Faith Times Facebook ad: “If you have a child, read this”

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I teach 6th grade at a Christian school. Last week I asked my class why they believe in God. 23 kids. Not one of them could give me an answer that didn't go in a circle. My name is Rebecca Hartley. It was a Tuesday morning. I've taught at this school for 15 years. Parents pay good money to send their kids here. They trust us to build their children's faith. I decided to do something I had never done before. A pop quiz. 1 question. "Write down why you believe Christianity is true. Not what you believe — why you believe it." I watched 23 sixth graders stare at their papers. A few started writing right away. Most froze. 10 minutes later I collected the answers. "Because the Bible says so." "Because my parents taught me." "Because I feel God in my heart." "Because it's true." "Because I was raised Christian." 23 students. Every single answer was circular or a feeling. Not one piece of evidence. Not one logical argument. Not one reason that would survive 5 minutes with a skeptical professor. At lunch I sat at my desk and felt sick. These parents pay good money every year. They think their kids are getting something the public school doesn't offer. They think we're equipping their kids to believe for a lifetime. We're not. We teach Bible stories, worship songs and memory verses — the same thing churches do. Just in a building with a cross on it. That night I tested my own daughter. She's 12. She's been at this school since preschool. "Emma, why do you believe in God?" "Because He's real, Mom." "How do you know He's real?" "Because… I feel Him?" "And if someone told you feelings aren't evidence?" Silence. My daughter — 7 years of Christian education — couldn't defend her faith for 30 seconds. That weekend I did something else I had never done. I looked up former students from our school on social media. Kids I had taught years ago. The pattern was devastating. Post after post about "deconstruction." About "finally thinking for myself." About walking away from the faith they were "indoctrinated" into. One former student — I taught her in 2015 — had posted: "Christian school taught me what to believe. College taught me how to think. Turns out those are very different things." 73% of kids from Christian homes walk away from their faith by age 23. I had assumed kids from Christian schools beat that statistic. They don't. Because we're doing the same thing everyone else does — we just charge for it. The following Monday I talked to our Bible teacher. "Do we teach apologetics? Evidence for Christianity?" He looked confused. "We teach the Bible." "But do we teach them WHY the Bible is reliable? How to defend what they believe?" "That's more of a college thing." "By college, 73% of them are gone." He didn't have an answer. 2 weeks later I was at a conference for Christian educators. I sat in a workshop on "Building Faith in Gen Z." A lot of talk about making church "relevant" and "relatable." Nothing about actually equipping kids to think. At the break I vented to another teacher. "I tested my class. 23 kids. Not one could explain why Christianity is true. Not one." She nodded. "Same at our school. But I found something that changes it." "What?" "Systematic Theology for Kids. 52 weeks. Real arguments, not just stories. I've been using it in my class for 6 months." "Theology for sixth graders?" "Real theology. Evidence for God. Why the Bible is historically reliable. How to answer hard questions. My kids are different now. They don't just believe — they think." "Did admin approve that?" She smiled. "I didn't ask. I just started doing it in my Bible period. Nobody complained. The parents love it." She sent me the link that same night. I ordered it for myself first. Lesson 1: How do we know God exists? Not "because the Bible tells us so." The cosmological argument. The moral argument. The teleological argument. Clear explanations. Logic exercises. Discussion questions. I went to a Christian college. Took theology courses. This workbook explained those arguments more clearly than my professors did. The next Monday I started using it in my class. "We're trying something new. Instead of just learning Bible stories, we're going to learn why Christianity is actually true." I saw confusion. Curiosity. A few kids leaned in. We opened Lesson 1. "Everything that begins to exist has a cause. Did the universe have a beginning?" "The Big Bang," one student said. "Right. Scientists agree the universe had a beginning. So what caused it?" A girl named Sophia raised her hand. "Something that doesn't need a cause? Something that always existed?" "Like what?" "God?" "You just built the cosmological argument. Without using the Bible." Her eyes lit up. "We can use logic to show God exists?" For the first time in 15 years, I watched students handle faith like a puzzle they could solve — not a lesson they had to memorize. Week 4: Why trust the Bible? I had always taught: "The Bible is God's Word." The workbook taught: 5,800 Greek manuscripts. Written within decades of the events. More documentation than any other ancient text. A boy named Luke looked up. "Wait, we have more evidence for the Bible than for Julius Caesar? Why does nobody tell us that?" "Because I didn't know it well enough to teach it. Until now." Week 7: Evidence for the resurrection. We covered the minimal facts approach. 5 facts even skeptical scholars accept. The students worked through every alternative explanation. Every one of them failed. Sophia raised her hand. "So the resurrection isn't just faith. It's the best explanation for the historical evidence?" "Yes." "Then why do people say Christianity is just believing without evidence?" "Because that's how we've taught it. We're changing that." In week 10 something unexpected happened. We had a guest speaker in chapel — a local pastor. Nice man, but not very deep. He said something about "just trusting God even when it doesn't make sense." After chapel Sophia raised her hand. "Pastor, I respectfully disagree. It does make sense. There's historical evidence for the resurrection, philosophical arguments for God's existence and manuscript evidence for the reliability of the Bible. We don't believe blindly — we believe because there are good reasons." The pastor stared at her. So did our principal. After chapel the principal pulled me aside. "What are you teaching these kids?" My stomach dropped. I thought I was in trouble. "Systematic theology. Apologetics. How to defend their faith with evidence." He was quiet for a moment. "I've been principal here for 20 years. I've never heard a student answer like that. Can you train the other teachers in what you're doing?" In week 14 parents started calling. "What is happening in your class? My son explained the cosmological argument at dinner. He's 11." "My daughter is asking questions I can't answer. But in a good way." "Luke explained to his grandfather — who's been doubting lately — why the Bible is reliable. My father-in-law cried." In week 20 I tested my class again. Same question: "Why do you believe Christianity is true?" 23 papers. Not one circular answer. Cosmological argument. Moral argument. Manuscript evidence. Resurrection evidence. Fine-tuning of the universe. These weren't seminary students. These were 11- and 12-year-olds. Last month my daughter Emma came home from youth group. "Mom, the leader said something about 'just having faith.' I raised my hand and explained the difference between blind faith and reasoned faith. I don't think she loved it." I laughed. "Did you say it respectfully?" "Yes. I even gave her the link to the workbook." 3 months later our school adopted the curriculum officially. Every Bible class. Every grade. The principal told the parents: "We're not just teaching your children what to believe anymore. We're teaching them why it's true." Enrollment inquiries went up 40% the next semester. The parents paying all that tuition? They're finally getting what they pay for. If you're a parent trusting Christian school to build your child's faith… If you're a teacher watching students pass every Bible test but fail the simplest apologetics question… If you assume the Christian bubble is enough to protect them… Then you need to know this: it isn't. Christian school doesn't automatically mean equipped faith. Bible stories don't automatically mean convictions they can defend. All that tuition doesn't automatically mean protection from doubt. You have to give them the why, not just the what. Before graduation. Before the first philosophy class in college. Before they become the next "deconstruction" post in your feed. 52 weeks of systematic theology that do what 15 years of Christian education didn't. I wish I had found it sooner. Don't make the same mistake. -Rebecca Hartley

Where the ad sends people

discover.faith-path.co

If you have a child, read this ☝️

This is about a basic mistake in how we hand our faith to our kids. A mistake that starts breaking their faith when they're barely 8 years old.