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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
When preachers' kids, so-called PKs, walk away from the faith in which they have been brought up, it is a sad thing and a poor testimony to the truth of Christianity. Although true Christians canno...
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Kim Davenport
Supporter
I'm a preacher's kid, so I can tell you from experience why I left. It is true that preacher's kids are under pressure to live a certain way, to be perfect in everyone's eyes because of our parents. It is very hard to live up to, especially when I didn't really know God for myself. I believed in Him, was even baptized in Jesus name and filled with the HolyGhost, but I didn't have a RELATIONSHIP with Him. Because I didn't have relationship with Him, the second my father the pastor fell, I left the church. You see, I held my father on a very high pedestal, thinking he could do no wrong! That was the problem! I was looking at man and not seeking after God! I did backslide, but I always had a conviction when I did something wrong. I do know that God never left me, even when I was in a club He was tugging at my heart. I remember one time specifically, I was drunk and God had me look around at the people in the club. He said, "YOU DON'T BELONG HERE." I sobered right up and left the club and never looked back. I got back into church and am now a choir director. My point is to all preacher's kids: please have a relationship with God. Don't look at men, men fall daily. God is truly the only one we can lean on and trust.
D W
Supporter
Apostacy is rampant all over the USA. Millions are approaching faith, then turning away. Millions genuinely, authentically profess faith, then drift away. The reasons in both cases are many. The allure of power, prestige and riches. Popularity. "Just one of the guys" (or gals). Drugs. Lonliness. Something new and different floods into the lives of college students right after they leave high school. Peer pressure is overwhelming. The quick answer is that they were not "grounded in the faith." One then needs to examine the cause of their lack of staying power. The answer is clear: They relied on themselves and others to create their "world." The phrase "let go and let God" became "let go of God." Have fun. Be in the IN crowd. In most cases the "wake up call" doesn't arrive until they have burned out on "fun" and hear Him calling, "I'm here. I will never leave you or forsake you. Come home." Lest we forget, there are those who are grievously depressed, tragically alone, no one to turn to. Life doesn't seem worth living. We hear "Where is God? Why does he let people suffer? My prayers bounce off the ceiling. Who am I? Why am I here?" Sadly, there are millions of folks like that. Who offers them help? TV evangelists, soothsayers, psychics, cults. Everytime you watch the news, PRAY out loud for every news item. You'll find yourself praying without ceasing.
Danny Hickman
Supporter
When I was a kid I and my two brothers were expected to be different from other kids whose father was not in the ministry. We were not saved because we had not been born again but the community acted as if we were filled with the Holy Ghost, simply because the Lord had called our father into the ministry. The pressure to pretend you know the Lord when you don't is more than most of us can bear for an extended period of time. The easiest thing to do is to throw in the towel in front of a packed house and let everyone know that you are not the preacher and don't intend to be. We didn't walk away from the faith, we walked away from the people who put too much pressure on us to be DIFFERENT, which is a hard sell for many young people. Thank God He doesn't throw us away.... Pretending to be someone you're not can last a lifetime...
Thokozani Rashama
Supporter
It is the responsibility of both the pastors (in this case the parents) and the congregation to help the pastor's children to understand that God does not have grand-children. He only has children (John 1:12-13) " Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God". The pastors children, should know that they, first and foremost are children of God, then their parent's children. We must make sure that they get born again and know the Lord Jesus for themselves for this is the will of God for us (1Timothy 2:3-4) says " This is good and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth". This is where the congregation can assist the pastor in ascertaining that they are really saved. The standard of the Word of God does not have a generational gap, it's the same for all humans, young or old. If they don't have a relationship with Christ then they will drift away whether they are a Pastor's kid or not. We all must live by the standard of the word of God and make Jesus our pattern.
Tim Beeker
Supporter
Because they were never truly "in the faith" to begin with? With this being so, they never left to begin with. There is another question out here that relates to "fake" Christians. There is a strong tie between the two.
James Kraft
Supporter
Since I am a PK, I can maybe shed a little light. My Father was baptist preacher of the gospel of all grace for the free gift of eternal life. Romans 11:six. Romans 4:5-8 But we should live right for rewards in heaven. First Corinthians 3:11-21. Both of my brothers, one older, and one younger, went of and lived away from the Lord for the rest of their lives. My younger brother died a homosexual, not from aids, but worse. God does chasten his children, even to take their life early. First Corinthians 5:5. But First Corinthians 3:15. Preachers kids are supposed to be perfect, but we are all sinners like everybody else. First John 1:8. Dad use to warn us about living in sin, that God would chasten us. But at the same time gave us the freedom to grow on our own. While I was a teenager, the church my dad was at split. A bad battle was the result. When I left home at 17, I was pretty fed up with organized "religion". After my wife and I had been married a few years, we started going to a new independent bible believing Baptist church. It was there that we began to grow in the faith, and then, a fight broke out in that church and it split. I left that church and decided to just read the bible for my self, and quit listening to others tell me what it said. I went back to the day I received the free gift of eternal life. John 3:sixteen-18. That I was sure was enough to have 100 percent assurance of eternal life, because God can not lie. Believers. Can no longer be condemned. John 3:18, even if they walk away and never believe it again. Second Timothy 2:13. Eternal life is a free gift from God apart from works that save no one, and not a reward for good behavior. What I have fought for in my retirement years is for salvation by grace apart from any works. Basically, God will save anyone who just believes on Him alone for the free gift of eternal life. How they live has nothing to do with it. If we were saved by anything we do, then Jesus died in vain. Galatians 2:21 What really tics me off is false teachers who mix law/works with grace. Romans 11:six. Oil and water. The free gift of eternal life, with discipleship. Oil and water. The gift of God is eternal life by a one time faith alone in Jesus finished work on the cross alone. Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace ye are saved, through faith, (when we believe it of our own free will) and that not of yourselves, it is the GIFT of God, (eternal life, not faith) NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST. The gospel. First Corinthians 15:1-4 That Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that He was buried and rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures. When we believe that gospel we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, and can never be condemned again no matter what. Ephesians 1:13-14. Our guarantee of eternal life. And, we have to accept it as a free gift. No strings attached. No works. You can not add works to grace. Jesus plus nothing equals the free gift of eternal life, because we can not do one thing to save our selves. Romans 3:23 Romans 3:9-10. We have to be as righteous as God to go to heaven, and no one is. Romans 4:six. And no sin can enter heaven. Romans 4:7-8. Satan has been telling people for years that if they live right, God will accept them into heaven on their own merit. God says we can only be saved by what He did plus nothing. I have learned more from reading the bible and asking God for wisdom to understand what I do not understand, than all the sermons I ever heard in church. I still thank God for my bible believing parents who were sinners just like me. First John 1:8. We are not going to be perfect, until we get our new sinless bodies at the resurrection. Only our soul/spirit is saved, not our old nature. PK's are sinners like everyone else. Romans 3:23 and Romans 3:10. Saved by faith alone in Jesus alone apart from any works which can not save a sinner. Only Jesus finished work on the cross alone.
Arthur Carpenter
Supporter
I see a lot of good thinking and valid reasons. I have two grandsons who were raised by a minister and my daughter, who, In addition to serving churches here in the US, were also missionaries in the Philippines and later in Lithuania. After they graduated from high school, left home and started college, they quit going to church. When I asked them about it, their principal and forthright statement was, "I never want to be poor again!". They felt that they had been relegated to 2nd class citizens. From my observation, we do not properly compensate the pastors of our multitude of small churches, particularly when you look at the hours involved in serving as a good pastor. Someone has to lose out and in most cases it is the children.
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