Flight Paths

As a youth pastor, my first class of graduating seniors proved how difficult it can be to keep your kids on God's side.  By the time they first returned from university (at Christmas break…) most were no longer Christians.  …I felt like a terrible pastor.  I had these students for their entire senior year of high school, yet nothing I taught them seemed to make an impact on the decisions they made in the first ten weeks at university.  It was then I realized the error of my inaugural year as youth pastor.  I had entertained them, helped them to form friendships in our youth group, and maybe even inspired them to be better human beings.  But I hadn't given them sufficient reason to believe Christianity is true. 

J. Warner Wallace, Foreword to Keeping Your Kids on God's Side, by Natasha Crain.