A handful of Christian authors have created a bit of a cottage industry peddling the scary news that the odds are not good that our young people stay strong in their faith into adulthood. Untrue.

There are important, effective, and relatively simple things parents and Christian workers can do to substantially increase the likelihood our young people will retain a thriving faith into and through their adult years. This is revealed in very strong, sophisticated research from some of the leading sociologists of youth and religion in the world.

Influencers of Faith

In the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR), noted Notre Dame professor Christian Smith and his team found:

• There are relatively simple factors that “powerfully shape” faith that remains strong through life.
• The biggest influencing factor is the faith of parents themselves and the practices they employ with their teenagers.
• These practices are simpler than many parents might imagine.

Increasing the likelihood of enduring faith in our young people is not limited to super-spiritual parents. In fact, the more “regular” and human you are the better. The factors, listed by the power of their influence, are:

Parents: Parents with a vibrant and lived-out faith tend to have children who have and keep a vibrant, lived-out faith. Smith doesn’t mince words: “Parents are huge, absolutely huge, nearly a necessary condition” for a child to remain strong in his or her faith into young adulthood. He concludes “without question, the most important pastor a child will ever have in their life is a parent.”

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