UFO's and Why do Youth leave the Church after Graduation.

Well, I'm not sure what happened yesterday. I posted a whole blog about fleeing youthful lusts and it just disappeared. What is the use of autosaving drafts if I can't find the draft later? Oh well, maybe I'll re-cover the subject later.
Here's an interesting post about the UFO's in Stephenville. Mike Tumillo is a friend of mine from when we both attended the same church many years ago. He has a wonderful online ministry now and is a big propponent of the "Home Church" movement.
http://yourtown4jesus.com/2008/01/16/ufos-in-texas/
Two interesting posts about youth.
http://samrainer.wordpress.com/
http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2008/01/myths-about-c-1.html

The whole article is about why Youth leave the church after graduation and offers these three myths.

1. The influence of the secular university has pushed them away. Not true - of the dropouts, it is a virtual statistical tie between those who go to college and those who don't.

2. High school students are planning to leave the church once they go to college. The overwhelming majority of high school students do not plan to leave their church when they graduate.

3. The scandal-happy media has disenchanted our youth. Only 15% of those who leave church say it is because of moral or ethical failures in church leadership.

This article confirms in my mind what the greatest reason why the youth leave the church when they are no longer made to go by their parents. It's not because of the overwhelming temptations from the world, or loss of faith in church leadership, or any other of the myriad of reasons I've heard over the years. It comes down to this, they were never saved to begin with. If there is no new work of regeneration in our hearts, if the love of Christ does not enter us and cause us to cleave to Him, it shouldn't be a surprise when we wander from the church and from the faith. This is why it is so crucial that the Gospel be preached from the pulpit everytime we enter it. We must make sure every young person knows of the seriousness of sin, the consequences of sin, and the remedy of Christ. We need to stop teaching "feel-good" sermons or sermons with no scriptural meat that meander aimlessly from point to point. As leaders we also need to commit to praying for a young people, convinced that nothing less than a sovereign move of God can cause repentance to well up in their hearts. Youth don't need games, or candy, or rockin' praise music, or an awesome youth room near as much as they need the Savior, preached clearly and passionately. How many sermons have I preached that have been one or the other. All clarity, full of doctrine and theology with none of the life and power of God indwelling it. Or all passion, full of exortations, illustrations, and challenges but with no clear root in the scriptures, led by emotion to appeal to emotion. First we preach salvation, then we preach the necessity of bearing fruit and continuing in the faith. If our kids do not know what God expects of His children, are they really to blame when they fall away?