man's brain cortex shifts in "size and shape" when he becomes a dad. The cortex is responsible for high-level functioning such as reasoning and emotions.
Anna Hawken, of Parenting for Faith, speaks to Christian Today about why parents shouldn't wait to start their children on their faith journey, and what churches can do to support them.
Have you ever had an idea of how something is going to go and then reality happens, and it all goes quite differently? Whilst this happens at any stage of your life, I think it is especially true when you have small children.
Human behaviour is acknowledged to be made up of a complex intermingling of innate being and the environment to which someone is exposed – the nature vs nurture tension.
Authentic fellowship goes beyond the pleasantries and the group selfies and the Facebook posts tagging friends in social media. It even goes beyond having lunch together on a daily basis, and riding the same bus from work to home after duty hours.
Before we decide to embark on the adventurous journey of preaching the Gospel to all the world and making disciples of all nations, we should first desire to reach out to our family with Christ's Gospel.