Root Issues

One thing I have heard a lot about is getting to an root issue. The heart of the problem. Well today during the service I had a thought.
We live in a corrupt & increasingly decaying culture. In the 6000 years of creation I'm sure there were worse ones but I live in this one so I look at it & think about it a lot.
I've heard it said & seen it with my own eyes that the generation I am apart of is searching for truth. Something to believe in. Something to help us get through life. To live for.
Jesus is the one who is that. Can provide that. Yet so many christian young people hit high school & college & disappear from the sanctuaries & bible studies. They turn to all the other options that are available to try to find meaning & fulfillment. So why does it happen? It's a question I've heard discussed for years & if I were to bet on it, it's a question that's been discussed for much longer.
I'll get into a few of the questions that have come to mind & to the thought that got me into this track of thought after the jump.

Does it come down to being entertained?
Maybe. There is literally an endless stream of media available to every person living in this country. As we've grown up, we've grown with it so it's almost natural, whereas our parents & grandparents are at a major disadvantage on the learning curve. And I'll be honest, many of the congregations I've participated with are BORING! Dry....lifeless.
I'm definitely not in favor of bending message to the cultural standard & compromising the word of God. But we're saved...or so we say. The evidence of salvation is the lives we live. Sunday Service becomes such a religious exercise that it really isn't a surprise that even then we don't get excited about what Jesus did for us & does for us & has provided to us.
But seriously, it is supposed to be a celebration. What we have to look forward to is a celebration - look up marriage feast of the lamb if you don't believe me. But most don't celebrate...and those who do are maligned for a couple questionable doctrines. Garbage!
To be clear again, I'm not calling for church to be a raucous, disorganized rave just to get people in the door. NO! That's not right. But a lot of congregations aren't right either, when they have it completely on the other side of the spectrum.
But that wasn't even the thought I had today. I'll continue now.
Does it come down to worldly influences outweighing sound ones?
Again, maybe. The Bible's been mostly eliminated from the mainstream educational institutions we have. Evolution & philosophy & humanism & materialism are poured into our ears from the high majority of the teachers in the public school system & some in the private schools too.
It would possible to counter the influences of the movies, shows & songs that are sadly paid attention to by generation. Even that would be only by a wonderful work of the Spirit in lives but when it comes streaming at us in the school system too it only makes it the more difficult. Honestly impossible for a person to service in our own strength. Thankfully nothing is impossible for God so it is possible to survive all those influences & live. Grow.
A reasonable amount of effort & time is being afforded to the growth & support of my generation as we wade through all the crap.
Yet many are still walking away. Living in such an undisciplined & sinful manner despite the influences & opportunities.
So I've established a couple of the main factors but there's one that I've never thought about which may play just as much of a factor in it. Modern technology.
Now I'm aware that this might be a stretch but I'll make the case anyway. In the old days the modern service didn't have the benefit of a sound system so in order to hear what the preacher was saying everyone in attendance everyone had to be quiet. Now basically everywhere you go kids are allowed to run around, yell, cry, without dramatically ruining the service.
The culture of those days was different from now, from the youngest age most people from the heartland, and possibly in the cities too, were very well taught in discipline. Having the structures of life & knowing there place. So a change on Sunday's is just a microcosm of the larger change but it's still significant.
The Church should be leading the way, not being subject to the cultural messages.
Basically all I'm saying after a very lengthy discourse is that a root issue for the way that things are done by my generation is not having grown up with daily structures in life. I'm not saying that it hasn't been attempted to be done & somewhat successfully even, but with the options of daily life & the counteractive influences the effort to bring about solid behavior starts at the youngest of ages & the Church is integral to it, to an individual level.
Hope that all makes sense.