Praying for the Two-Thirds

We are finding more and more churches that are being awakened by the research published in our book Already Gone, which deals with why and when two-thirds of young people are leaving the church. Two Sundays ago in Atlanta, the pastor invited families—with their children—down the front and prayed for their children that they wouldn’t be in that two-thirds.

Last evening in Broken Arrow First Baptist Church (Oklahoma), the pastor, Nick Garland, was moved to ask the congregation to join in small groups across the auditorium and pray for the church’s young people—to pray they wouldn’t be in the two-thirds.

Here is a photograph of people as they joined hands in small groups and earnestly prayed for their children/grandchildren.

This is a photograph of me and Pastor Nick Garland.

I praise the Lord for pastors like Pastor Nick who understand the importance of the biblical creation message and stand on the authority of God’s Word. Pastor Garland was so dedicated to getting this message to his congregation that he did something I rarely experience: for this weekend he cancelled all the normal formalities of a church service, including the music. He basically opened each service in prayer, welcomed people, told them how important it was for them to listen to the message, and then handed over to me to speak to them.

For the three services, I had nearly an hour for each message—which gave me a great opportunity to de-secularize thinking and build a creation/Christian worldview, helping people understand the vital importance of standing on the authority of God’s Word beginning in Genesis. Here are some photographs taken inside the auditorium yesterday:

Here are photos taken of people flocking around the resource tables:

I was thrilled to have my photograph taken with the Clark  family who have eight children (actually, nine children—one was not present). All the children are adopted and come from varied backgrounds. What a delightful family they were. The parents homeschool the children. I pray the Lord will continue to richly bless these young people and their parents as they grow in the love of the Lord and His Word.

I give two sessions this evening (Monday) as the final part of this AiG conference in Oklahoma. Thanks for all your prayers. I received lots of great testimonies from people who were present.

Devotion

Delay

(2 Peter 3:15) And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;

The more we see the delay in the return of the Lord Jesus Christ as the holding open the door of salvation, the more we will do all we can to see the lost enter.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken