The common belief that the average youth ministry has failed to prepare students for their faith to survive in college has been challenged recently. All the stats about the massive percentages of students who will leave the faith after high school… might not be due to the university experience but might be more about how we have done youth ministry in the past… and whether or not students ever connected to the church.
Dedicated Christian parents work hard and pray diligently that their children will develop a strong and growing faith in their years at home. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of parenting to watch this happen, and we want to make sure that faith continues to flourish as they leave our homes and go out into the world. That is why one of our greatest fears is that the secular university and its aggressively atheistic professors will lead our kids like away from the faith. Many Christian parents avoid secular schools for this very concern.
But do the years and experiences of college actually contribute to our young people losing or walking away from their faith? The answer – and the reasons for it – might surprise you.
Leading scholars have examined this question using sophisticated and reliable research methodologies, publishing their findings in premier sociological journals.
In the last few years, social scientists have “found that the religiously undermining effect of higher education . . . has disappeared.” Professor Christian Smith, a world-renowned sociologist of religion from Notre Dame University (and a faithful Christian parent himself) explains that recent investigations published in the Review of Higher Education reveal,
[T]hat among recently surveyed college students, 2.7 times more report that their religious beliefs have strengthened during their college experience than say their beliefs weakened. (1)
Check out the whole article here.
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