I recently shared "4 Big Reasons Why Kids Walk Away From Church When They Grow Up." I'd like to dive a little deeper on the first reason—a shallow faith foundation.

Stats show that 78 percent of "nones" (those who identify with no religion) grew up in church. This means a high percentage of kids growing up in church walk away. But the even bigger issue are those who walk away from their faith completely. Fifty percent of kids who walk away say it's because they no longer believe in God at all.

The root cause of this is a shallow faith and the finger is pointing directly at parents and church leaders. We have skimmed the surface with doctrinal fluff and left them with no deep roots to survive the faith storms they face in a increasingly humanistic society.

Like never before, it's critical that we teach kids apologetics. We must help them see why we believe what we believe. We must ask the hard questions now and let them grapple with it. It will be too late if they're left to fend for themselves in high school or college with no deep biblical foundation to stand on.

This month, in our children's ministry, we're doing a series called Pranksters.

We're equipping kids to be able to answer the "pranksters" they will face who tell them the Bible is not God's Word. We're taking a deep dive on the following topics:

• Why we believe the Bible is God's Word and not just written by men
• Why we believe the Bible contains no errors
• Why we believe the Bible is different than other religious books
• Why we believe the Bible is for today

We're looking at the hard questions, even to the point of having the kids work through verses that skeptics say contradict each other. We want the kids looking at those verses now when they can discover the right answers versus looking at them for the first time in a college classroom where their faith can be shattered if they're not prepared. I urge you to write apologetics into your curriculum. If we don't, we risk losing the next generation.

We will be making the Pranksters series available to other churches. If you'd like more information about it, you can email me at [email protected].

Your turn. The floor is yours. Do you think it's important to teach kids apologetics? If so, what steps are you taking to do this? What other good resources or curricula are available for this? Share your comments with us below.

Dale Hudson has been in children's ministry for over 27 years. He is the director of children's ministry at Christ Fellowship Church in South Florida. Christ Fellowship has nine campuses and ministers to over 25,000 people on weekends. Dale leads a children's ministry staff team of over 70 and a volunteer team of over 2,600. He has authored 100 Best Ideas to Turbocharge Your Children's Ministry, 100 Best Ideas to Turbocharge Your Preschool Ministry, Children's Ministry in the 21st Century, Sunday School That Works, the ChurchLeaders.com Top 100 book, and If Disney Ran Your Children's Ministry.

For the original article, visit relevantchildrensministry.com.

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