In the 1980’s there was a study done that identified the most unreached people group in the world. Churches all over the world responded with teams and money. Today, a new study identifies the world’s most unreached people as children ages 4-14 and that the United States ranks number 10 of countries with the most unreached children.

Some reasons for our low ranking were suggested at a recent series of workshops I attended. Everyone has doubts and questions, but with children and youth, we tend not to give solid answers other than – “you don’t have to worry about that answer right now, the important thing is to just believe in Jesus.” While that is true, never has our faith been more under attack in the public arena than it is now. Never have we been in a time where we are so unprepared to give a reason for the hope that is in us. No wonder so many kids walk away; they have no solid foundation.

Kids hear the term “Bible Story.” In today’s world, the word “story” connotes “make-believe” while even 1^st grade school students study “history.” The Bible is God’s true Word and it is history, yet many kids hear it as a fairy tale. Every doctrine in the New Testament is to be found in the first 11 Chapters of Genesis.

What can you as a parent or a concerned adult do? Deuteronomy 6:4,7 says,

“Hear O Israel [or in our case, “Hear O Church”] …You shall teach them diligently to your sons and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

You are called to pass on the faith to the next generation; parents especially, but all God’s people, young and old need to get serious about learning God’s Word and understanding why they believe what they do so that they can answer the hard questions that they have and that our kids and youth are asking. Our kids need to be able to recognize truth and lies when they hear them.

As one presenter said,

“We are not here to make bad people moral we are here to make dead people alive.

God’s Word is the foundation for learning and understanding truth. Lets help our young people learn truth so they can recognize lies when they hear them.