Parent Panic

Yesterday I had a father call me to talk about his daughter. She is 18 and in her first year of college at a major university. The father was in a panic because his daughter had called him and stated that she didn't know if she believed in God anymore. She further remarked that the professors were "stealing her faith from her". There is too much detail to go into for a blog regarding the logistics of the professors and their teaching but it was your typical "crisis of belief" moment that most Christian students have at some point in time in their schooling years. My main concern was not shock over the college education system which is teaming with staunch atheism, nor was it over the shock of a daughter who might fall away. Our own SBC statistics tell us that "somewhere between 75 to 88% of children from evangelical homes will leave the faith by the end of their freshman year in college".

No, my major concern was with the father. He was good to have concern for his daughter and second guessed whether he should be paying for his little girl to go such a school. However he repeatedly told me that he was calling ministers and churches because it was the church's job to have a way of rebutting college professors and their anti-Christian indoctrination. He repeated this statement over and over in our conversation. He was researching things on his own to combat his daughter's profs but he repeatedly called me the expert because I was a pastor.

My assessment was two fold. Like an economist I have two hands. On the one hand this father's cry for the church to have answers to faith testing questions like "If the law of the conservation of matter is correct then what does that mean for a believer's faith that God created everything?" is a valid question to all Christians who make up the bride of Christ. Honestly should we have a bunch of Christians who combat every atheist and agnostic with "well Jesus worked for me" or should we be more excellent in our answers? There are actually awesome resources out there for Christians to be more apologetic in their answers to non Christians. Men like Ravi Zacharias and studies like The Truth Project that help simple minded people like me have a better answer for people who are questioning. The Bible calls us to excellence so we should strive for that even in our ability to present the Gospel to the most intellectual of people.

Now on the other hand, this panicked parent as many do rush to the church to find out what is happening to their child's faith. In all reality the problem with the statistics mentioned above is that parents have relinquished their discipleship duties towards their kids to the church when that was never the way God intended it. Some might say that the church gladly accepted this role to the point that parents are almost discouraged to not be a part of the discipleship role at all. Deuteronomy 6 tells us that we should write God's word on our hearts, doorways and foreheads and Psalms says that we should meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. The scriptures are also very clear that Father's are to lead their homes and parent's are to train their children in the way they should go. If my children leave the home for school, work or marriage and are not trained with a Biblical worldview on what these things should look like then the fault is mine and mine alone. The church should be there for encouragement, equipping, accountability and prayer but never as the main source of a discipleship in a family where parents are able to live the words of Deuteronomy 6.

I realize I could write a book on this subject but it is after all a blog specifically for venting my thoughts and ramblings.