{"id":10728,"date":"2010-03-15T01:29:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-15T01:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2010\/03\/15\/teenspirit\/"},"modified":"2010-03-15T01:29:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-15T01:29:09","slug":"teenspirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/teenspirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

C<\/strong>onsistent Sunday school attendance when we’re young has direct bearing on church attendance as grown-ups. Researcher George Barna says more than 8 in 10 adults in the U.S. claim they had weekly religious education before age 12. Of those, 69 percent now attend religious programs weekly.<\/p>

Fewer adults recall regular participation as teens, with 50 percent of current attenders recalling at least monthly involvement in some kind of youth program.<\/p>

Our take:<\/strong> Drop by the youth department and make some friends. If the survey is correct, you’ll still be seeing half those kids in 2030. They’ll be voting on your retirement date.<\/p>

Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal.Click here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership<\/em> Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consistent Sunday school attendance when we’re young has direct bearing on church attendance as grown-ups. Researcher George Barna says more than 8 in 10 adults in the U.S. claim they had weekly religious education before age 12. Of those, 69 percent now attend religious programs weekly.Fewer adults recall regular participation as teens, with 50 percent Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[142,154,160],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[718,156,722],"tax_ctp_tags":[3604,4809,5074,5190,5314,5315],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-10728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_publications-2010-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-winter_2010-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-church-attendance","tax_ctp_tags-research","tax_ctp_tags-statistics","tax_ctp_tags-trends","tax_ctp_tags-youth","tax_ctp_tags-youth-ministry"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nTeen 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