Today’s USA Today has an article on the front page (above the fold!) entitled “Young Adults Less Devoted to Faith”. The focus of the article is a new study by LifeWay Christian Resources of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% of whom say they are “really more spiritual than religious”. Among the 65% who call themselves Christian, Thom Rainer, the president of LifeWay, says that even those are largely “either mushy Christians or Christians in name only”. I’m eager to read the full research report and dive even further into the findings.

For those of us who have devoted our lives to ministering to kids, these findings won’t be all that surprising. But as I sat in Starbucks reading the article (thanks to Jason, the youth worker who e.mailed me early this morning to tip me off about the article, thereby giving me an excuse to hit Starbucks on the way to work), I couldn’t help but ask: what can we do to plant Kingdom seeds in teenagers that bear long-term fruit? That’s the goal of our College Transition Project and the Sticky Faith resources we’ll be developing this year for distribution in 2011. Our findings impact my own life every day, both as a parent and as a youth worker.

I’m not satisfied with “mushy Christianity”. Are you?