In recent decades, Europe, particularly Great Britain, has experienced what the prophet Amos, more than 2,700 years ago, predicted would befall the nation of Israel: “. . . a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the LORD” (Amos 8:11).
This spiritual famine is evidenced by the fact that over the past 40 years, 1,500 churches in England have closed their doors after hundreds of years of active life. Prior to that time, British churches were the center of community and spiritual life; today, many of those grand buildings have been converted into museums, clothing shops, restaurants, liquor stores, nightclubs, tattoo and piercing studios, office buildings and mosques. As Ken Ham and Britt Beamer have observed, “England, the country that was once a cornerstone of western Christianity, is now, by and large, a wasteland of lost souls where the word ‘God’ has many different definitions, with so few these days who would even think of ‘God’ as the . . . God of the Bible.”[i] According to a recent English Church Census, regular churchgoers comprise 6.3% of the British population, and only 2.5% of the population is attending Bible-based churches.[ii] A UK news source in 2003 cited an “expert prediction that the Christian church in this country will be dead and buried within 40 years. It will vanish from the mainstream of British life, with only 0.5 percent of the population attending the Sunday services of any denomination . . .”[iii]
Tragically, the United States is witnessing a similar spiritual famine. As Ham and Beemer note, “Across the Atlantic, in the ‘One Nation Under God,’ the seeds of a free and God-fearing nation were planted only 250 years ago. Today, few people are aware of the spiritual epidemic that has wiped out the land of our Christian forefathers. England was the home of our great spiritual ancestors – many of the greatest preachers, teachers, and evangelists of the last 200 years. Few people are aware that the same epidemic has reached our own shores, spreading like an unstoppable virus.”[iv] The most alarming statistics regarding current church trends involve young people. “A mass exodus is underway. Most youth of today will not be coming to church tomorrow.”[v] Consider the numbers:
· 61% of today’s young adults (ages 20-29) who were regular church attendees are now “spiritually disengaged” (not actively attending church, praying, or reading their Bibles).
· 20% of those who were spiritually active during high school are maintaining a similar level of commitment.
· 19% of teens were never reached by the Christian community, and they are still disconnected from the Church or any other Christian activities.[vi]
In other words, of the 81% of young adults who were “spiritually engaged” during their high school and/or middle school years, only 20% report a similar level of commitment after high school. That’s a spiritual “dropout” rate of six young people out of every eight, or 75%. Ham’s and Beemer’s research is even more shocking. In a survey of a thousand 20-29-year-old evangelicals who attended church regularly during their youth but no longer do so:
· 95% attended regularly during at least part of their elementary and middle school years.
· 55% attended regularly during at least part of their high school years.
· 11% attended regularly during their early college years.[vii]
These numbers indicate a dramatic drop in participation of 40% by the end of middle school, and another 44% by the end of high school – eight of nine young people who are “already gone” by the time they’re in college. “They were lost while still in the fold . . . They were preparing their exit while they were faithfully attending youth groups and Sunday schools. What a reminder to parents (and to Christian leaders) to do exactly what God’s Word instructs us to do – to ‘train up a child in the way he should go . . .’ (Prov. 22:6) . . . to teach children from when they are born – and a reminder to be diligent in providing the right sort of training/curricula, etc., for children.”[viii]
According to Ham and Beemer, the problem is not so much what children and teens are being taught, but how they are being taught. They’re hearing many of the right things, but they’re not “hearing” in a way that equips them to believe in their hearts what the Bible clearly states: “Our entire culture (including secular schools) is aggressively teaching the apologetics of evolution and secular humanism. They teach our students how to defend a humanistic worldview, and they model that worldview. They show all the reasons that what they are teaching is supposedly true. The secularists are teaching our children how to defend the secular faith, and connecting it to the real world – and here we are in churches teaching wonderful Bible stories and reinforcing in their minds that they can believe the secularists and that the Bible is not really connected to the real world (emphasis added). No wonder we are losing them . . . Unless the facts behind the Christian faith are clearly and convincingly communicated in a way that students can learn and remember, their faith will not stand the assault of doubt from the world. ”[ix]
These sobering facts ought to serve as a wake-up call to the church. They certainly have been to me. Although our Released Time classes (most of which meet once a month) can’t equip the boys and girls to whom we minister to be fully persuaded in what they believe and bold defenders of the truth, they can and should play an important part in helping lay a firm foundation for their lives. Ken Ham, co-author of the book I’ve been quoting, founded Answers in Genesis in 1987 in order to address this very need – teaching young people the foundational truths of God’s Word in such a way that they are able to embrace and defend those truths in the midst of a thoroughly secular culture. Some of our Released Time teachers use the AiG materials to teach their students about creation and science from a biblical perspective. We want to be able to provide resources like these for our faithful volunteers who would like to have them for their classes. If you’d like to give a special gift to help with this project, simply write “School supplies” on the memo line of your check, or check the appropriate box on the return portion of your receipt.
Recently I sent information packets to 20 school superintendents in the Okla. City area, most of whom work for small, rural districts such as Cashion, Crescent, Luther, and Okarche, in addition to some larger districts such as Guthrie, Choctaw, Deer Creek, and Millwood. Crooked Oak, where we had RT for several years, has a new superintendent whom we pray will be open to reinstating the program. Pray as I follow up with phone calls and visits that God will grant us favor with these administrators in allowing us to start some new classes.
Pray, too, for George and Donna Warrington. Donna suffered a mild heart attack last week; thankfully, an angiogram revealed no arterial blockage, and she is now at home. George is living in an assisted care facility; he’s having difficulty recognizing friends and, at times, even family members. Pray for “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3) to come alongside George and Donna and provide healing, sustaining grace, the peace that only He can give, blessed assurance and steadfast hope. Pray for wisdom and clear direction for the family as they’re faced with important decisions, both short- and long-term.
Finally, thank you for praying for me and for the ministry, and for giving as the Lord directs and provides. Your partnership in the gospel is a tremendous encouragement to me and to the Warringtons!
In praise of our great God and Savior,
Scott
[i] Ken Ham and Britt Beamer, Already Gone. Green Forest, AR: Master Books (2009), pp. 11-12.
[ii] 2005 Evangelical Alliance, http://www.eauk.org/resources/info/statistics/2005englishchurchcensus.cfm.
[iv] Ham and Beemer, Already Gone, pp. 17-18.
[vi] The Barna Group, LTD 2006.
[vii] Ham and Beemer, Already Gone, p. 31.