With Christmas around the corner, many families are dressing up in their best clothes and inviting their family to attend church. However, Christmas is only once a year and maintaining your faith can be difficult, which the Pew Research Center shows. In September 2025, the center published an article that proved the population of people affiliated with faith in countries had dropped. In the United States the percent had dropped by 13%. So, in a time where being involved in religion is on the decline, how can younger people like the students at GCHS keep in touch with their faith, especially considering the workload of classes and any other extracurricular activities students may be involved in?
Jason Doll sponsor of good News Club, a bible study group that meets in the morning to discuss, analyze, and share different parts of the bible compared the relationship between faith and school like a battery. Doll said,”so like think of rechargeable batteries, there’s two things that a rechargeable battery has to be able to do to be useful.” He then went on to explain that charging the battery is doing things like going to church, bible studies, and youth groups. He then said, “the battery [is] pointless if it’s not also then expending it’s charge to fuel other things… and so I think what happens a lot of times is if you’re only ever giving out energy, well, then you get drained. If you’re only ever being charged, well then you’re not useful.”
Jaden Beres, a senior and one of the leaders of the Good News Club offered advice on staying connected with faith. He said, “what we’ve been discussing is the hardest part; [it] is taking that first step.” He spoke about doing little things like saying what you’re grateful for or just taking that time to pray. Beres said “it’s just something as simple as that. It doesn’t take that long, doesn’t take too much time…just staying connected.”
Ryan Aubrey, the Kids Director at Christ Church in Vernon Hills agreed that staying connected with faith can be difficult with the hardships of high school and offered some advice while reflecting on his high school faith journey. He talked about doing things like praying or reading your faith’s important texts in the times between your responsibilities like in a car ride or before you go to bed.
So, given these points, for students struggling to balance their faith and other responsibilities its important to know that these two not only compliment each other but also rely on each other.
