Very Sad

World wins again. Drat.

 

Let us not forget that the worlds' trimuphs are but temporal, not eternal. We as Christians know what is to come. Praise the Lord.

 

Well gee that is just Swell!

 

To add, I well understand that people value their childs education, but to cop out on encouraging their child to have a relationship with God, Well what can you say?

 

Very Sad--yes.

It is probably worse than this "survey" would indicate.

The sampling is extremely small--331 of 707 were not in the "saved" category. If 25% of the "saved" have "repeat after me" salvation, the conclusions are highly suspect.

An interesting survey: randomly select twenty five "Christian" seminaries; survey all students and faculty; ask two questions: 1. Are you born again? 2. If so, when. Give three possible responses: yes,on dd/mm/yy; no; not sure. Tabulate the answers.

Now what?

Preach The Word.

Selah,

Bro. James

 

Well, at least they did their best.
Isn't that what we all look for in a doctor? Give me a hard working, caring, well meaning doctor who fails over a lazy, apathetic, slob who cures me anytime.

 

I don't place a lotta stock in the Barna Group's surveys. Some of them aren't very scientific, and don't really sample a cross-section of the groups that are the targets of some of their surveys.

His "surveys" in relation to the KJVO myth are especially skewed.

 

The survey results are indeed troubling as a whole, but I really do not view the results as necessarily true of Christian families. What the survey does do is beg additional research.

A way to breach the semantics and definition of "Christian" problem is to conduct independent surveys within our own congregations. That might be a real eye opener and it would certainly be more relevant to each of us individually.

 

Most of these surveys are rather one sided.

("Statistics prove that 90% of all statistics are wrong." )

For instance, a lot of people who say they are Christians really are not. And it's not like they came running to the fundies begging us to answer their poll.

 

Personally, I printed out the article, and will share it with my wife tonight. My daughter attends a public middle school. She will be going to the public High School next year. She is in the gifted and talented program at school, and based upon her SAT (yes, SAT) scores while in the seventh grade, she was admitted to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. She was also admitted to the local community college, and is taking college courses. She has made all-county orchestra the past two years, and is a heck of a field hockey player. In a few days, she will register for her Freshman courses at High School. She has been invited to register for three AP courses, two based upon her math accomplishments. There is this IFB Christian School in our area that some of the kids from our church attend. I do not believe they offer any AP courses, and they definately do not have a Field Hockey team. I believe they do have an orchestra. If my daughter attends the public High School, I believe that she will receive many scholarship offers to some fine colleges. I also believe that there is nothing that she cannot become. You ought to see her whiz through Chemistry formulas. However, I would trade all that she can become for her being completely sold out to a life in service for Christ. Thanks for posting the article, and please pray for us as we make some pretty important decisions over the next few weeks. She has known most of her friends since first grade, so it will be a hard decision for her, also.

 

Are any of you really that surprised by this? Consider that the divorce rate is higher for christian couples than non christians. Most people probably are doing there best with raising their kids, the average couple is over worked and extended beyond their normal means. Maybe they aren't making the best choices when it comes to the family, but many are and simply want the best for their kids. They want their kids to have a better life than what they had. I for one won't judge them for their decisions. The world has changed significantly in the last twenty years, sorry but raising kids isn't as simple as it used to be.

Sometimes just keeping your family together is a challenge much less making sure your kids are having a daily quiet time. Its God that knows their hearts, not you or I.

jman

 

That's the main problem, Brother. The world has, and is, changing, but God never does. He allows us to make our own bed, but he nevers move, and when we are ready to just put everything in his hands, then he will definately clean up the mess that we have made. Like the song says, "Only Trust Him"

 

Willie...If you've raised her to be a good, strong Christian, she should be able to resist the sinful things found in public schools. Please bear in mind that more than one "Christian" school is a hotbed of sinful activities also.

 

Willie,

I agree we all have two choices, to follow by faith or go our own way. Thats my responsibility to point my kids in the right direction, to lead them to the open arms of Christ. To disciple them. After that....pray. The world can be a scary place.

jman

 

It isn't her that I am worried about Roby. It is the stuff she will have to put up with. The school has the highest teenage pregnacy rate in the county, so the odds are that one of her friends will become one of the statistics (yes, it doesn't seem to be a respector of church membership). Cocaine use is very prevalent (thanks to the amount of disposible income these middle-class kids seem to always have). Social sex (it is just something friends do) is as rampant as beer at the weekend parties. Although she is strong in her faith, I am not too sure how much she will be able to withstand. It isn't like when I was a teen, when the majority of the kids were 'good' kids. It seems to have to search high and low to find kids that stay faithful when they get to the high school.

 

Yep, jman, as solid Christian parents we do that; however, some of us then send them into environments that aren't nuturing to their faith at all, and probably are full of more tests of faith than we ever encountered as a teen. We teach them, pray for them, and nuture them, but let's face it, they are still 13 and 14 year olds. How much does God want us to continue to do as parents before we place them totally in his care?

 

One clue though. I would guess that about 80% of the people that claim to be born again aren't.

And it's probably more like 90%.

For instance, Catholics claim that they were born again at infant baptism.