As someone who works in youth faith formation, I have to face the fact that a good number of the youth I work with will leave their faith.

I read an interview with Rachel Held Evans, and she provides three possible ways we can stem this receding tide:

"We’re not looking for a hipper Christianity. We’re looking for a truer Christianity. Like every generation before and after, we’re looking for Jesus."
"We need to creatively re-articulate the significance of the traditional teachings and sacraments of the church in a modern context."
"I’m not convinced discipleship is something we measure best in numbers. A church might produce thousands of attendees without producing any disciples."

Reflecting on her insights, I think that if I am going to be an effective catechist, then I need to ask myself these two questions: What am I doing to help the youth find Jesus? How am I making the sacraments relevant to their lived reality? If I can provide answers to these two questions, I think that, in spite of myself, I still may be a useful tool for the Holy Spirit to use in producing many disciples.

“What am I doing to help people find Jesus? How am I making the sacraments relevant to their lived reality?”

I think that by answering these questions of ourselves, we'll realize that people are not losing their religion because of Satan, radical secularism, or other such nonsense. Those are just convenient excuses. No, people are losing their religion because we have been such bad disciples.