Kintail Speaker Series
Growing up Christian: Why Young People Stay in Church, Leave Church, and (Sometimes) Come Back to Church
John P. Bowen
Tuesday, May 17th, 11am – 3pm
This is 4 hours that will be worth your time, plan to attend!
Lunch prepared by our chef and served by the Camp Kintail staff.
Cost: $25.00
Young people who grow up in church seem to offer great potential for the future of Christianity. Yet often that potential goes unfulfilled. Some give up on Christian faith altogether. Many more give up on church. Others persevere with both faith and church. And yet others return after a time away. So what makes the difference?
John Bowen will share some answers to such questions from a survey of over 300 young people who “grew up Christian,” and retell some of the stories about how growing up and leaving home affected their faith—stories that are often poignant, sometimes hilarious, and always insightful.
This workshop, based in John’s 2010 book Growing Up Christian, will be helpful for pastors, youth workers and parents who want to know how to help their young people to stay in church and in faith. What kind of church—and what kind of Christianity—do young people want and need? And can the existing church provide it?
John Bowen has taught evangelism-related topics at Wycliffe College since 1997. He is also the author of “Evangelism for Normal People” (2002) and “The Spirituality of Narnia” (2007), and editor of “The Missionary Letters of Vincent Donovan” (2010). His wife Deborah is an English professor at Redeemer University College. They have two married children and two grandchildren, of who they are unreasonably proud.
