Natasha Crain - Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side: 40 Conversations to Help Them Build a Lasting Faith

I consider Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side to be an important, eye-opening gateway book. Natasha has done a wonderful job of quickly introducing the important issues and evidences from the perspective of a parent. Shes engaging, thoughtful, and she knows how to throw the ball so you can catch it. Let Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side serve as an introduction to the most important work you will ever do as a parent.

J. Warner Wallace

author of Cold-Case Christianity and Gods Crime Scene

international speaker, professor at Biola University

I almost wish my children were young again so I could use Natasha Crains book with them. Through her parenting blog, Crain has access to the most important questions and challenges parents are hearing from their children today. She writes in strong, vigorous prose and does a great job of pitching her answers at a level that parents can understandand, even more importantly, that they can use.

Nancy Pearcey

author of Total Truth and Finding Truth

apologetics professor, Houston Baptist University

Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side is a timely and much-needed book. Natasha provides a road map so parents feel equipped to have the critical (and difficult) faith conversations with their kids. If you want to see your kids have a vibrant faith, then get this book and start having these conversations with your kids today!

Sean McDowell

author of more than 15 books, including A New Kind of Apologist

international speaker, professor at Biola University

Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side is an outstanding resource every Christian parent should have in their home librarythis book is the most accessible, non-intimidating treatment of key apologetics issues Ive seen to date, and I will be recommending it to every parent I encounter!

Melissa Cain Travis

Assistant Professor of Apologetics, Houston Baptist University

author of Young Defenders series of apologetics books for kids

Parents, wake up. The secular culture is challenging our kids like never before and weve got to prepare them for the barrage of false ideas they will most certainly face. Apologetic conversations are no longer optional; theyre a necessary part of our kids discipleship. Thankfully, Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side is the resource we all need. Its accessible and comprehensive, and it will equip you to engage your kids in conversations that count, big time.

Brett Kunkle

Student Impact Director

Stand to Reason

Many well-intentioned, godly parents unknowingly send their children out into the world malnourished by an insufficient diet of evidence for their faithWe know. Ratio Christi sees it every day in our chapters on high school and college campuses. Students come to us starving for ways to defend their faith from intellectual assault. As the director of parent outreach at Ratio Christi, Ive been looking for a tool to recommend to parents so they can start this training early at home. This is it. Start feeding your family a steady diet of Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side to strengthen their hearts and minds for the battles against the secular smorgasbord they will face.

Julie Loos

Director, Ratio Christi Boosters

As a youth pastor, Im thrilled to see an apologetics book written with parents in mind! It is not a matter of if your children or students will encounter arguments against Christianity, but when . Questions will come, and when they do, where will your kids find answers? The Internet? Their college professors? Atheist friends? We need to take responsibility to equip ourselves to be that resourcethis book will help you do just that!

Patrick Brown

Student Ministries Director

Whitehaven Road Baptist Church

As a pastor over family ministries, I am very excited about this book! It answers many of the strong objections against Christianity in amazing depth, yet in such a clear manner that even someone new to apologetics can easily understand it.

Jared Novak

Family Pastor

New Life Church Bonita Springs

I strongly recommend Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side for parents who need brief but trustworthy answers to the skeptical objections their kids are likely to encounterIt is rare that so much solid information is found in one accessible resource!

Douglas Beaumont

Professor of Theology, Belmont Abbey College

Aside from the Bible, Keeping Your Kids on Gods Side has just become the most important book in our house. Natasha walks you through all the tough questions in such a way that it makes conversations with your kids easyTo be honest, this book has helped me with things Ive wrestled with myself! I will be buying a copy for every parent I know and care about.

Mirinda

mom of 3

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

All Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover by Koechel Peterson & Associates, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Cover photo Sunny studio / Shutterstock

KEEPING YOUR KIDS ON GODS SIDE

Copyright 2016 Natasha Crain

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Crain, Natasha, 1976-

Keeping your kids on Gods side / Natasha Crain.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-6508-8 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6509-5 (eBook)

1. Christian education of children. 2. Christian educationHome training 3. Apologetics. I. Title.

BV1475.3.C73 2016

248.8'45dc23

2015017112

All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any otherwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of authors and publishers rights is strictly prohibited.

To my wonderful husband, Bryan, and our three dear children. May we continually grow strong in the Lord together.

Contents

As a youth pastor, my first class of graduating seniors proved how difficult it can be to keep your kids on Gods side. By the time they first returned from university (at Christmas break in their freshman year), most were no longer Christians. I couldnt believe it, and I felt like a terrible pastor. I had these students for their entire senior year of high school, yet nothing I taught them seemed to make an impact on the decisions they made in the first ten weeks at university. It was then that I realized the error of my inaugural year as a youth pastor. I had entertained them, helped them to form friendships in our youth group, and maybe even inspired them to be better human beings. But I hadnt given them sufficient reason to believe Christianity was true.

I quickly shifted gears. I was a part-time pastor and full-time homicide detective; my journey to faith was characterized by a careful examination of the evidence related to the existence of God and the reliability of the New Testament. Why hadnt I taken this approach with the students in my youth group? In many ways I simply got caught up in what has become the norm for many youth ministries. I wanted my group to grow, I wanted my students to like me, and I placed the bar very low in terms of what I required from them. After that first year, I decided my students future certainty was far more important than their present entertainment.