2026: Beyond Memorizing and Into the Why

WARNING: this is a very long read that’s COPIED from an ad but is not my endorsement of any publication or product, nor am I having a influencer moment…just sharing some sobering reality…and asking you what what are you doing about this going into 2026? —

My pastor’s son just told him he’s an atheist – and suddenly I looked at my 12-year-old and realized he can quote scripture but can’t answer a single “why” question.

It was 10:32 PM on a Wednesday when Pastor Mike told our small group.

His son Daniel.

Homeschooled through high school.

Memorized entire books of the Bible.

Now a sophomore at a Christian college, telling his dad that “faith is intellectually dishonest.”

Pastor Mike’s voice cracked when he said it.

“He said I taught him what to believe but never taught him why any of it is true.”

I drove home in silence, my hands gripping the steering wheel too tight.

When I got home, my son Caleb was at the kitchen table finishing his AWANA homework – filling in blanks about the twelve disciples.

I sat down across from him.

“Caleb, why do you believe the Bible is true?”

He looked up, confused.

“Because… it’s God’s Word?”

“But how do you know it’s God’s Word?”

Blank stare.

“Because the Bible says so?”

My stomach dropped.

“And how do we know the Bible is right when it says that?”

His face went red.

“I don’t know, Dad. That’s just what we believe.”

Just what we believe.

Circular reasoning.

The exact trap that destroyed Daniel’s faith the moment a professor questioned it.

I sat there watching my son – this kid who could recite Romans 8 from memory – completely unable to defend the most basic claim of Christianity.

The next morning, I tested him again.

“Why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn’t God just forgive us?”

“Because… we needed Jesus to save us?”

“But WHY? What would happen if God just said ‘you’re forgiven’ without the cross?”

Silence.

He had no idea.

He knew the story. He didn’t understand the theology.

That Friday at men’s breakfast, I brought it up.

Four other dads had the same story.

Kids who aced Sunday School.

Kids who got baptized.

Kids who couldn’t explain why they believed a single word of it.

We were building a generation of Bible experts who would crumble the first time someone asked “why?”

I spent that weekend obsessed.

1:47 AM Saturday night, I was reading articles about Gen Z and deconstruction.

The pattern was everywhere.

Christian kids getting to college, meeting their first atheist professor, and having zero answers.

Not because they were rebellious.

Because they’d been taught WHAT to believe but never WHY it’s true.

3:22 AM, I found myself on Daniel’s Instagram.

Scrolling back three years.

Bible verse posts.

Youth group photos.

“Blessed beyond measure ” everywhere.

Then freshman year of college, the posts changed.

Philosophy quotes.

Richard Dawkins references.

Then nothing about faith at all.

I could see the exact moment it happened.

Week 3 of his Intro to Philosophy class.

A post that said: “Turns out I can’t answer basic questions about what I claim to believe. Maybe I never really believed it.”

Sunday morning, I couldn’t focus during the sermon.

I kept watching Caleb in the pew next to me, coloring his bulletin.

He looked so confident.

So sure.

But it was a house built on sand.

One good professor. One smart atheist friend. One hard question.

And it would all collapse.

That afternoon, I did something I’d never done before.

I asked Caleb to explain the Trinity.

He knew it was “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

But when I asked HOW that works, he had nothing.

When I asked WHY it matters that Jesus is God and not just a good teacher, he guessed.

When I asked how we know the Bible wasn’t just written by men and changed over time, he said, “I think someone checked?”

My twelve-year-old had spent eight years in Sunday School and couldn’t defend his faith for sixty seconds.

Two weeks later, I was at Books-A-Million, standing in front of a wall of apologetics books.

William Lane Craig. Lee Strobel. Ravi Zacharias.

All way too advanced for a twelve-year-old.

I needed something that would teach him to THINK theologically, not just memorize better.

…I don’t know how much longer we can keep building faith on sand and expecting it to survive the storm.

But I know this: every week you wait is another week your child practices circular reasoning instead of building a defensible worldview.

Don’t let them become another Daniel.

Not when there’s still time.

— And it’s not just 12 year olds.

Maybe it’s a remnant of my Lab School years, or my Division of Local Church Education work, or who knows what…but…how do you answer my question way back at the start of this one today? RSVP

As always, I look forward to hearing from you.