We have Sunday School for all ages. We plan to have Vacation Bible School (VBS) in the summer and have special teen camps you can be a part of. Since children are the future of the church, it is imperative to give them a solid foundation in the faith that will instill a desire to stay in church as they become adults and eventually raise children on their own. The foundation starts with salvation when they are beyond the “age of accountability”. This age varies from child to child and factors on maturity, exposure to Biblical teaching, family structures and peers, and most of all - the leading and sensitivity towards the Holy Spirit. The goal is to get them active in church in their youth so that they will be active later in life. Not just active with a bombardment of events but teaching them from a young age to know their Lord and serve Him with their whole heart. There are far too many staggering statistics of kids who leave church and never come back when they become adults - this doesn’t have to be the case. Children ought to know why they believe what they believe; if it makes no sense to them, they will quickly abandon those teachings.

Lifeway Research conducted a survey in 2017 of young adults to gather statistics on youth leaving the church… In 2017, 66% of those surveyed said they stopped attending church…

In 2011, an extensive research endeavor by the Barna Group revealed some new insights into this huge issue facing the Church. The details are found in a book called You Lost Me. Here are some highlights from the full post on their site:

• 1 out of 9 (11%) lose faith in Christianity

• 4 out of 10 (40%) leave the Church but still call themselves Christian

• 2 out of 10 (20%) disconnect from Church and express frustration about “church culture” and disconnects with society

• 3 out of 10 (30%) stay involved church

As parents and in regards to our children, we are commanded to “…bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” - Ephesians 6:4. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” The first part of Ephesians 6:4 says, “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath…” eluding to the fact that how a father raises his child (and especially whether a father is present in the home) has a significant impact on a child’s spiritual growth. We are to set the example for them in the home. This is quite obvious of course, because a child cannot be expected to “toe the line” when the parents are not doing the same in their own lives.

Given the above statistics, many churches have obviously failed in aiding parents in this endeavor. Sadly, as divorce in the church is close behind that of society as a whole; single parents need assistance and support from the church as much as possible without judgement. Focusing on the past will not help single parent families move forward in their quest to pick up the pieces of a dissolved marriage and to press on towards the mark. Church ought to be the preeminent venue where these struggling families can come for help, not an arrogant and conceited cold shoulder. This does not mean that Heritage Baptist Church takes on the world view of marriage: as to be flippantly approached and carelessly annulled. It means that if Jesus Christ offers forgiveness, then we His disciples ought to do the same.

The caring parent will do the job of loving their children, spending time with them, being active in their lives as much as possible and showing them the example that they are to follow through their own actions. The church’s responsibility in this endeavor then, is to back up the parents and reinforce what is already going on in the home. In the same sense that you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet; no amount of youth activities and events or teaching and preaching will outweigh a child who is not properly trained in the home. Teaching our children to align their lives with the Bible and showing them by our own example, reaps some of the greatest benefits this world can ever know.

- Proverbs 29:15 “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.”

- Psalms 127:3-5 “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them…”

The above statistics are provided by nickblevins.com. The book “You Lost Me” has not been reviewed by this church and consequently, we cannot speak on bahalf of its accuracy or offer it as a recommendation; nor are we affiliated in any way with the website nickblevins.com.