50% of people no longer believe in Jesus of those 50% 25% no longer even have church affiliation
When you're filling out paperwork and you put what your religion is like Baptist Nazarene Catholic or None 78% of nones were raised in the church
Generationally 14% of baby boomers claim to have no religion
19% of the Gen X is which is like me claimed to have no religion and
35% of my milineals which is the upcoming generation have no religion.
So you can see where this trend is going higher and higher.
What do you think the Gen Z's which is like Colton, Micah and Ava what do you think the percentage is going to be for them.
51% of millennial parents which parents born between 1982 and 2004. Which thankfully a lot of not parents in the latter because Andrew was born in 2004 and we'd have a problem there right! But 51% of those parents say that moral truth is relative. And 74% of millennal parents agree or somewhat agree with the statement that whatever is right for your life is right. Just gonna let that sit for a minute. So 74% of up-and-coming parents say that whatever you want to do whatever makes you happy is OK.
We are losing ground quickly. We are called to create fertile soil we are called and commanded to create disciples. And not just disciples who are raised in the church and have a general knowledge of God we are called to create disciples that have a relational connection a deep intimate personal relationship with the Savior. It does not matter what age we are that call does not stop until we take our last breath on this earth.
Relationships are missing in the church it is all about programming and not enough about relationships. relationships with each other. relationships with Christ. We have a discipleship disconnect we are totally disconnected from the idea of discleship and sometimes don't even know how to disciple one another. There is this overwhelming busyness going on that we are so busy that we are literally overwhelmed with life. Lifelong discipleship that is the outcome that we should be looking for in our nursery in our children's church and our young adults in our teens and in our seniors. But what we are seeing is a moving away from the church.
We cannot tell each other and just teach other what change is.the more we talk about what change is the less change will see. the more we talk about and show who God is the more change we'll see. Because we don't change people, our programming doesn't change people, our speaking doesn't change people only the word of God, the Holy Spirit changes people. If you want to see kids change if you want see teens change if you want to see adults change lift Jesus up.
And we really need to see change. families are breaking down the church is breaking down. We have too many choices, our pace of life is way too fast and we are on complete overload and that includes in the church sometimes. Families are just unraveling at the seams. Slow down! In Mark 631 Jesus says come go with me and let's go let's rest it's OK to slow down. Go home and make a stop doing list. Take a pause minute to say who am I becoming. Take some time to find out whether you are anchored in fertile soil or whether you are anchored in some rocks that uprouting itself. It's not God who is disconnected with us it is us that is disconnected with God.
One of our general sessions speaker Melissa McDonald said that we are a mes! we live in a mess and we forget that we are called to something higher. we are free but we are not living free. Another one of our keynote speaker set Brian Lortiss said that God does not care about our competency he cares about our character. But our society that knows little about character if you go and you 20 milenanals what is character and how do you get it they won't know the answer! Go back to the statistic that says 74% of millennial parents think that whatever is right for your life is OK. Whatever is OK for your life whatever is right for your life is not OK. character by its very definition means the moral or ethical quality. an honorable character your moral or ethical quality. Character qualities are honesty courage integrity. How much of that do we really see you today. Integrity is one of the first things I fell in love about with Douglas he was a man of his word he is a man of integrity.
Instead of New Year's resolutions I pick and by pick up and pray about a word a word to focus on last year my word was rooted if I wanted to be rooted in the word I wanted to be routed more in my family and my relationship with Jesus and that's what I worked on last year. This year God has a sense of humor. The word I felt like God wanted me to choose this year was patience I told him no I'm not patient enough of that let's pick another word I am but don't know how often I prayed I still got the word patience. Something that the Lord showed me through Brian's session this is that being patient is not a passive resignation it is a active partnership. At some point we have to stop him being so upset having our pity parties we have to stop grumbling and grow up. patience is all about your attitude. Brian said that if we want a picture of patience we need to look to the prophets. Always let what you know about God trump what you're feeling.
I think our main key note speaker Bob Goff he said that we need to be moving kids to higher ground we need to be moving them to the feet of Jesus and I agree with him wholeheartedly but I I feel likethat applies to all of us. we are called to be disciples and to make disciples of the world we need to be moving each other up to higher ground we need to be moving each other up to the feet of Jesus.
So to finish us off I'm going to give us another statistic 40 to 50% of young people from good youth groups and families are drifting from God and the church after high school this research shows us that those who stay the course and flourish in the faith have multiple adult believers who are intentionally investing in their lives. Relationships discipleship it's all about Jesus it's all about intentionally investing in lives.
So while there were a ton of things that I left CPC excited about The pray for me campaign and some of the discipleship programs were the the things I'm the most excited about. discipling our kids is something I'm super passionate about. The pray for me campaign is something that I'm gonna come back and talk to you guys on a deeper level about its something that I'm really excited about getting us all together and praying for our kids and teens and is very specific way. Inter-generationally coming together as a church can never go wrong there can we. Thank you.
