(Caleb has helped me immensely as I teach with these two compilations/scenarios. Next time: a few obvious, but timely, suggestions to help us stay in scenario 2.)
The first is a composite of several of the many stories I read (among the thousands that are available on-line) of deconstructors. Tom, a young man who grew up attending the services of the church and being active in the youth group, is doing research for a science paper he has been assigned to write for his high school biology class. He comes across an article that provides an argument for the common descent of chimpanzees and humans based on the fused chromosome that humans have. He doesn’t know what to do with this, but his confidence in the Genesis account is shaken. Not long after this, Tom finds out that one of his close friends thinks of himself as being homosexual. He asks his parents why they think that homosexual people are living in sin, and they have some vague sense that the Bible probably teaches against that, but they don’t know where in the Bible it is discussed. Tom has in his mind that his good friend must be pleasing to God, despite his homosexuality, so homosexuality could not be wrong. Later, Tom reads the accounts in Joshua of the Israelites driving out and killing the Canaanites. He doesn’t know how a loving God could allow that. He also reads that there is little evidence outside the Bible that the Israelites were ever slaves in Egypt. He talks to his preacher about it, who tells him to have faith in the Bible, but doesn’t explain any answers to these problems, and so Tom’s confidence in the Old Testament wears away. Tom tells himself that he still believes in Jesus. But then Tom goes to college, and in a religious studies class, he is presented with a book that argues that the New Testament text has been corrupted and is historically unreliable. So, Tom is led to believe that he can’t know what Jesus was really like. The final straw comes when Tom carefully considers the doctrine of hell. He thinks that it is impossible for a loving God to punish people everlastingly in hell. By this time, however, Tom is so unwilling to hear from people who are citing the Bible to him that he has distances himself from them and will not listen to them anymore. So, Tom thinks to himself, “I don’t think that Christianity is true anymore, and there may not even be a God.”
The second story is quite different, but it is also a composite of my experience with many faithful young people who grow up in the church and stay with the church. Jane is a young woman who also grew up attending the services of the church, and in studying the Bible with a friend of hers who does not believe in God, she is presented with an argument that chimpanzees and humans share a common ancestor. She has never considered the evidence presented there, but she finds the article on the Apologetics Press Web site that presents clear evidence that the best explanation for human chromosomal fusion is not common descent, but common design. Jane is very aware of the LGBTQ+ movement, and she wants all of those who identify as being homosexual to be saved, but she also learns as she studies the Bible daily with her parents that God loves them too much to endorse their sin. Her Bible class teacher at church has made her well informed of the Bible passages that deal with the issue, and has even headed off the argument that these passages are cultural artifacts that are vestiges of patriarchy and are not to be taken seriously today. So she is too grounded in the Bible to be swayed by the Woke movement. Jane’s confidence in the Bible grows every time she sees archaeological support for biblical events, even though she understands that not every Bible event can be verified by secular archaeology. Her dad explains to her that there are those who think the Bible has been corrupted, but they they review the manuscript evidence for the New Testament, showing how well supported it is, and that we can know the original text with greater than 99-percent accuracy. Jane’s preacher addresses the topic of hell, showing how that God is the One uniquely situated to determine the appropriate punishment for sin, and that Jesus died as an expression of God’s love, so that nobody has to go to hell. With every potential crisis of faith, Jane’s confidence in God grows, because she gets the answers she needs.
She just keeps pushing them, putting in the effort to keep them going, switching hands every now and then, breathing deep and pushing them again. This morning Hannah woke up with an achy throat and body and she asked herself if she could really adult today. Then she put in a day of school, took them to piano and karate and gave the meds to the one who is getting past strep. She talked with their doctor and she postponed her own doctor appointment to keep their “swing” going. I asked her last night about doing something fun with a friend. She said “What would that even look like right now?’ She spoke twice last weekend at a ladies day and is gearing up to go speak four times at a retreat where we both will speak (and Colleyanna will, too.) Somehow she got one ready for a 59/60 on the Bible bowl test and she has three who are, altogether, doing 13 events at Lads to Leaders. Her house sometimes looks like a tornado has hit (like mine) and, on most weeks, a big colony of ants could probably live a long time in her van. She had to go around the outside of her house for one of the kids and make sure every window was locked last night before bed. Tonight she is vigilant with one who is afraid of the storms outside. If they only knew how big are the storms from which she daily protects them. (All good parents do this!) She travels four-plus hours (in a day) every other week to get the kids to an important appointment. She stays an extra 45 minutes or an hour after worship services so her kids can play foursquare and Frozen with the children of other faithful people. She has struggled through some hard things to keep them in the best academic and social place. Most of all, she is doggedly determined to give them the best spiritual place. She holds them up before God every day and night and she holds it together when I think I would buckle under the weight. She is thankful when I might be bitter; hopeful when I might surrender. I do not tell her enough, so 
children all over the kingdom, and speaking to ladies groups on a regular basis. (As an aside, we are equally amazed at the artistic talent that she has given the kids, because we KNOW it did not come through any Colley genes.) 
Release date:: August 19, 2023
Last weekend, about 20,000 people were encouraged, strengthened and blessed by a program that’s dear to the Colley house. The following, penned by Caleb a few years back, is a reflective look at the benefits of participation. 2019 marked our family’s 26th year of participation as a family and our third generation of participants had a great and chaotic time in this blessed little spiritual boot camp. We are tired. We have had enough Stax burgers and Paisano pizza to last us till next year for sure. 
Our cars did not leave their parking spaces for 72 hours. We walked about 3984357 miles in the hotel. We rode the elevator 238974 times with two strollers. We helped host a dinner for the very first Nashville recipient of the prestigious RED COAT AWARD. (I love that guy. He worked very hard!) We attended a reception for a board member that I live who’s been working in the program for all of its fifty years. (I love that guy, too!) Our faith in the great I AM and His wondrous mercy for the third and fourth generations reached new levels. We are thankful to Him.
Society has built-in mechanisms to assist and motivate young people in athletic, academic, and entrepreneurial achievement, but too often the church has slight and ineffective means to encourage Bible knowledge and spiritual achievement among children. Every congregation of the church should have a mechanism whereby it assists parents in promoting children’s spiritual development. In my opinion, the best such expedient is Lads to Leaders, a program that affords structure, content, and motivation, and can be tailored to the specific needs of each congregation as specified and directed by its eldership.
Consider the event called “Debate.” Here, students study an important proposition, such as “The use of mechanical instruments of music to accompany the worship of God by His church is not authorized by His Word,” in preparation for organized, formal (mock) debates. And, in the event called “Good Samaritan,” students habituate service by systematically learning what they can do for others and then scheduling it. Lads systematically connects adults who have expertise in a particular activity with students who are interested in that area. For example, song leaders train the participants in the event called “Song Leading,” and public speakers train the participants in “Speech.”
The sweetest part of my weekend just might have been when a lady approached me as I was eating lunch on Saturday. I had just finished speaking at a ladies seminar near Montgomery, Alabama about the glorious bride of Jesus, the church. She told me her name and how that she had cared for her father until he passed away in his nineties. I could relate to that as I, along with my siblings, have the current privilege of doing that same wonderful thing. But then she said this: “I just want to tell you how very much we love your son, Caleb, over at the University church.” She went on to tell me some of the things in which he had participated while he was a member at University during the years he attended graduate school at Faulkner. During these years, he also worked at Apologetics Press. All of those things made me smile. But then she said something I’ll always remember: “He used to come over to my house and have a Boost with my daddy.”