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Every Second Counts
Our country has an attendance problem.
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Our country has an attendance problem. Data from an organization called "America's Promise" shows that every 26 seconds, a student in our country drops out of high school. Twenty-six clock ticks go by real fast, much too quickly to thoroughly think through such a decision. The conclusion to quit something so important must come from a seed planted much earlier in life. A variety of sources indicate that a large majority of Christian students stop attending church after they leave home. Some studies show the number as high as 80 percent. Some characterize this phenomenon as young adults turning away from their faith. Quite a decision many young people make, no doubt another decision that seems unlikely to happen in an instant. Again, the conclusion to quit something so important must start much earlier in life. School attendance, church attendance—something's wrong. Let's look at solutions. Attend ChurchWhat if helping kids fall in love with church became a new and high priority for children's ministries? Love so deep that they develop a permanent hunger to attend. Step one toward this end happens when the kids ministry director/pastor/head honcho decides to personalize the issue and own a burden for children to value this critical part of an active faith—one that lasts a lifetime. Whose responsibility is it for young people to love church so much that they continue to attend when they leave home? Or what about just the year after they graduate from my ministry? When more children's ministry leaders respond with the word "me," the problem will start to diminish. No matter how talented or cool your youth pastor is, he or she alone can't reverse such a large exit trend. On the contrary, when given an appealing and compelling impression of attending church, kids will move up to the junior high ministry with more momentum. Try working hard for kids to look forward to what's next. Yes, it's okay for you to want children to feel excited to leave your ministry, as long as the reason is their anticipation for what will happen in junior high. A conversation with your middle school/junior high pastor about how to make that happen will benefit you both, as well as the kids. When students arrive in the high school ministry loving an active life of faith rather than waiting for the day when they can leave, then the church can celebrate a successful children/youth ministry program that sends solid young people into the world. If that's not happening, though, what measure of success matters? I know, this all sounds so easy but remains a challenge to convert into action. It starts, though, with a resolve in children's ministry. Attend SchoolWhat if churches decided to do their best to help young people in the community avoid that 26-second decision to quit high school? A church willing to help the school system address the dropout rate would make quite an impact. |
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