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One of the biggest decisions Christian parents face is how they will educate their children. Should they send their children to private school? Should they homeschool? What about public school? The stereotypes that attach themselves to each of these choices can be comical: guess which mom wears the denim jumper? How about the North Face jacket? The tight rhinestone tee? The dogmatism that attaches to each choice, however, is not comical at all. Contrary to rumor, the Bible does not endorse one of these choices above another.

The Bible does, however, admonish parents to take seriously and personally the instruction and training of their children. How this works out in practice is a matter for careful consideration. I believe this biblical mandate can be fulfilled through any of the three options I have noted. I also believe it can be completely undermined by any of the three. Each option has its strengths and weaknesses. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that the education option you choose is of secondary importance to the role you as a parent play in your child's educational environment.

So which route did the Wilkins go? Despite the fact that I do not own a single tee with rhinestones on it, we went with public school. I want to be honest: it would not be accurate to say that we sat down and gave serious consideration to private school or homeschooling. We did not, and I hope my thoughts below will clarify why. However, with 11 years of public school under our belts we have had every opportunity to reconsider. Here are some reasons why, 11 years in, we still stand behind our decision.

We couldn't afford private school.

Okay, I'm just keeping it real. Financially we couldn't meet our long-term goals with four children in private school. The lack of ambiguity on this point was actually reassuring: It meant that there must be a way to honor God in our children's education other than sending them to private school.

We believe in public education as an ideal.

Jeff and I both come from families of public educators, and we ourselves are products of public education. Though the public education system is far from perfect, we believe that by participating in it we help to keep our community and our country healthy. We recognize that these convictions have been easy for us to hold—we have been blessed to live close to excellent schools. In many areas of our country choosing to participate in the public school system would be nothing short of bold, missional living. Furthermore, none of our children has special needs or learning disabilities, removing a huge level of complexity from the decision-making process.

We believe worldview comes from parents.

I think homeschoolers and private schoolers believe this, too. My point is that we believe children can receive a secular education without sacrificing or compromising their Christian worldview. Ensuring this kind of thoughtful engagement has required many conversations about their classes. We press our kids to learn to think critically (discerningly) about what they are being taught. We correct or temper what they learn as needed.

Here are some unlooked-for benefits of a "secular" education that we have found:

• Public school gave us early and repeated opportunities to talk respectfully about other religions with our children. Those religions had real faces. Our children have many opportunities to dialogue about their faith with friends.
• Public school clarified for us the importance of time spent together. We had to be deliberate about guarding our shared time since six hours of every weekday would be spent at school (see related post).
• Public school reinforced for our kids that home, rather than their peer group, is their primary place of community. Home is a safe place where they can expect to be treated with kindness and gentle speech. Their peer group? Not so much.
• Public school drew clear lines for our kids. They know they are in the minority in terms of worldview. We do not have to convince them that they are aliens and strangers.

I should note that we did not send our children to public school to be "salt and light." We sent them to public school to receive an education. We did not try to strategically position our kids as miniature missionaries in their kindergarten class.

We believe children love to learn if their parents love to learn.

If the public school mom stereotype is unsavory, it pales in comparison to that of the public school student: a drug-marinated, Halo-playing, sailor-mouthed charmer clinging to a 2.0 in theater tech. That child does not live in our home. Though our children's formal education happens in a school building, it is enriched at home. Jeff and I are dorks who work crosswords together and read classic literature together and enjoy logic puzzles and the math of a card trick and the chemistry of baking and the physics of a game of pool and the biology of gardening. We became dorks because our parents were dorks. Our kids are dorks, too (sorry, kids). They are self-motivated and active learners, which has allowed them to flourish in public school regardless of whether they get the PhD or the PE coach for their language arts teacher. Parents set the educational climate for their children. If you are not the stereotypical public school parent, your child will probably not be the stereotypical public school student.

To Sum Up

For our family, public school means our children get an affordable, sound education. It means our family crosses paths with people of all backgrounds and faiths. It means we get to invest in the neighborhood in which we live. Our choice of public school in no ways indicts private schools or homeschooling. Public school is not for everyone, but it is a good fit for our family. Education is a highly personal choice, demanding consideration of factors unique to each student and family. I offer here just one perspective in the hope of enriching the dialogue.

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Dave Blanchard is the co-founder and president of Praxis, and I asked him to help us understand this developing trend among Christians in the marketplace. Praxis offers an accelerator fellowship program to advance the work of high-growth, pre-scale nonprofits and businesses led by Christ-followers. Applications for the 2014 Praxis Fellowship close on July 1 and can be completed at www.praxislabs.org. Follow them on Twitter @praxislabs and @dave_blanchard.

Why is entrepreneurship important for the church right now?

In a 2011 Kauffmann study, a stunning 54 percent of millennials said they want to start or join a startup. And as Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and Square, noted recently on the cover of Fortune, "The most efficient means to spread an idea today is corporate structure." From Scott Harrison at charity: water to Jeff Skoll at Participant Media to Dov Charney at American Apparel, these founders are leaning on their core beliefs to shape our world, for better and for worse. Given this increasing influence and platform, we believe the future of culture depends largely on the worldview of entrepreneurs. This is nothing less than a massive opportunity for the church—not to "take over" but instead to demonstrate our faith in action—our orthopraxis. At Praxis, we often talk about gospel-minded entrepreneurship as an important apologetic for the 21st century.

What is a gospel-minded organization anyway? Praxis talks about wanting business leaders to embody the gospel in their work. What does this mean? How does it practically play out?

This is an important question. While the gospel is the good news of God's saving grace in the life of an individual, how does that message actually relate to an organization? When we receive God's Spirit, we are made new; we become a new creation with new life. As a result, we cannot help but live differently. Fundamentally, we experience a shift in our motivations, goals, and methods for achieving these things. Just as a gospel-minded person wakes up each day working out of that new mindset—they have been made new to reflect the glory of God—the same can be true for a gospel-minded organization. This entity—any organization is really the sum of its people—must think about what it wants to accomplish in light of God's regenerative work on earth and organize its operations in order to reflect those priorities. The gospel itself is a message, but its implications for business are rich with virtue.

Along with Josh Kwan and our mentor, friend, and board member Steve Graves, I authored a book entitled From Concept to Scale: Building a Gospel-Minded Organization that attempts offer some practical ideas and exercises for application as you construct your venture. From supply chain practices, to the worldview you market, to your concept itself, we think our faith is not only relevant but even essential to every component of the organization's activities. I'm also a big fan of Peter Kreeft's profound work Back to Virtue. In it, he outlines the four ancient virtues (wisdom, courage, justice, and moderation), the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and love), and a beautiful contrast of the eight beatitudes and the seven deadly sins. Read through an entrepreneurial lens, his content provides a fascinating way for every entrepreneur to think about creating a God-honoring organization that benefits our world.

What is Praxis, and how did it come to be?

In 2010, I was working at innovation firm IDEO, and God brought me together with Josh Kwan, a venture philanthropist. We shared interest in supporting high-impact entrepreneurs in their work and noticed a considerable gap around accelerating the faith-motivated entrepreneur's path to creating a scalable organization. From that insight, we created Praxis in an effort to help Christ-following entrepreneurs advance their work into the world. We currently run two annual fellowship programs, one for nonprofits and one for businesses. The program is focused on preparing both the venture and also the leader for the demands of rapid growth, and is based on four core offerings: providing world-class mentorship, a shared-faith peer community, access to capital sources, and significant hands-on support from our core Praxis team. More on the program details and application process is available here. Application, which closes July 1, is highly competitive, but once you are in, there's a truly incredible of community of people ready to pour into you and your work.

When you say "world-class" mentors, what does that look like?

We are incredibly blessed to have more than 25 volunteer mentors spend focused, one-on-one discussion time in person with our fellows at our events. In our business program, we have mentors such as Chi Hua Chien, partner at Kleiner Perkins; Greg Spencer, founder of Paradigm Project; and Nancy Duarte, founder of Duarte Design, the top presentation design firm in the world. For our non-profit program, we are grateful to have mentors ranging from Peter Greer, CEO of HOPE International; to Fred Smith, president of The Gathering; to David Weekley, founder of David Weekley Homes and the David Weekley Family Foundation. We are fortunate to have a group of remarkable people deep in both competency and also faith and put them around the next generation of Christian leaders.

Can you give us an example of the type of ventures Praxis fellows lead?

Jason Locy of FiveStone, a Praxis core mentor focused on story and design, says our fellows "look a lot like the body of Christ exposing the kingdom of God on earth." They are inspiring to work with and diverse. Sajan George of Matchbook Learning is turning around our nation's worst-performing public schools. Chris and Will Haughey of Tegu make high-end toys (read: job creation) in Honduras. Jimmy Lin of Rare Genomics is helping children with rare diseases use gene sequencing to discover what's wrong. Hannah Song and Justin Wheeler lead Liberty in North Korea, a group focused on reshaping the public perception of an oppressed country.

What do you look for in entrepreneurs you support?

First and foremost, we look for high-potential entrepreneurs who have a real interest in pursuing what it means to integrate their faith and their work. We're looking for leaders who feel called to their work, and typically have some sort of big idea they are expressing through their venture. They want to go to scale, to have big impact, and are on a high-growth trajectory that suggests they have a shot at it. When we started, some people asked us if there were really enough high-quality Christians out there involved in work at this level. Two years in, it has been amazing to uncover so many Christ-followers with incredible talent who are pouring their lives out to build these gospel-minded organizations.

If you could give advice to the Christ-following entrepreneur, what would it be?

There's much that could be said, but three things stand out. First, use the gospel as a generative construct, not simply a retro-fitting values device or ethics manual. We have an incredible opportunity to create radically different organizations that upend societal norms, transform and renew culture, and popularize important ideas from generosity and charity to using business as a vehicle to free the oppressed. Second, don't lose track of yourself in the entrepreneurial process. Our fellows' only prescribed homework is Gordon MacDonald's Ordering Your Private World. The taxing roller coaster of entrepreneurship can be stabilized with a structured life, healthy perspective, and disciplined practices like taking a Sabbath. Last, remember that God's version of success is not the world's. We are called to pray, work hard, be faithful and leave the results—much of which you cannot see nor will ever know—up to God. 

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But do the years and experiences of college actually contribute to our young people losing or walking away from their faith? The answer - and the reasons for it - might surprise you.

Leading scholars have examined this question using sophisticated and reliable research methodologies, publishing their findings in premier sociological journals.

In the last few years, social scientists have "found that the religiously undermining effect of higher education . . . has disappeared." Professor Christian Smith, a world-renowned sociologist of religion from Notre Dame University (and a faithful Christian parent himself) explains that recent investigations published in the Review of Higher Education reveal,

[T]hat among recently surveyed college students, 2.7 times more report that their religious beliefs have strengthened during their college experience than say their beliefs weakened. (1)

Research from the University of Texas-Austin delivers more good news, finding that young people who avoid college "exhibit the most extensive patterns of religious decline" compared to those who do attend college. (2) They explain the loss of faith among the non-college attending young adults has little to do with secularizing ideology, but simply results from a lack of intentionality and direction in their lives. Those who seem to drift through these formative and transitional years with no definite goals or plans likely bring this same attitude and action to their faith life.

Christian Smith explains that one careful and comprehensive review of the research literature on this question over the last few decades shows that a "clearly perceptible change appears to have begun in the 1990s" regarding the impact of college attendance on one's faith.

Professor Smith observes three primary and very interesting reasons why the university is not the faith-shredder we imagine it to be:

1)    The increase in presence and effectiveness of campus-based ministries like Campus Crusade, InterVarsity, and Young Life.

2)    The increase of relativism and the decline of strict scientism, which allows for discussion of faith and spiritual speculation, similar to what Paul experienced at the Aeropagus.

3)    An increase in committed evangelical and Catholic faculty at secular universities in America who can serve as an encouragement and balance for Christian students.

Smith adds this interesting note of explanation,

More broadly, adolescents today are generally quite conventional, and specifically so with regard to religion - less rebellious, for instance than they were during the baby boom generation - and so are generally content to continue in the faith traditions in which they were raised, however much that faith may or may not mean to them.

He continues with a very surprising, but important observation that has great merit,

And at the very general level, American culture and perhaps Western culture seems to have shifted from a secular to a post-secular era in which secularist assumptions are no longer simply taken for granted but are rather on the table for questioning and religion is increasingly considered a legitimate topic of discussion -- a cultural shift that has likely much affected contemporary youth. (3)

An important lesson we should take from findings like this is that time and culture do not remain fixed or stagnant.

What was true just a few decades ago can change today, for both good or ill, and for very interesting and unsuspected reasons. We must pay attention to the cultural changes happening under our feet and what they bring about so we are not stuck in believing truths that have, over time, transformed into myths.

Sources:

(1) Christian Smith, Souls in Transition: The Religious & Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 248-249.

(2) Jeremy E. Uecker, Mark Regnerus, Margaret Vaaler, "Losing My Religion: The Social Sources of Religious Decline in Early Adulthood," Social Forces, (2007) 85: 1-26; Regnerus and Uecker, "How Corrosive is College to Religious Faith and Practice?" Social Science Research Council, February 2007, p. 3.

(3) Smith, 2009, p. 249, 250.

Other articles in this series:

Does 'Abba' Mean 'Daddy'?

C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton Quotes

Burning Your Ships for Jesus

Misquoting Francis of Assisi

The Cross an Electric Chair?

Divorce Rate Among Christians

Do Faithful Christians Take the Bible Literally?

Is the 'I Only Need Jesus!' Declaration Christian?

Who Really Started the Family 'Culture War'?

Are Your Kids Likely to Lose Their Faith?

Are Millennials More Self-Sacrificing and Community-Minded Than Previous Generations?

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It all began, Carson reflects, with the aim of helping to "restore the center of historic, confessional Christianity" in the broadly Reformed heritage. Officially constituted with a Council and Foundation Documents around the time of the 2007 National Conference, TGC has since seen the birth of a website with about 4 million monthly pageviews, more than a dozen Regional Chapters, a biennial Women's Conference, and an International Outreach initiative dedicated to relieving theological famine around the globe.

"We were initially thinking more in terms of conferences than of the web," Keller admits. "It seems we've created a space that's made people think, 'This is broad enough and yet focused enough that I can really learn from this group.'"

Regarding TGC's international vision, Carson explains, "We've been clear from the beginning that we don't want [overseas groups] to be American-controlled." Instead of an "American hegemony that's some sort of new worldwide mission," the hope is simply to engender "strategic and mutually encouraging" fellowships around the world. As Keller remarks, it's vital for such TGC-inspired partnerships to be and remain indigenous.

"We certainly make our share of mistakes," Peays acknowledges, "but we're grateful to God for where we are now, and we hope to honor him going forward." And, Lord willing, Carson adds, "This is only the beginning." May God grant us strength, humility, and wisdom to equip and encourage his saints in the days to come, to the praise of his glorious grace.

What Is the History and Future of TGC? from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

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You can also download or stream the audio below. And be sure to subscribe to our iTunes podcast for fresh daily content including interviews, sermons, lectures, and more.

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Though the joys are many, there are days when motherhood wears me down to the core. Some days, I'm not even sure I'll make it through to bedtime. When night time finally does come, my head hits the pillow hard, and I wonder what I accomplished all day. My heart sighs because I know that tomorrow will most likely be a repeat of the same. Because the job is never done, I'll wake up the next morning to the house still in disarray and mountains of laundry to wash. And based on the sniffles I've heard lately, certain illness looms on the horizon.

Some seasons of motherhood feel more intense and exhausting than others. It's easy to become discouraged by the endless cycle of cleaning up the messes—physical and emotional. Joy sometimes feels like a thing of the past and just out of reach. We can feel isolated and alone. We may question our qualifications to be a mother or think we've failed our children.

The truth is, motherhood is hard, and we can't do it on our own. As John Piper wrote in A Godward Life, "I need help. Always. In everything. I am simply kidding myself if I think I can move an inch without God's help." Just as we cannot live without water, we cannot do anything apart from Christ, including motherhood. "Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing (John 15:5).

Rather than swim in guilt or wish life were different, we need to go to the Source of our strength, joy, and peace. We need to drink from the living water that only Christ provides. There we'll find that the truths of the gospel are always within reach, always ready to refresh, remind, and restore.

Jesus died to free us from trying to do life on our own. He came to redeem us from slavery to sin and restore our relationship with the Father. He faced every temptation and sorrow that we face, yet lived a sinless life. The grave could not hold him, guaranteeing a future resurrection for all who trust in Christ. As these truths saturate our thirsty soul, we find the nourishment and strength we so desperately need.

And it's because of Jesus that we can go before the throne of grace in confidence to find the help we need (Hebrews 4:16). If you are like me and feel tired and worn, this prayer is for you:

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Dear Father in heaven,

I come before you weary and beat down by this long day. Being a mother can be so hard. I often feel helpless and inadequate. Part of me wants to complain, but then I remember the extent to which you were beat down, and I'm struck quiet. I remember that you are the Man of Sorrows and that you understand just how hard life can be. I also remember that you collect all my tears and care about my troubles, trials, and fears.

The Book of Hebrews tells me I can come to you in confidence and find the grace and mercy I need. And so I come to you now to lay all these burdens at your feet. I feel so overwhelmed by the details of life. It seems like I can never get ahead. Just when I clean up one mess, another one pops up somewhere else. Some days I wonder if I'm really cut out for motherhood.

I know I failed to glorify you today. I failed to love as you love me. I failed to extend the grace you've given me. Forgive me for striving in my own strength. Forgive me for not finding my complete satisfaction in you and seeking it elsewhere. Each of these failures reminds me of just how much I need a Savior. Today reminds me that I need Jesus more than I did yesterday and that tomorrow I will need him even more.

I'm so thankful that there is so much of you to give. You're never tired or weary. Even while I sleep, you remain at work. Nothing happens outside your knowledge and will. You're never stretched beyond what you can handle. And the well of your grace never runs dry.

Because of what Jesus did for me, I ask that you create in me a clean heart. Renew a refreshed spirit within me. Give me gospel strength to get through the day. Open my eyes so that I see your hand at work in the mess of my life. Be my constant in my fluctuating emotions. Keep the gospel ever before me and make it a reality in my daily life as a mother.

I pray that tomorrow you would be with me in all the muck and mire of motherhood. Help me to find my joy in you and not in my circumstances. May I remember that even when it feels otherwise, you are always with me, will never leave me, or forsake me. Tonight I'll sleep in peace knowing that even when I lose my grip, you never let go of me. And I'll open my eyes in the morning to find mercy, fresh and new, ready for the taking.

It's because of Jesus and in Jesus' name that I pray, amen.

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On My Shelf is a new feature designed to help you get to know various people through providing a behind-the-scences glimpse into their lives as readers.

I corresponded with Tullian Tchividjian, senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, about what's currently on his nightstand, books he re-reads, his favorite fiction, and more.

What's on your nightstand right now?

My nightstand is a mess—the biggest eyesore in our bedroom (according to my wife). I have about 30 books piled up on top of each other. I'm constantly reading, and I'm always reading more than one book at a time. I have everything from books I've been asked to endorse to books I'm consulting for my current sermon series to books I'm reading for fun.

I'm also a curious reader, which means I'm always reading books by people just to find out how they write and what they say about certain things—which means I'm not simply reading books by people within my theological tradition. One of my concerns about some who would consider themselves "reformed" is that they only read books by other "reformed" people. This, in my opinion, is a big mistake. And when some do read books outside their own theological tradition, they only do so with an eye to critique instead of an eye to learn. At least this was my mistake for far too many years. I graduated from a well-known reformed seminary (and am unbelievably grateful for the education I received there), and I never heard of any of the books, theologians, or scholars I list below (except one). I have, therefore, greatly varied my reading over the past five years or so and am reading many more books by writers, thinkers, and scholars outside of my theological  tradition. Seven years ago I heard Tim Keller say, "When you read one thinker, you become a clone. Two thinkers, you become confused. Ten thinkers, you begin developing your own voice. Two or three hundred thinkers, you become wise."

So a few books on my nightstand right now include: Humble Orthodoxy by Joshua Harris, Luther: An Introduction to His Thought by Gerhard Ebeling, The Foolishness of Preaching by Robert Capon, On Being a Theologian of the Cross by Gerhard Forde, The Mockingbird Devotional by Ethan Richardson and Sean Norris (eds.), The Genius of Luther's Theology by Robert Kolb and Charles Arand, This American Gospel by Ethan Richardson, Between Noon and Three by Robert Capon, The Reconstruction of Morality by Karl Holl, Living by Faith by Oswald Bayer, Handling the Word of Truth by John Pless, and How to Talk So People Will Listen by Steve Brown.

I'm learning, in the words of Eugene Peterson, that "discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God's righteousness and less and less attention to our own." The way many of us think about sanctification is, well, not very sanctified. In fact, it's terribly narcissistic. We spend too much time thinking about how we're doing, if we're growing, whether we're doing it right or not. We spend too much time pondering our spiritual failures and brooding over our spiritual successes. Somewhere along the way we've come to believe that the focus of the Christian faith is the life of the Christian.

Ironically, I've discovered that the more I focus on my need to get better, the worse I actually get—I become neurotic and self-absorbed. Preoccupation with our performance over Christ's performance for us actually hinders spiritual growth because it makes us increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective—the exact opposite of how the Bible describes what it means to be sanctified. Sanctification is forgetting about yourself. "He must increase but I must decrease" (John 3:30) properly describes the painful sanctification process. "Decreasing" is impossible for the one who keeps thinking about himself. As J. C. Kromsigt said, "The good seed cannot flourish when it is repeatedly dug up for the purpose of examining its growth." Thankfully, the focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer. The gospel frees us from ourselves. It announces that this whole thing is about Jesus and dependent on Jesus. The good news is the declaration of his victory for us, not our "victorious Christian life." The gospel asserts that God's final word over a Christian has already been spoken: "Paid in full."

There are four books I've re-read a few times in the last two years: Living by Grace by William Hordern, The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz, Who Will Deliver Us? by Paul Zahl, and Sanctification by Harold Senkbeil. All four of those books have been extremely helpful to me personally and theologically. They've helped me better understand my sin, God's grace, and the distinction between the law and the gospel. They've guided me through deep and wide pastoral challenges and, I think, made me a better preacher, pastor, and counselor.

What are your favorite fiction books?

I'm not a huge reader of fiction. I consider that to be a weakness in my reading habits, not a strength. I would strongly encourage readers of theology to increase their reading of fiction. When our reading habits become one-dimensional, our thinking becomes one-dimensional. But three fiction books that have profoundly influenced me are Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz, and The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis.

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Also in this series: Jared Wilson and Kathy Keller.

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1. Populations and subpopulations can change through three processes: fertility (the number of children that women have), mortality (the number of deaths that occur), and migration (the movement of persons from a locality of origin to a destination place across some pre-defined, political boundary). Demography is the statistical study of human populations and these changes.

2. Replacement level fertility is the level of fertility at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next. In developed countries, such as the United States, replacement level fertility can be taken as requiring an average of 2.1 children per woman. This means that 100 women will bear 211 children, 103 of which will be females. About 3% of the alive female infants are expected to die before they bear children, thus producing 100 women in the next generation. In countries with high infant and child mortality rates, however, the average number of births may need to be much higher.

3. Total fertility rate represents the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with current age-specific fertility rates. From 2008-2012, the fertility rates for the countries with the highest population was: China (1.6); India (2.6); U.S. (1.9); Indonesia (2.1); Brazil (1.8).

4. Fertility rates began falling in Western, industrialized countries in 1968 (oral contraceptive, first introduced in 1960, had become widely used by then). By 1975, every Western First World nation was below the replacement rate. Over the course of the next two decades, massive fertility decline spread worldwide: In 1979, the global fertility rate was 6.0; today it's 2.52 and still declining.

5. Most population models suggest we are currently at "peak child," that is, the world currently has about 2 billion children and that number is likely to decline over time, not increase. Because of this, the world population will peak at 10 billion before declining.

6. In the U.S., the largest population group — whites who are not Hispanic — recorded more deaths than births last year for the first time ever. Between July 2011 and July 2012, an estimated 12,400 more white Americans died than were born. (The number of whites still increased slightly last year because immigration more than compensated for the gap between births and deaths.) Demographers have long expected that deaths among the non-Hispanic white population ultimately would outpace births, but they didn't expect it until the end of the decade.

7. Sub-replacement level fertility rates can have a wide-ranging effect on everything from marriage to sex trafficking to global conflict. For example, demographic projections suggest that by 2030 more than 25 percent of Chinese men in their late 30s will never have married. As demographer Nicholas Eberstadt points out, "The coming marriage squeeze will likely be even more acute in the Chinese countryside, since the poor, uneducated, and rural population will be more likely to lose out in the competition for brides. Beijing will have to determine how it will cope with a growing demographic of unmarried, underprivileged, and, quite possibly, deeply discontented young men."

8. Countries can sometimes offset low fertility rates by increasing immigration. According to Eberstadt, the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census Bureau projections, is set to grow by 20 percent, or over 60 million people (from 310 million to 374 million), between 2010 and 2030. By such projections, the population growth rate of the U.S. will nearly match India's. Virtually every age group in the country is set to increase in size over the next 20 years. Unlike all other affluent countries, the United States can expect a growing pool of working-age people (a moderate but steady rise averaging 0.5 percent per year over the next 20 years).

9. According to the World Bank, the nations with the largest proportions of unbelievers had an average annual population growth rate of just 0.7% in the period 1975-97, while the populations of the most religious countries grew three times as fast.

Recent posts in this series:

9 Things You Should Know About Fathers and Father's Day

9 Things You Should Know About Mothers and Mother's Day

9 Things You Should Know About Pornography and the Brain

9 Things You Should Know About Planned Parenthood

9 Things You Should Know About the Boston Marathon Bombing

9 Things You Should Know About Female Body Image Issues

9 Things You Should Know About the Gosnell Infanticide and Murder Trial

9 Things You Should Know About Edith Schaeffer

9 Things You Should Know About Duck Dynasty

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After nine months of school, activities, and friends, the four Wilkin kids are once again fully present in our home. Our summer will be marked by some travel (cousins who need to enjoy our company), some learning (good books to be read, good recipes to try), and some household chores that never seem to get done during the school year (it cannot be an accident that the number of dirty windows in my home divides neatly by four). But the highest item on our summer agenda, and the one we all look forward to the most, is rest. There will be time to listen to the cicadas.

Here is a remarkable thing about the Christian faith: we have a God who commands us to rest. Our God commands us to hold still, to cease from labor, to actively enter into repose—not merely as a means to regain our strength, but as an act of worship.

The gods of other religions and the god of self, these demand ceaseless toil. To please these gods, worshipers work incessantly at the business of self-denial, approval-seeking, pilgrimage—repeated rites that strive to prove the worth of the supplicant and earn the favor of the deity.

Those who seek the approval of lesser gods commit themselves to a course of utter exhaustion. But not the Christian. In our obedient observance of rest, the work of our Savior is understood most clearly. We rest not as an attempt to earn his approval, but as an assent that his approval has already been earned in the sun-going-down, Sabbath-initiating work of Christ on the cross. Christ worked that we may rest. He, in a gathering dusk, exhaling the first note of a blood-bought chorus of infinite rest.

The God who grants us soul-repose commands our worship in the form of bodily rest. The worshiper is blessed in obedience. Restored and ready, he resumes the effort of tilling his corner of the garden. More importantly, he's reminded that both the garden and also the one who tills are contingent and derived, depending every moment on the sustaining breath of the Creator. He is thereby mercifully relieved of his idolatrous, exhaustion-breeding belief that the work of his hands upholds the universe in part or in whole.

This is a good and timely reminder for our family.

Nothing obstructs our ability to fulfill the Great Command like exhaustion. In the daily busyness of life-as-usual, the love of many grows cold. But the rest the Lord ordains for his people is a communal rest, a rest that places them in company with one another, hands emptied of labor, minds emptied of cares. Because emptied hands can deal the next round of spades, or make a dandelion chain, or pass around the popsicles. And emptied minds can join in the conversation bubbling up from the back of the minivan.

Love grows warm once again in the emptied spaces of rest. We remember our love for the One who sustains us, we recall our love for the ones who surround us. Worshipful rest renews our love for God and for others. It is the rest that restores our souls.

Summer is, for our family, a time when the worship of work gives way to the worship of rest. We will not fill these precious days with more ways to be distracted, exhausted, and pulled in a thousand directions. The evensong of the cicadas invites us to join in the worship of loving God and each other with renewed intent, awash with gratitude that our souls find rest in the finished work of Christ.

Well did Shakespeare observe that "summer's lease hath all too short a date." Before we know it, the season of work will return to claim its laborers. So we will heed the invocation of the cicadas to rest, rest, rest—knowing that our rest here is as vital as it is brief, longing for that future rest when our Sabbath-song of worship, once raised, will redouble and reverberate across eternity.

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In the parable of the sower and soils (Matthew 13), Jesus compares the seeds that fell on good soil versus the seeds that fell on rocky or shallow soil. If we don't faithfully prepare the soils of youth ministry, we should not expect to reap a harvest. So how do we prepare the church for effective youth ministry? Based on 15 years as a youth pastor and a dozen more consulting with churches and training youth pastors, I offer these four key ingredients.

First, youth ministry needs a profile. The average congregation is not thinking about youth, especially if there are not many in their midst. So we need to draw attention to the teens in the congregation and the community. Think about the vast number of youth who have no contact with the church. Raise the issue of youth ministry in your congregation and in time it will be on the hearts of most of your members. The issues we talk about become our priorities. Mention students in prayers during services and ask the congregation to be praying for youth. Use church newsletters and bulletins to highlight youth-related news. 

Second, youth ministry needs a vision. Bill Hybels in his book Courageous Leadership defines vision as "a picture of the future that produces passion." A vision is more than just a good idea. It has the potential to captivate the attention of a congregation in a way that stirs people to action. A vision for youth ministry is more than just stating that we want more youth in the church. More compelling is the idea that we want to reach a generation of young people for Christ. The task needs to be understood as vital and urgent. In order for people to get excited, they to see the need and potential.

Fifteen years ago, Holy Cross Church outside Charleston, South Carolina, was a small congregation of mostly older people. At that time, the minister explained to the congregation that they needed to hire a youth minister. The response was overwhelmingly negative based on the obvious fact that there were no young people in the church. As the minister explained, that's exactly why they needed a youth minister. Today Holy Cross has two full-time youth ministers working exclusively with teenagers and the largest ministry to teens in its community.

It is the task of church leadership not only to declare that youth work will be a priority, but also to share a picture of what that will look like.

Third, youth ministry needs a strategy. How will we get to where we want to be? Developing strategy takes much prayer and time. Good youth ministry does not appear overnight. A church must think through realistic and measurable steps in order to begin or develop the necessary work. Avoid the trap of getting so caught up in the excitement of the vision that everyone expects a quantum leap forward. A realistic timetable will consider the challenge and count the cost. We develop strategy when we can divide the big picture into manageable sized smaller pictures. At the same time we also have to know how to answer the question, "What will we do when we get there?" 

The strategy must be driven by our understanding of Scripture before we consider the cultural context. We see in 1 Thessalonians 2 what Paul ministry's strategy looked like: build relationships, proclaim the gospel, and teach Scripture. We ought to avoid thinking in terms of creating programs but rather build our strategy around proclamation and discipleship in the context of relationships. The strategy must be communicated to the whole congregation. People respond to opportunities to get involved when they know and are excited about what is going on.

Finally, youth ministry needs support. Youth leaders must know the church is behind them. There is nothing more empowering than knowing firsthand that church members are praying every day for me and for the youth. When youth ministry is a priority we make resources available to the work. Youth should not be relegated to the worst rooms in the church. Many youth pastors feel like second-tier staff and would leave youth ministry if not for the call of God. Youth ministers should be featured up front regularly and, where appropriate, preach occasionally in their churches. Exposure allows the congregation to get to know them. Youth themselves must be a visible part of congregational life. The church needs to see and hear from those whose lives are being changed by the gospel. 

Setting up the church for success in youth ministry is a learning experience. The uniqueness of each congregation—shaped by location, population, and much more—suggests that one size does not fit all. The process must be bathed in prayer and shaped by Scripture. This is God's work and not some program, scheme, or cultural trend.

Questions to consider:

• What do we want the church to look like in five years in regards to youth ministry?
• Are our current structures or the way we do ministry leading us there?
• How will we measure the effectiveness of our structure and strategy?
• Is God's Word and prayer guiding our youth ministry efforts?

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Today I happen to be surrounded by ten or so worship leaders from surrounding communities who were invited to come together to share their trade secrets and insider knowledge about all things related to the ministry of worship arts. It's no surprise that the conversation moves from light chit-chat about media and tech, to horror stories involving computer crashes, bad drummers and why church organs are actually ironic and awesome again. Up to this point, I've admittedly been a quiet, distracted observer, checking my I-Phone in between sips of my Psalted Caramel Mocha when suddenly the conversation shifts to who among us brings in musicians to lead worship who are not, well, saved.

Ok, now they have my attention.

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