This Is the Best Podcast I've Ever Heard on Discipling Children
In the podcast, "God Comes Where He’s Wanted: Cry of the Home," Jon Tyson, Senior Pastor of Church of the City New York, explains how spiritual decline and indifference are the biggest indicators of our failure to disciple Christians in their teens and 20s.
As a Christian parent, how often have you thought about discipleship? If you're like me, probably not a lot. Sure, I think about teaching my kids how to love God, but true discipleship—preparing them for the lifelong commitment to follow Christ—is something I never learned how to teach, at least formally.
In the podcast, God Comes Where He’s Wanted: Cry of the Home, Jon Tyson, Senior Pastor of Church of the City New York, explains how spiritual decline and indifference are the biggest indicators of our failure to disciple Christians in their teens and 20s. “Nearly two-thirds of all young adults who regularly attend a church will drop out at some point,” says Tyson. “70 percent of kids lose their faith their freshman year of college. We’re just at a point where they haven’t been given what they need to thrive,” he added.
Tyson blames bad leadership, hypocrisy, and scandal—at least partly—for the decline in spiritual formation, but believes a renewed commitment to modeling God’s glory could revive future generations. “Who's gonna win them?" asks Tyson. "They're in an epidemic of fear and anxiety and depression because no one's ever told them about the unconditional love and hope they have in Jesus."
In his podcast, Tyson unpacks how parents can lay the groundwork for discipleship in their homes by redeeming the pain in their lives, pushing back against the privatization of faith, and demonstrating a zeal for Christ that's impossible for children to forget. Listen to the full podcast here.
