Alex Shepard 🇺🇸

There are young people walking away from Christianity who were never really taught what Christianity is. They grew up around church, Christian music, youth programs, conferences, slogans, and moral advice, but very little of the weight of God, the seriousness of sin, the necessity of regeneration, the meaning of the cross, or the cost of following Christ. That is part of what makes the present situation so serious. You cannot assume that church attendance produced Christian conviction. A person can spend years inside Christian culture and still have only a thin religious identity. Jesus warned about people who hear His words without building their lives upon them (Matthew 7:24–27). Proximity to Christianity is not the same thing as knowing Christ. For years, many churches tried to keep young people interested by making Christianity entertaining, easy, emotionally exciting, and culturally comfortable. Doctrine was treated as too heavy. Catechesis disappeared. Sin was softened. Judgment became embarrassing. Repentance was reduced to a moment. Holiness was rarely explained. Then we acted surprised when people abandoned a faith that had never been given enough substance to survive serious questions. Paul did not tell Timothy to keep people entertained. He told him, “Preach the word” and warned that a time would come when people would refuse sound doctrine and gather teachers who would tell them what they wanted to hear (2 Timothy 4:2–4). The church was never called merely to attract people. It was commanded to make disciples, teaching them to observe everything Christ commanded (Matthew 28:19–20). This does not remove personal responsibility. Unbelief is still unbelief. Scripture does not excuse rejection of Christ simply because churches failed badly. But we should be honest about what has happened. Some people are leaving behind little more than a Christian atmosphere, family tradition, emotional experiences, and a few memorized phrases. They were given enough Christianity to recognize the vocabulary, but not enough biblical depth to understand the faith they now claim to reject. John writes about some who departed because “they were not really of us” (1 John 2:19). That verse should sober the church. Our task is not to manufacture outward attachment. We cannot regenerate anyone. But we are responsible to preach the whole counsel of God, teach believers carefully, answer hard questions, practice real discipleship, and stop confusing crowds with converts. If we want the next generation to stand, giving them a softer Christianity will not save them. They need the real Christ, the real gospel, the whole Bible, a serious doctrine of God, a serious doctrine of sin, and a faith sturdy enough to survive suffering, doubt, temptation, ridicule, and death. A Christianity with no roots should not surprise us when the first strong wind carries it away.