Confronted by an intellectual world for which they are not prepared, Christian college students are leaving behind their faith in worrying numbers.

Well, it just happened for the third time. This past week, I dropped off my last child at college. As might be expected, there were lots of emotions. Excitement, nervousness, fear. And that was just me! My wife Melissa wrote a wonderful post about seeing your last child graduate high school which you can read here. Bring a box of tissues.

Right now, as colleges are cranking up for the new year. thousands of other parents are experiencing the same thing all around the country. And as hard as it is to drop off a child, there can be something harder: worrying about them after they’re gone. For Christian parents, we particularly worry about how they will do spiritually while they begin a new life at secular university. How will they handle the barrage—no, tsunami—of intellectual challenges that will come there way?

It was these exact concerns that led me to write my book, Surviving Religion 101: Letters to a Christians Student on Keeping the Faith in College (Crossway, 2021). It was written when my oldest daughter Emma went off to college and designed to help her (and anyone who reads it!) navigate some of the toughest objections to the Christian faith.

Indeed, I can still vividly remember my own college experience as a believer on campus. In the fall of 1989, I began my freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Like many freshmen, I was excited for the next chapter in my life, eager to explore the new opportunities and experiences that college had to offer.

Of course, I knew there would be challenges. College life would not be easy, especially for a Christian. But I had grown up in a solid Christian home, was taught the Bible from a young age, and was a faithful member of my church youth group. So I figured I was ready.

I wasn’t.

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