“Many churches are discipling their young people in a hermetically sealed religious environment, attempting to keep the risks of ‘the world‘ at bay. It’s like keeping tropical fish in an aquarium – so much time and energy goes into keeping the water temperature at the right level, adjusting the Ph levels, cleaning the tank, etc. Used to such an artificial environment, your typical aquarium fish are fragile creatures, completely unable to survive in the ocean. We hate to break it to you, but if you flush the fish from your aquarium down the toilet, they will not end up swimming free on the wild currents of the sea á la Finding Nemo. In a sense, when we raise Christian kids in the aquarium-like environment of church culture, we shouldn’t be surprised when they so quickly abandon their faith after they leave home or go to college. We think that raising risk-taking missional kids will go a good deal of the way toward preparing them for life in the wide boundless sea.“
– Michael Frost/Alan Hirsch. The faith of leap: Embracing a theology of risk, avdenture & courage. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011, 142.
Phil Mertens - Theology for a Postmodern World 