Introduction

Last fall I was reading a blog written by a Youth Ministry guy that I follow and admire named Adam McLane. Adam like me has given his life to helping students grow in their faith and learn how to implement that faith in their daily lives.  We are also both Dads to young kids who will eventually grow up and be part of our youth ministry.  In his blog Adam suggested that anyone with kids read this book Sticky Faith by Dr. Kara Eckman Powell and Dr. Chap Clark and discuss it online in a blog format.  I had heard Dr. Powell speak on the subject of Sticky Faith and was excited to dig a little deeper into it.  I kept up through three chapters until Anna (our youngest - now 6 months) jumped into our lives.  Needless to say I wasn't able to keep up with the reading but I eventually finished and enjoyed following along a few weeks behind with the online discussion.

As I was reading and learning I thought instantly that this would be a great thing to share with the parents of teens that I work with on a regular basis.  If you haven't started reading yet the statistics are staggering.  The raw statistics collected from a wide variety of churches and denominations show that 40-50% of students who graduate from high school and are involved in their church or youth do not stick with their faith in college.  As the authors put it at the beginning of Chapter 1 - "I'm not satisfied with a 50 percent rate of Sticky Faith. Are you?"  The easy discouragement at this point could easily be - it's too late - how could I possibly do anything at this point that would help my student's faith stick.  The authors answer that on Page 26 with two paragraphs titled "It's Never Too Late" and "It's Never Too Early".

Mandy and I have been volunteering together in ministry for over twelve years and we've seen countless students come and go throughout our time at Hope.  In 2000 Mandy was hired as the full time junior high youth pastor and we picked up a fateful class that would become one of our biggest classes ever to come through our program.  When this class left us in eighth grade they were so on fire for Christ and so ready to take on whatever God had for them in high school and beyond.  Eight years after that just last spring they graduated from college and sadly just about 50% are walking daily with God.  It's one of the sobering things in ministry to look back and think what could we have done, what should we have done, and even whether any of that would have mattered.

Our goal is not to dwell but to look forward with a desire like the authors of this book to find answers, explore possibilities, and invite parents to be part of the solution and the journey.  We're excited that you've decided to join us and we hope that you'll stick it through even if you fall behind.  Each week I will post some thoughts and questions that we hope you'll respond and interact with either anonymously, publicly, or if you don't feel comfortable posting here than email me directly at tdesilets@hope-cc.org.

I will post about Chapter 1 with some questions to answer later this week (likely Thursday).  In the meantime please feel free to comment on this post with an introduction about yourself who / how old your children are, what you're looking to learn, what you're afraid of, what you're excited about, or anything else. Thanks for joining us!