You Are Responsible.

All Becomes New · Sep 10, 2024

How you raise your children, and how you treat your spouse, but especially how you raise your children, is paramount to the success of Christianity in the next generation.

Gen Z is largely rejecting Christianity en mass. I am not blaming anyone here specifically, but millennials have REALLY dropped the ball in instilling the faith in the younger generation.

I am a millennial, but I am not married and I have no children so maybe I do not have a place to stand. However, I do know that pretty much all the millennials I went to Youth Group with are either very nominally Christian, they believe things like universalism and other extremely liberal views, or they have no interest in Christianity and are into Paganism or new age weirdness.

We have really dropped the ball as a generation. We want to be our children's best friend so we don't lay down the law. We let their heart roam, so to speak. I am not saying to not let your children ask questions. In fact, I have read that allowing your children to ask questions is the best way to pass your faith onto your kids. To be open and honest with them. To invite their questions and if you don't know, to say, "Let's find out together."

But my parents laid down the law when I was a child. I did not get to do whatever I wanted. I did not get exactly what I wanted for my birthday very often. I thank my parents for not putting up with my crap. I am better for it today.

So you want to be relatable and open with your kids. But you also want them to know that when you make a rule, it's not a debate; that's the rule.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalks.

chevyontheriver · Sep 11, 2024

Jesse Dornfeld said:
How you raise your children, and how you treat your spouse, but especially how you raise your children, is paramount to the success of Christianity in the next generation.

Gen Z is largely rejecting Christianity en mass. I am not blaming anyone here specifically, but millennials have REALLY dropped the ball in instilling the faith in the younger generation.

I am a millennial, but I am not married and I have no children so maybe I do not have a place to stand. However, I do know that pretty much all the millennials I went to Youth Group with are either very nominally Christian, they believe things like universalism and other extremely liberal views, or they have no interest in Christianity and are into Paganism or new age weirdness.

We have really dropped the ball as a generation. We want to be our children's best friend so we don't lay down the law. We let their heart roam, so to speak. I am not saying to not let your children ask questions. In fact, I have read that allowing your children to ask questions is the best way to pass your faith onto your kids. To be open and honest with them. To invite their questions and if you don't know, to say, "Let's find out together."

But my parents laid down the law when I was a child. I did not get to do whatever I wanted. I did not get exactly what I wanted for my birthday very often. I thank my parents for not putting up with my crap. I am better for it today.

So you want to be relatable and open with your kids. But you also want them to know that when you make a rule, it's not a debate; that's the rule.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalks.

The trouble began with your parent's generation, though not all of them. Many were taught a very weak and vague faith by the catechists who listened to the theological experts of the day. The fundamental principle here is 'you can't teach what you don't have'. Many in your parent's generation never caught the faith, but instead a cultural Christianity, so they couldn't pass the faith on to their children. Some caught the faith despite that because in the cultural Christianity of the time it was still possible, sometimes, to figure it out. But now, with the culture changed so much in an anti-Christian direction it's rare. Kids still come to faith here and there, and I see a bunch here and there. Some parents know and teach the faith. Some catechists know and teach the faith. But overall it's a wasteland.

Your generation could be accused of dropping the ball, but many of them were never handed the ball in the first place. They got at best a cultural Christianity. So don't be so hard on them. Look at it like this. You and some like you are in a big boat. And there are people out in the water after a shipwreck. You guys in the boat are pulling them in one by one. That's the job today. Rescue who you can. The folks in the water are not enemies but really need you.

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chevyontheriver

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