Do you believe:

• Absolute moral truth exists?  
• The Bible is true in the principles it teaches?
• Satan really exists, he is not just symbolic? 
• “Doing good to others” will not be enough to get you to heaven? 
• Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth?
• God is the all-knowing, all-powerful being who rules the universe?

1%  9%  27%  40%

1%   9%  27%  40%

The change that is happening is not in church attendance. It is in what the churchgoers believe and how they behave.

Believe what?
If you believe the six statements above are true, you are among the 9% of Americans who do, at least
according to a study done by the Barna Group. Among American youth the results are far worse. Less than 1% believe them all.

Behave how?
On moral issues there is a similar decline among the young. Particularly noteworthy is what is going on among young, committed Christians. Regular church-goers under 30 are twice as likely as those over 40 to approve of abortion, the use of illegal drugs, pornography, sexual fantasy, same sex marriage and adultery. They are also twice as likely to lie, to use profanity in public, to seek revenge, to steal, to abuse someone physically or to fight. Their views closely resemble those of their peer group, not those of their elder Christians.

Now what?
We live in a post-Christian world. Many of those who would say they are Christian do not believe even basic Christian doctrine nor do they accept the basic morality of the Christian faith. And the situation is getting worse among youth.

One temptation is to surrender, to throw up our hands and say it is hopeless. There is another option and that is to recognize that we have been put here by the Lord at exactly this time because he intends for us to make a difference. Our call and the call on our youth is for exactly this age and exactly these times. We are here for a purpose, and part of that purpose is to believe the truth and stand for it in an age of unbelief and apostasy. Like Queen Esther, a Jewish woman of faith and courage who risked her life before the Persian King in order to intervene and spare her people, we were born “for such a time as this” (Book of Esther, Chapter 8)!

[Mike Shaughnessy is an elder in The Servants of the Word and the Director of Kairos in North America. Kairos is an international federation of outreaches to high school, university and post university aged people.].