The Future of the Church?

Can I help lead a Bible study? That was the question he asked. He was a 17-year-old student, excited about his faith and chomping at the bit to help me lead a study on something…ANYTHING. Not being one to discourage a student from actually reading the Bible, I agreed to help him. That is when all heck broke loose. I was a sophomore in Bible College interning at this particular church and was about to have my first battle with a group of parents. We have all run into these kinds of people. They want us to run the youth ministry, but they really don’t want us to LEAD.

These parents were upset that I would be so naïve as to allow a student to lead a Bible study. They had a list of reasons why this was just not acceptable. He doesn’t know enough. He’s too young. The Bible is too hard to understand. These were just a few of their arguments. In the middle of the meeting I had an epiphany of sorts and I scribbled something down on a piece of paper.

Only three short months before this incident occurred, I was sitting in a room with some of the same parents and church leaders for an informal interview. They didn’t ask many questions, but instead, made speeches. Their speeches were full of platitudes and clichés. Spend any amount of time in church and you will inevitably hear the same things. “We value our youth here”. “Our youth ministry is very important to us”. Then, there was the coup de gras, the granddaddy of all youth ministry catch-phrases, the one thing every adult says which is supposed to prove how important youth are to their church. “THE YOUTH ARE THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH.”

The thing I scribbled down was exactly that – with one minor change – a question mark at the end. What I wrote on that piece of paper that day almost 12 years ago revolutionized my thinking in regard to youth ministry. Are the youth really the FUTURE of the church? The answer I came up with is a resounding NO! Not only is that statement biblically wrong, but it is damaging as well. Let me explain.

What is the church? Even more to the point, what is THE Church? Is it only those who have reached the age of adulthood? Is it only those who have gone through a membership class and signed a membership covenant? What makes someone part of the Church? Is it regular tithing? Nope. According to the Bible I read the Church is made up of everyone who has claimed Christ as their Savior. They have been washed. They have been sanctified. They have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Teens are not the “future” of the Church. They ARE the Church. They have been washed by the SAME blood. They have been indwelled by the SAME Spirit and they have been made into a new creation by the SAME Savior. God does not dispense the Holy Spirit on the basis of age. He doesn’t “card” us before showing us the meaning of a passage in Scripture. He doesn’t look at our date of birth before speaking to us. He doesn’t require ID before convicting us of sin.

So, why do we refer to our children and teens as the “future” of the Church? My only guess is that it sounds nice. It sounds spiritual. It’s one of those “churchy” phrases that we know will elicit shouts of AMEN. It’s most likely also meant to motivate teens to prepare themselves – to take their faith seriously. I think it does exactly the opposite. Here’s why:

First, telling teens they are the “future” of the Church diminishes their perceived importance to the Body. It teaches them they will be important to the Church, but not now. It’s like telling a benchwarmer they are important to the team when they know they will never see any playing time. How can we possibly expect our students to value their faith when we don’t take them seriously? You may be thinking: “Whoa! Hold on a minute. We don’t take them seriously!?” No, we don’t. We pander to them and tell them how important they are to us, but like a lab experiment that is not quite ready for its unveiling we consign them to the youth room until they are ready for grown-up stuff.

Second, telling teens they are the “future” of the Church diminishes their perceived importance to God. I am not at all suggesting that teens are not important to God. What I am suggesting is when we tell them they are the future of the Church, we unwittingly assign a lesser value to them. We teach them that God is more concerned with the adults.

Finally, when we teach teens they are the “future” of the Church, we are giving them license to slack off. We are telling them they don’t have to be ready in season and out. They can take their faith seriously after they graduate or after they turn 18. We all know that is far from the truth of Scripture.

The next time a student asks me if he can help lead a Bible study I will give the same answer – yes. I am certain I will meet with some of the same resistance from adults as well. The only difference will be that this time I will fight a lot harder to make sure it happens.

The youth in your church are not the future of the church. They ARE the Church. Treat them that way. Challenge them. Encourage them to serve. I am not just talking about babysitting for the young married couple’s Valentine banquet or doing things the adults don’t want to do. Let them exercise their gifts. Let them show you what they can do. You will be surprised.

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Came across this article recently and found it pretty interesting.

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

The article has some interesting points.  Of note to me as a student ministry pastor is reason #2.

2. We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we’ve spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures.

I hate to say it, but I agree to a point.  In our entertainment-driven, me first culture, we have, in many case, created ministries that encourage self rather than dying to self.  There are exceptions to that rule, but the damage that has been done is difficult to reverse.

Ministries everywhere have built there “success” on a very man-centered philosophy rather than a God-Centered theology.   We lower the standard and call it grace, but what we have offered is not grace at all, becasue true grace is what “teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly desires.” (2 Timothy 2:12).  We have focused our energies on being relevant and funny at the expense of sound and serious speech (Titus 2:7).

We teach students that God’s glory is penultimate rather than the ultimate goal of life.  Churches everywhere are teaching teens that their concerns, security and prosperity are God’s utmost concern.  We peddle a false gospel of health and wealth rather than teaching students to cherish Christ which may cost them their lives.

Please know that the things I am writing are not accusatory in nature.  I have also at times chosen a quick fix and a canned answer rather than doing the hard work of teaching and training disciples of Christ.

I want the students I teach to cherish their Savior, to seek him and to die to themselves.  I want them to be able to give an answer for the hope they have and to stand firm in the midst of hardship and to be joyful when they face various trials.

I want that for me as well because I can’t teach a pursuit of something I am unwilling to pursue myself.

Black and White: Ministering to students of other races

I have a confession to make. I am the whitest guy you will ever meet. Jesus spoke about the town where I grew up when He said lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. I went to a predominantly white Bible College and I spent about six years as the youth pastor in a predominantly white church. Over five years ago God changed all that and in the process, changed my life forever. I am now the student ministry pastor in a church in one of the larger minority communities in Pennsylvania.

When I started here, “what did I get myself into” was a thought that came to mind more than once. I had been around African-Americans, Asians and Latinos before, but up to that point I never really had a meaningful conversation with anyone who didn’t look like me. So, here I was, trying to bring Jesus to students who came from a world that was completely foreign to me. I always thought I was a pretty good youth pastor – that God had given me the right personality and gifts to reach teens – but now I wasn’t so sure.

The first few months here I was unsure of myself. For the first time in nearly a decade, I wasn’t sure how to be a youth pastor any longer. The funny thing is, I was right where God wanted me – uncomfortable. I have learned a lot over the last three years. God has taught me many valuable lessons that I believe have made me a better pastor, to ALL of His people, not just the ones who looked like me.

First, I have learned to be myself. The world is full of fakes and insincere people and churches have their share of them as well. Students have an uncanny ability to spot them a mile away. I don’t have to be ghetto, wear a skull cap or pimp out my car in order to minister to urban teens. I don’t have to learn how to dance or rap. I can admit that I like Country Music.

One of my best memories is driving with a few students in the city. They were making fun of something I said or did, so I decided to put on some Alan Jackson. I cranked up the volume and rolled down the windows. There is nothing quite like watching five students trying to hide their faces in a little Honda Civic! I can admit that I don’t know what bangin’ means or that I didn’t know if something was sick, it was actually good. The funny thing is, the more I allow those things to come out, the more the teens respond to me.

I realized that God has given me a specific set of gifts and abilities to use for His glory. He has formed (and is forming) me into who I am today and attempting to be someone I am not is not only disingenuous, but sinful as well. If I try to be someone I’m not, then I’m not being who the Lord intended me to be and my ministry will suffer. My effectiveness will be diminished. So, I happily celebrate my confusion when it comes to urban culture. I make attempts to understand it and even embrace it to some extent, but I do not pretend to be anything I am not.

Second, love is a universal language. I asked an African-American brother from our church out to lunch a while back because I wanted his help. I asked him to help me figure out how to minister to the black students in my ministry here. He responded in a way that should not have been surprising, but caught me off guard nonetheless. “Love them,” he said.

The need for love and community in us all is the same regardless of the color of the packaging. The “God-shaped” whole in each of our hearts is just as large no matter where a person grew up or what kind of music they like.

Third and finally, I have learned that this is truly God’s design. I do not mean to demean or denigrate anyone who is ministering in a homogeneous ministry, but I have learned more about the Body of Christ in the last three years than I ever thought possible. In Revelation 7:9-10, John sees a “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” What were they doing? Worshipping. With one voice, they were giving honor and glory to the One who created them Jew and Gentile, Black and White.

I believe that our student ministry is loving, reaching and building students up in Christ. But, even greater still, I believe they are reflecting a heavenly reality. They are getting just a small taste of what is to come. So am I.