Raising a Generation of Character and Faith

Our goal as parents and educators is to raise up a generation of young people with strong character who can lead and serve well. Our goal as Christian educators is to raise up a generation who worships God, walks with Him, and seeks to accomplish His will. Unless we teach the next generation how to handle adversity, we leave them ill-equipped to lead, serve, and follow God well.

There are cultural trends shaping our youth that are affecting them spiritually, and they raise important questions about how young people are being formed and prepared for the future.

When Happiness Becomes the Goal

Our kids are growing up in a culture with the predominant view that the primary goal in life is to be happy and feel good about oneself. In the book Soul Searching, two sociologists documented the Moralistic Therapeutic Deism worldview in 2005—the belief that there is a God who wants people to be happy and do good things. George Barna believes this is still the dominant worldview of those under age 50.

When happiness becomes the end goal, it influences how we view ourselves, God, and the role of adversity in life. This worldview often leads to the assumption that if I’m not happy or if I’m struggling, then something is wrong. If God is not taking away my pain, then God must not be sovereign—He can’t help me. Or God might be sovereign but not good—He can help but doesn’t want to. Or God is distant and uninvolved.

There is no category for hardship within this worldview. Kids are growing up believing that struggle and adversity are in conflict with a good, loving God. When they experience pain, doubt, or disappointment, they don’t know what to do spiritually in their relationship with God.

As parents, we often try to protect our kids from adversity. Sometimes this takes the form of a helicopter approach, staying close enough to intervene when discomfort arises. Other times it looks like a lawnmower approach, removing obstacles before our kids ever encounter them. However, our kids need struggle to develop. As former Wheaton College coach Harve Chrouser said, “Where there’s no struggle, there’s no strength.” Growth—spiritual, physical, and social—requires encountering difficulty.

The Spiritual Cost for Young People

This worldview is affecting our kids spiritually. Statistics show that 64% of kids who grow up in church will leave after high school. Of millennials raised in the church, only 8% are resilient disciples who continue to believe the basics of Christianity.

One reason young people walk away from their faith is that we are not talking about adversity in a meaningful way. In a Bible study, a young mom once looked down and said, “I just wish someone would have told me life is going to be hard.” She had walked away from God when difficult life experiences conflicted with her view of Him. She is now studying Scripture again with the understanding that life includes struggle and that God is good, loving, and sovereign.

Our kids need to know they were created for more than personal happiness. They need to know that adversity can help them grow and that God meets them in the midst of their struggles. As parents and educators, we need to talk about struggle and perseverance in a meaningful way.

Too Busy, Too Distracted

At the same time, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find time and space for spiritual growth. Many families experience fast-paced schedules, rushed meals, and conversations that revolve around logistics rather than formation. John Mark Comer has said, “Most people are too tired, too busy to have a meaningful spiritual life.” While he was speaking about adults, the same is true for kids.

We often live as if neither we nor our children have limits, but we do. Activities related to sports, arts, and tutoring can consume every afternoon, evening, and weekend. Downtime is seen as time to fill, and it is often filled with activities that shape what kids do rather than who they are becoming.

When we are not scheduled, we are often on our screens. Teenagers average over eight hours of screen time a day, including schoolwork, and adults average about seven hours online. Screens shape us beyond the content we consume; they shape how we live. We begin to enjoy virtual life more than present life.

Living vicariously through others’ experiences does not build confidence or courage. When kids are not personally engaged in challenge, they miss the joy of overcoming obstacles. When we are on our screens, we are not encountering moments that require us to rely on God, cry out to Him, and see how He responds.

Screens also train disengagement in relationships. Kids learn that they can scroll past conflict, log off discomfort, or exit conversations rather than staying present and working through difficulty. Over time, young people begin to invest more deeply in virtual life than in their present or future, and spiritual growth suffers.

Learning to Seek God

Another reason kids walk away from faith is that we do not teach spiritual disciplines. We can teach information about God, but if we do not teach kids how to have a relationship with God, faith becomes a system of rules rather than a lived relationship. Walking away then becomes leaving a building rather than leaving a relationship.

Spiritual disciplines such as reading and reflecting on Scripture, prayer, time alone, and serving others cultivate the environment in which God works. We need to teach our kids that they will need God, that struggle is part of life, that God is present in hardship, and that He often uses difficulty to help us grow.

Formation Through Wilderness Experience

What our kids need for growth is something different from everyday life—something that invites wonder, stretches them deeply, and keeps them engaged in reality. Wilderness experiences provide this kind of formation.

In the wilderness, challenges are real and unavoidable. Weather, fatigue, distance, and discomfort cannot be escaped by logging off. Students must engage, persevere, and adapt. In a short time, they accomplish something meaningful and discover resilience they did not know they had.

Growth also happens relationally. In small groups, students learn to serve when tired, accept their own weaknesses, receive help, and work through tension together. The beauty of the wilderness also creates space to encounter God—to experience stillness, recognize His provision, see Scripture come alive, and witness God responding to prayer.

The Bible often uses physical experiences to teach spiritual truth. Wilderness trips provide living pictures that help students understand spiritual truth. Many of the most enduring spiritual lessons come from experiences of hiking, climbing, and canoeing.

Coldwater wilderness trips aren’t just canoe trips. They’re intentional learning experiences tailored to each group of students to foster growth spiritually, socially, and as an individual. We believe that real growth happens best when people are tested and stretched through challenges, instead of living vicariously through others, and when people take time to reflect on their experiences to learn from them and grow.

A Necessary Counter-Cultural Practice

Our young people need to experience challenges in God’s creation so that they can passionately live the life of love and service that God is calling them to. Wilderness trips provide opportunities for students to encounter God, grow in character, leadership, and service so that they can faithfully serve God in all the areas they’re called to, whether in business, ministry, the home, or on the mission field.

Our young people need a worldview that includes struggle and we need to teach them how to invest in their relationship with God. Even though wilderness trips might be counter-cultural, they are the kind of counter-cultural our young people need.