How do you raise up children in Christ in this difficult world?

That’s a really, good question for parents to ask today. The question is not just how do you raise up kids today? There are a million books out there from a million experts on how to do that. It’s the problem that there are many Christians who are raising their kids the best way they know how, they’re raising them in church, and the kids are still walking away from the faith. The next generation is walking away from the faith at a cataclysmic rate, even though many of them were raised in church. So, what are we doing wrong? What can we do differently? And, not just raise up children in Christ, but how can we raise them in this difficult world? It’s a nod to the fact that culture is rapidly changing from biblical principles, and it’s becoming even more difficult today than it was when we were growing up. So how do we do that?

It’s easy to assume that if culture were more godly then raising good Christian kids would be super easy, right? Well, think about the 1950s, what many people would look back to as the golden age when culture lined up with biblical values. Well, all those kids raised in the 1950s became teenagers in the 1960s, and how did that turn out? The solution has got to be more than just culture, which should give us hope, because culture isn’t going back to the Bible anytime soon.

I would argue a good comparison could be the first century. Think of trying to raise your kids in Christ in the first few decades after Jesus. If you were Jewish, you were considered an outcast from the faith for believing Jesus was the Messiah and you were effectively cut off from your family and community. If you were Greek, you were abandoning the Roman gods and were susceptible to outright persecution from society and eventually the government itself.

In one of these Roman cities, Ephesus, there was a strong Christian community in the city but there was such a backlash against this new movement that a riot started in the city against Christians and the Apostle Paul had to leave the city (Acts 19). After Paul left, the church remained, and there was still a city-wide hatred and resentment towards this new movement called Christianity. Try raising your kids in that environment. Try sending your kids to school in that culture. If they could figure out a way to raise their kids in a difficult environment, so can we.

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