Author Interview: Kara Powell, Sticky Faith

Kara Powell is the Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute and a faculty member at Fuller Theological Seminary. She speaks regularly at youth ministry conferences and has authored a number of books,. She joined The Matt Friedeman Show to discuss her latest work, Sticky Faith. Below are the "CliffsNotes" of her interview.

One of the first things you say is that parents need to talk with their kids about their own faith.

According to some really good research , 40 to 50 percent of kids who graduate from good homes, good churches, and good youth groups leave the faith.

 What many of us tend to do is ask our kids questions about their faith. Depending on your kid's mood and personality, you might get an answer, and you might just get an eye-roll.

We need to keep asking those questions, but we also need to share about our own faith journeys, what God is doing in our lives.

Another thing you say is that some students believe in a "works" faith.

This is another really interesting finding. We asked these college juniors, who we studied over three years, what it meant to be a Christian.1/3 of these students didn't mention Jesus in their response. They listed behaviors, good behaviors, that they think a Christian should live up to. But when they fail to live up to those behaviors, they lose their faith

If you look at Paul's epistles, what's interesting is that the commands that God wants us to live out are generally at the end of Paul's epistles, after he has laid a solid theological basis of God's love. If we don't frame God's commands in His love, we end up with a "gospel of sin management."

Another thing we have to talk about with our teenagers is that Jesus is bigger than any mistake. What we would love to see is for high school and college students to know that when they mess up, the first place to turn is God, and the second place to turn is the Church.