Churches Saving the Wrong 'Lost,' Says Youth Leader
By Lillian KwonChristian Post Reporter
Sun, Nov. 12 2006

More youth leaders are preaching the alarming exit of college students from the church yet churches don't seem to be grasping the significance of the loss of even one youth.

I'm fearful that we as a church in the U.S. are using the word 'lost' incorrectly," says Youth Transition Network coordinator Jeff Schadt.

The church community generally refers to the unsaved people as the "lost." With evangelism on the decline among Christians, church leaders are trying to reinforce the understanding of the unsaved world. Leaders of the Billion Soul Initiative – a massive global evangelism campaign aimed at saving one billion souls – are pointing out that the Christians in America have lost the understanding that the world is unsaved, as Pastor J. Don George of Calvary Church in Dallas described.

Schadt, however, is expressing concern over the misuse of the term "lost" and the priority of the churches."The word 'lost' has come to mean the unsaved," he says. "All our focus goes towards evangelism. But when Jesus ... is talking about the lost sheep, he's talking about one of his sheep. the rest