When Your Children Leave the Church: Brandon Vogt Offers Hope for Heartbroken Parents

If you’re a Catholic parent, you know the joy that comes from seeing your child grow in the faith. On the day of his baptism, you rejoiced at the new life in Christ–anticipating years of loving and shared faith, and then an eternity together. When she received her First Holy Communion, her sweet innocence brought tears in your eyes.

But then…. [end peaceful happy music, begin painful screeching sound] during high school or college, or when out on her first job, something happens. Your son or daughter stops going to church. Maybe, even worse, he or she stops believing in God altogether.

A recent study by the Pew Forum revealed that half of all young Catholics are leaving the faith. The Catholic Church is bleeding–and it’s young people, the future of the Church, who are disappearing from the pews. It’s an unfortunate  statistic for the Church; and for the parents who love these children who now profess to be agnostic or even atheist, it’s incredibly painful. You were always a “good Catholic family”; what will others think of you now? And what about your life goal, to spend eternity together in heaven?

What should you do?!

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My friend Brandon Vogt is a part of that generation of young adults, but his journey has led him not away from, but into the Catholic Church.  An adult convert, Brandon understands the pressures that young people face. He knows the approach that is most likely to help them to explore their faith anew.

Despite his youthful appearance, Brandon has already made his mark in the New Evangelization. I reviewed his first book The Church and New Media, an essential sourcebook for evangelization, for Patheos back in 2011, before my own blog had officially launched here. Later, his Saints and Social Justice was a feature of the Patheos Book Club. Brandon now works as content director for Bishop Robert Barron’s Word On Fire ministry.

Brandon’s latest project is designed to help parents who are heartbroken because their son or daughter has drifted away from the Church. His new project is going to help many distressed parents, and it begins with a free four-part video series that includes practical tips and strategies which you can receive at no cost in your in-box.

If you’re feeling helpless and hopeless because your son or daughter has left the Church, check out Brandon’s new project HelpThemReturn.com. You can begin today to watch the four videos; and Brandon will give you information about other tools (such as what he calls “seed gifts”) that should be in your arsenal, along with prayer and unconditional love.

Again, go to HelpThemReturn.com.