Keeping The Faith

A few months ago a 7 year old Plain City Utah boy took off in his parents car because he didn't want to go to church. He took the car down the block, turned into a local school parking lot, went for a spin a few times, then headed back home with the police in tow. No arrests were made but I'm sure a couple of commandments were broken.


The father was quoted as saying, "most kids just act like their sick..." The story made national news and video footage of the police chase was viewed on YouTube over 100,000 times.

Who can't relate to a 7 year old who doesn't want to go to church? And what parent can't relate to these parents- although I will say this kid has a little more spunk than most!

But here's to the parents who put their foot down (so to speak).

According to the latest Barna Research Group's research on the longevity of faith, the importance of parents getting their kids in church cannot be overstated. One of the most interesting aspects of the study to me was the link between childhood and teenage church attendance to how that person maintains their walk with Christ later on in life.

The study found that persons who were actively involved in church when they were younger were much more likely to stick it out later in life and to continue to embrace their faith tradition. Those who were less active were much more likely to radically change their beliefs.

I have a couple of thoughts about this study:

First of all, it really does confirm the age old wisdom that if you want to instill values that last a lifetime you must start early. The earlier a child develops a a clear value system and those values are reinforced by other adult influences besides parents, the more grounded that person will become in their faith.

Secondly, I think this study blows the idea that we shouldn't "force" our kids to come to church out of the water. If a parent ascribes to the logic of "My parents made me go to church and I hated it and therefore I'm not going to force that on my kids" they are just assuring that there is a much greater chance that their kids will walk away from their faith.

I like to tell men in premarital counseling, "If your kids have to ask you someday on a Saturday night IF they are going to church the next day, your not being the spiritual leader."

It turns out that the mom and dad who insisted on their kids going to church whether the kids wanted to or not were right all along. After all, we don't apply that same logic to other important issues. You never hear anyone say, "my parents made me brush my teethe therefore I'm not forcing my kids..." Or "my parents insisted that I go to school and I hated it therefore I'm not going to make my kids do it..."

Of course we "force" our kids to do those things that we know are going to be important to them later in life- if we don't we're not doing our job as parents.

No matter what lengths to which they may go to avoid the inevitable!