On a recent episode, Greg Davis spoke with Dr. George Barna on Priority Talk about his latest book, Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’s Heart, Mind, and Soul. This is an updated version of a book he wrote two decades ago. So, why the new edition?
Dr. Barna explained, “I wanted to shift the focus. That earlier book focused on what churches could do to be effective in children’s ministry. Based on the research I’ve been doing the last few years related to churches and children’s worldview, I decided that we need a book to help parents understand that it’s their responsibility to raise their children into spiritual champions.”
Dr. Barna also shared concerning statistics: “The appalling tiny incidence of biblical worldview among every age group in our society says it all, declining from the highest-but-anemic level among our oldest adults (8% among those sixty-five or older), to middle-aged adults (5% among those fifty to sixty-four years of age), to frighteningly low levels among adults thirty-to-forty-nine years old (3%) and those eighteen-to-twenty-nine (1%). The barely there proportion remains a paltry 1% among current teenagers” (44).
He emphasizes that parents shouldn’t solely depend on schools, social media, or churches to teach their kids about faith. Instead, with the right resources, they can confidently pass on a Christian perspective to their children with the help of the Church.
Dr. Barna stated, “It’s the job of the church to support parents in [raising kids biblically], let’s focus now on what parents are doing, what they’re thinking, what they could be doing, what they––biblically speaking––should be doing.”
You can listen to the entire conversation here:
Dr. Barna has written 60 books and currently leads Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center.