95 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing, challenging springboard for much needed further thought and action, July 18, 2009
This review is from: Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it (Paperback)
Ever think a book of statistics could keep you up at night? This one may be it, especially if you're a parent and/or involved in Christian education.
This book is the result of a collaborative project between Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and Britt Beemer of America's Research Group to survey 1,000 young adults who grew up in solid, Bible-teaching churches but have left the church either permanently or temporarily. Typical thinking in Christian circles is that young adults leave the church in college due to teachings and culture that challenges their Christian beliefs. Ham and Beemer's findings run contrary to this assumption, and they are shocking and disturbing.
"We've always been trying to prepare our kids for college... but it turns out that only 11 percent of those who have left the Church did so during the college years. Almost 90 percent of them were lost in middle school and high school. By the time they got to college they were already gone! About 40 percent are leaving the Church during elementary and middle school years! Most people assumed that elementary and middle school is a fairly neutral environment where children toe the line and follow in the footsteps of their parents' spirituality. Not so. I believe that over half of these kids were lot before we got them into high school! Whatever diseases are fueling the epidemic of losing our young people, they are infecting our students much, much earlier than most assumed." (31)
From their conclusions, 60% of the children and teens sitting in our chairs and pews each Sunday will disappear in the coming years. In fact, Ham argues that they might be physically sitting there week after week, but they are already gone. Want some statistics that will really keep you up at night? There was no statistical difference in their study between kids who attended public schools, Christian schools, or homeschool. No difference between Christian and secular college. Sunday School did make a difference, but not the one you would think - according to their study, kids were more likely to leave the church if they were also attend Sunday School!
I found it fascinating that the majority of the individuals they surveyed seem to have authentic saving faith in Christ. Most even agree that attending church is important for believers. So, where are they?
Ham's primary conclusion: the Church has failed to teach the Bible as relevant fact. We have, intentionally or unintentionally, taught the Scriptures as "stories" that relate to spiritual matters and have avoided engaging the deluge of challenging questions from the secular world that bombard churched children and adults the other 166 hours of their week. Questions about the reliability of the Bible, why homosexuals shouldn't be allowed to marry, the origins of the universe, the age of the earth, the feasibility of a world-wide flood, etc. When kids raise these questions in church, they are often told that it doesn't matter what they believe, as long as they trust Jesus. Or they are told we can't really know for sure. Or they are told just to talk about that at school and talk about Jesus at church. Conclusion: the Bible must not be true when it comes to "real" things like history and biology and geology, it just speaks to our "faith."
Secondly, we have failed to connect the Bible to our everyday life. We have tolerated hypocrisy, we have failed to teach Truth in a challenging and relevant way, we have compromised what the Bible actually teaches about the function and purpose of the church in favor of traditions and entertainment. Even people who sincerely believe in Christ as their Savior and believe that the Bible is true have left the church because it doesn't seem relevant to real life.
Ham is blunt and straightforward in this book without coming across harsh. But, I think he is right - the American Church needs to take a serious look at itself because it is dying from the inside out. If we compromise the foundation of our faith, what do we have left?
The second half of the book deals with what we should do about this epidemic. Personally, I would have loved to see this section get a little more practical, but I think that really is outside the scope and purpose of this book. Although the subtitle is "why your kids will leave church and what you can do to stop it," the "what to do" is so huge that this really needs to be a springboard for much more if anything is really going to change.
Why do I say that? For this to change in any noticeable way, Ham truthfully says that the majority of church members need to personally examine their thinking about the reliability and accuracy of the Bible, including in Genesis 1-11. That alone sounds nearly impossible without the direct intervention of God. Then the church leadership needs to examine and overhaul how we're "doing church" and why, the content of the sermons, the curriculum used in children's, youth, and adult ministries and Bible studies and perhaps even question and/or eliminate extraneous programming that isn't doing the job. We need to believe the Truth before we can defend it. We need to teach the Truth before it can be lived out. It is an enormous task, and it is almost laughable to say that in 73 pages those issues can be addressed well.
This book is something I hope that thousands of parents and members of church leadership will read and "chew on." Ham and Beemer have handed us a grim diagnosis, and we need to prayerfully seek God for answers about what to do about it. In reality, I think they have unmasked some deeper, foundational issues for the Church that have no easy answers - the answers are straightforward (Know the Bible, teach the Bible, live the Bible), but the practical aspects of what that means in our churches have huge implications that need serious thought.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
63 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Informative but falls short, November 24, 2009
This review is from: Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it (Paperback)
Already Gone is among a growing number of books addressing the floundering Western Church. Authors Ken Ham (Answers in Genesis) and Britt Beemer (social scientist) focus on research showing churches are suffering a mass exodus of young people. The value of Already Gone is that it demonstrates the critical relationship between people's view of scripture and church involvement. The weakness of Already Gone is that it lacks a biblical framework for addressing the problem.
The authors observe that disengagement from church starts at an early age. They fault "well intentioned, firmly established programs and traditions of churches" that are "utterly failing" to teach the Bible as truth. For example, one tradition that has an "overall negative impact on beliefs" is Sunday school. Instead of teaching the Bible as historical fact from an apologetic perspective, most Sunday school classes present the Bible as mere stories with a moral teaching. Even more significant has been the Western Church's abdication of science to the secular evolutionists. Once scripture is questioned on one point, young people become skeptical of its other truth claims.
Ham and Beemer argue that churches must give up "long held cherished notions" about Christian education and focus on apologetics. But while Ham and Beemer correctly diagnose the problem, they fail to adhere to their own premise; follow scripture over tradition. Instead of offering a biblical model for training children, Ham and Beemer's recommendations are limited to shoring up the content of Christian education curriculum.
Despite their admission that Sunday school is ineffective, Ham and Beemer remain unwilling to discard this sacred cow of the American Church for no other reason than too many traditionalists would object. Here Already Gone misses an opportunity to address how we can replace an unproductive tradition with scriptural means. Sunday school has failed because the Western Church has embraced the mistaken belief that activities should segregated by age. The authors even misapply Proverbs 22:6 in their attempt to justify youth ministry and youth pastors. Already Gone should have explored the impact of using unbiblical means to teach youth in addition to unbiblical content. Already Gone reveals how entrenched age (and family) segregation practices have become in the Western Church. Even Ham and Beemer (two advocates of biblical authority) recommend using a "group of elders" to walk alongside of youth to "mentor, disciple and equip" them rather than defer to the biblical role of parents(Duet. 6).
What is missing from Already Gone - and most critiques of the Western Church
-- is an adequate description of the biblical economy for transferring knowledge about God to young people. Until the Western Church conforms to biblical standards for training children, the problem will not go away.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
