Monday – Gospels

Reading – Luke 18

Highlight Verses:

“Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭18‬:‭16‬-‭17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

As tempting as it may be, this nerd is not going to write anything (more) about May the Fourth be with you (so tempting).

You can thank today’s highlight verses for that.

I have always been passionate about next generation ministry.

In the past I have quoted what I learned in Bible College – that 85% of adult Evangelical Christians started their faith journey before the age of 18 according to Barna Research.

I decided to check more recent research.

A study by Grey Matter Research and Infinity Concepts released in 2024 stated that

72% of adult evangelicals came to faith before age 18.

While it is speculation, I believe the difference could be because

a much larger percentage of children are being raised with little or no Christian influence.

You could say that it is good that we are reaching a larger percentage of adults who were raised outside of the church. If that is true, that is awesome.

But one thing those statistics tell us is that we are not going beyond our comfortable churches to reach children and youth outside of the church.

Our outreach needs to go way beyond the four walls of the church and into the community.

Some are. The student ministry I am a part of has encouraged a culture of reaching out to friends and classmates. They hold regular outreaches to provide easy opportunities to invite others.

What is your church doing to reach children and youth in your communities?
How are you helping with those efforts?