Raising children in this day of social media and the Internet could not be any more difficult.
I honestly think parents have a tougher time than ever today, with so much negative stuff right at the fingertips of children and teens.
That’s why I am still a big believer in going to church.
Yes, pastors will tell you that it has been a national trend for years that attendance in churches is declining, and that certainly cannot be a good thing for our country.
Some people will say that they don’t need to go to church to have a relationship with God, and I have to agree with that, to some extent.
But what about the possibility that church can improve your relationship with God, and increase your trust in God to help reduce the worry and stress we all face? I do believe it helps.
Church provides that weekly reminder to trust God and do what is right—actually considered living as a Christian person. And knowing our human shortcomings, we all need that reminder, don’t we?
If we need it as adults, how much more do our kids need it? I recently saw a transformation from a teenager I knew, just because his mother was faithful to take him to church every week. The weekly teaching hadn’t reached him so far, but all of a sudden, a recent sermon at my church made the bell go off in his head and he told his mother that his belief and understanding of God had changed—for the better.
That happened for one particularly important reason—he had a parent take him to church each week.
More than ever, we need parents to get their kids in church. The world is making it so difficult for them, and they need all the love and support to become good people that we can give them. Church does provide that.
My family has a very interesting story about our current church attendance. My wife and I found God in our late 20s, began attending a church called New Jerusalem here in Slidell that was pastored by former BellSouth telephone man Jerry Cocran—so yes, God performed a tremendous change in Jerry’s life as well.
Several years ago, Jerry’s son Chad returned from nearly 20 years as a missionary in Thailand and took over the pastorship of the church. The name was changed to Generations Church (on Military Road), and Chad has done a remarkable job reaching young people with his style of preaching and his messages.
It’s a normal thing for Chad to talk about social media and Facebook, and his message is clearly attracting a lot of young people, which is so encouraging to see.
After nearly 10 years with Jerry at New Jerusalem, my wife and I attended various other churches over the years, but in recent years were looking for something new where everything fit for us.
My daughter heard about Generations Church and decided to go, then told us about it.
We decided to try it and were amazed to see what was going on. It was exciting and encouraging to attend, and now we are back at the church that helped teach us about raising a family and having a good marriage. In our young married life, we could never have learned so much had it not been for Jerry and Susie Cocran at that church, and now young Chad is a dynamic person leading a slightly different church.
I wanted to tell that story to encourage you to find a church that works for you, and especially for your children. When young kids are in church, they learn so many good lessons about living a Christian life, which is really about being kind, generous and loving to others.
Teens learn even more, and desperately need that positive reinforcement for their lives. There is so much trying to lead our teens in the wrong direction, starting right with our own public libraries.
It is another reason parents need to find every way they can to teach their kids to grow up as good and responsible adults.
The world wants to destroy our kids and our families, and unfortunately, it is frustrating to see how much that evil is growing—just like what we see from some adults in our library system.
The church has been called a “refuge” from the world so take advantage of it. You will never regret you did.
Kevin Chiri can be reached by e-mail at kevinchiri@gmail.com.