How Do You Keep Teens In the Church?

There's an old joke that often gets told at Confirmation Parent Meetings: A Catholic, Lutheran and Methodist pastor are at a restaurant for their monthly ecumenical luncheon. In their discussion, they discover all their churches had a bat infestation in the belfry. The Methodist pastor proudly tells his companions they hired the best exterminator in town and they were able to get rid of about 50 percent of the bats. The Lutheran pastor shares his church installed speakers that hit roosting bats with a sonic blast. He felt the speakers have scared away about 75 percent of the bats. The Catholic pastor proudly shares that his church had gotten rid of 100 percent of the bats. When his companions ask how he performed such a feat, the Catholic pastor said he just had the bats Confirmed and he has not seen a single one in the belfry since. The joke always gets a good laugh from the parents because we all know it’s true. Many young people do abandon their faith once they are Confirmed. 

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The goal for this website is to offer tangible solutions to the question: How Do We Keep Bats in the Belfry?

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