Ben Alltimes discusses peer pressure and the reasons why so many children from Christian families do not go on to become believers
Sadly, many children from Christian families end up ‘falling away’ from the church and rejecting the faith of their parents. The reasons for this may be many, but why are we so reluctant to talk about – much less face up to – one of the seemingly most common ones; the effects of non-church friendships on church children?
For a long time I’ve been perplexed by the large number of children from Christian families who do not go on to be believers as adults. But although sadly this is a widespread phenomenon, the subject is a bit of a taboo in evangelical circles. We might go as far as asking others to pray for our ‘prodigal’ children, but we don’t generally like to dwell on the reasons they left. And as painful and as sensitive as this issue is, maybe we owe it to the current generation of parents to spend some time prayerfully grappling with this issue in the hope that lessons can be learned that will help the church.
