Many parents will fork out big bucks to send these students to Christian college, hoping to protect them in their faith. But the fact is, they are already gone. They were lost while still in the fold. They were disengaging while they were still in the pews. They were preparing their exit while they were faithfully attending youth groups and Sunday Schools. —Ken Ham and Britt Beemer, Already Gone

If you look around in your church today, two-thirds of the young people who are sitting among us have already left in their hearts; soon they will be gone for good.

This is the alarming conclusion from a study Answers in Genesis commissioned from America’s Research Group, led by respected researcher Britt Beemer. The results may unnerve you — they may shake long-held assumptions to the core — but these results need to be taken seriously by the church. Already Gone reveals:

• Why America’s churches have lost an entire generation of believers
• The views of 1,000 twenty-somethings, solidly raised in the church but no longer attending — and their reasons why
• Relevant statistical data effectively teamed with powerful apologetics

The study found that we are losing our kids in elementary, middle school, and high school rather than college, and the “Sunday school syndrome” is contributing to the epidemic, rather than helping to alleviate it. Ham and Beemer document that:

• Those who faithfully attend Sunday School are more likely to leave the church than those who do not
• Those who regularly attend Sunday School are more likely to believe that the Bible is less true
• Those who regularly attend Sunday School are actually more likely to defend that abortion and gay marriage should be legal
• Those who regularly attend Sunday School are actually more likely to defend premarital sex

This is an alarming wake-up call for the church, showing how our programs and our approaches to Christian education are failing — and our children are paying the price. While Ham and Beemer stop short of calling for the eradication of Sunday Schools and Church Youth Groups, their groundbreaking discoveries are incredibly valuable in identifying key factors involved in our youth’s abandonment of the faith and exodus from the Church.