If you’ve been involved with church ministry for any amount of time, you’re undoubtedly familiar with the statistics.
You know, the ones that talk about how many young people leave the church and walk away from Christ after they graduate from high school. Entire articles, books, and websites are devoted to both lamenting and addressing the problem.
Yet, it doesn’t seem much is changing.
Some end up coming back to Christ, but there is often a lot of heartache in between.
It’s easy to end up feeling discouraged. Wondering if there’s any thing that will make a difference.
If there is any hope for our high school and college age students.
It seems hopeless, but when you come across someone of that generation who has embraced Christ and is walking fully with Him, it is a breath of fresh air.
I’ve been privileged to encounter such a young man.
When I served at the church in Cody, I had the privilege to interact with Alex Beaverson. (website) As a young high school student, he fully embraced walking with Christ. He was an example to his classmates. He was a leader in his school, in the sports he played, and in the church.
I had the privilege of walking with Alex. He was a part of the worship team, and later an intern on the church’s staff. It was a joy to spend time with him talking about Christ, life, and worship. I got to see Alex grow in maturity and ministry skill.
Alex is now pursuing ministry training at the college level, and God is granting him some awesome ministry opportunities already. I’m excited to see what the future holds for him.
Alex has an incredible passion not only to point people to the sufficiency of Christ through worship and teaching, he has a great passion to help young people understand that it’s never too early to begin walking with Christ. Because of that passion, he has written a book called This Walk with Christ: A Book about Christianity and How to Start at a Young Age.
Check out the promo video below:
When the book is released, I encourage you to pick up a copy and get it into the hands of others. You can follow Alex on Twitter to know when it’s released.
While there may not be a singular answer to the challenge of students leaving our churches, perhaps Alex’s story will be one of the pieces that God will use to draw young people to Himself.
[UPDATE] For more information on the book, visit the book page.
