Where have all of the kids gone?

I finished reading the latest issue of Answers Magazine last night, it is the magazine put out by Answers in Genesis. They have recently conducted research into why young people in their 20’s are leaving the church. As a result of the research they have written a book called Already Gone in which they comment on this further. I have not read the book yet.
The research was conducted by America’s Research Group and they surveyed 1000 people aged 20-29 who had attended church as children but no longer did. Some of what they found was that 62% ether did not believe everything in the bible was true or did not know. (44% and 18% respectively) Of those who doubted 88% started doubting in middle school and high school. (40% and 44% respectively) Although the article did not give the percentages it stated that the research found that those who attended Sunday school were “more likely to think God used evolution to create human beings, premarital sex is acceptable and church is not relevant.”
Why is this so? The answer given is the lack of teaching apologetics. In other words as children they were taught what to believe but not why. They did not know why the bible is trustworthy. They did not have a basis for any belief other than “because I said so”.
The amazing thing that they found is that these 20 something’s were not hostel to Christianity they would be willing to listen if someone could explain it to them. The researchers found that what the respondents to the survey wanted from church was bible teaching, not music. They wanted proof that the bible is relevant.
This article got me thinking about how to tell if a church may have a problem in this area, so I came up with a few questions:
1. Can the average person in your church explain in a general way how we got the bible?
2. Can the average person in your church explain why that if Adam was not a real person then there is on salvation for the human race?
3. Can the average person in your church explain why Jesus had to be born of a virgin or he was not sinless?
4. Can the average person in your church explain Jesus had to die and why He had to be resurrected?
5. Can the average person in your church explain why there is suffering in the world?
6. Can the average person in your church explain at least a few of the 33 plus things that God does for the believer at the very moment of salvation? (See Chafer’s Systematic Theology Volume 3 page 234 and following)
7. Are the majority of the sermons preached telling Christians how to get saved?
8. Is the bible taught in a systematic way or does it appear to just be flop and stop?
9. Does the ministry team teach the Whole counsel of God, or are certain areas skipped because the average person just would not understand it?
10. Do the mature believer’s lives reflect what is taught, or is the majority of the church Sunday morning Christians only?
There are a lot more questions that could be asked but I think that 10 are enough for now.
By the way the respondents to the survey came from both conservative and liberal churches.