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Ministry to Students in the New Millennium

This article is taken from a lecture presented at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, on May 1, 2002. The article summarizes the book, “Raising the Bar.”

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In the eighteenth century God shook the American colonies in a revival movement known by historians as the First Great Awakening. In his treatise entitled Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, written to describe and defend the movement, Edwards observed the role of youth in this revival, while indicting older believers for their indifference:

The work has been chiefly amongst the young; and comparatively but few others have been made partakers of it. And indeed it has commonly been so, when God has begun any great work for the revival of his church; he has taken the young people, and has cast off the old and stiff-necked generation.(1)Stern words for our day as well!

I believe God has opened before the leaders of the church today a great and open door to see a generation of radicals unleashed on the culture. I believe God has assembled an army:
–an army utilized by cultists, but spurned by the church;
–an army enlisted by our government in times of war, but too often left on the sidelines of spiritual conflict;
–an army chosen to represent nations at the highest level of athletic endeavor, but pushed aside into secondary status in the body of Christ;
–an army challenged academically in school while given baby food spiritually in church;
–an army poised to live for Christ, but too often told just to stay out of the way.

The army to which I refer is the army of young people in the nation today. Why young people? First, over the past three years many youth pastors and young people have demonstrated a shift in the commitment level of this generation of youth. Second, my study of spiritual awakenings historically has caused me to wonder why more has not been written on the role of youth in the activity of God (perhaps because old people write church history texts!). Third, discussions with colleagues and others have led me to the view that what we have done in youth ministry has not been effective. Entire cottage industries related to youth ministry have produced a subculture that is financially lucrative but spiritually anemic. Youth ministers, including many in my classes as well as scores with whom I have talked over the past two years, indicate a growing dissatisfaction with the present state of youth ministry. Who can blame them, with a church culture that treats teens like fourth graders, and youth pastors like baby sitters?

Fourth, and most importantly, my son Josh has entered the ranks of young people. If all politics is local, then everything spiritual is personal. I can write and preach and teach and make all sorts of bold, declarative statements, but I have only one chance to raise my son.

The meteoric growth of youth ministry in the church over the past generation calls for analysis, evaluation, and reflection. Note the following as a real, although perhaps exceptional, example:

Although her family was only nominally involved in the church, Jenny came to our youth group faithfully throughout her teenage years. She went on mission trips and attended Sunday school; she was a regular fixture in our program. We had been successful with Jenny, or so we thought. Jimmy, on the other hand, never quite connected with our youth ministry. We rally worked to get him involved with our youth programs. He had no interest in retreats or mission trips; Sunday school bored him,; and youth groups seemed a little on the silly side for his taste. He sometimes attended another church across town. On my little scoreboard of kids we had been effective with, Jimmy was on the “lost” side.
But Jimmy had one thing going for him–every Sunday, he was in worship–with his parents at our church or with his friends at another church. Jimmy didn’t need our outrageous and creative youth ministry to lead him to faith maturity.
But for Jenny, our youth ministry was her only Christian connection. Unlike a real family, the youth group “family” forced her to resign when she was too old to fit the requirements. She now looks back on your youth group experience as . . . a fun, even laughable part of her past, but something that belongs exclusively in the realm of her teenage years.There is something wrong with the standard of success that prematurely rates a leader’s work with Jenny as the example of success and Jimmy’s as the example of failure.(2)

In this lecture I aim to demonstrate that young people, when treated like young adults preparing for lifelong service to God rather than children emerging from the cocoon of childhood, will rise to the level we as spiritual leaders set for them. Further, I seek to demonstrate that whereas such a philosophical approach to youth applies in any era, it looms especially large given two specific features confronting the American church today. Negatively, if we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we have been getting. That is, we are not currently raising up a generation of soldiers ready for spiritual battle. The North American Mission Board reports that 88% of churched youth drop out of church when they finish high school. That is not exactly the rite of passage we seek! Barna’s statistics are only slightly better: “Barely 1/3 of white and Hispanic teens, along with 2/5 of black teens, say they are likely to continue to attend a Christian church in the future, while they are living independently of their parents.”(3)

But a second, far more positive motivation exists today that should likewise spur the church to action. The coming generation of young people, born after 1982 and dubbed Net-Gens, Bridgers, Generation Y, Mosaics, or Millennials, display some of the most hopeful characteristics of any group so studied in the modern era. And it is with this encouraging sign that I would like to begin. My approach is as follows: First, to demonstrate contemporary research that indicates the Millennial generation offers great promise for the church; then, to show how that both biblically and historically those we designate today as youth are in fact more than capable to serve the Lord valiantly while young; and finally, to offer suggestions as to where youth ministry should go in the coming decades.

Why would an evangelism professor want to deal specifically with young people? Because 80% or more who come to Christ in the US do so before age 20. Because the Census Bureau tells us in the year 2006 and following, more youth will be in the United States than any time in our history. Because young people are more open to change and accepting a challenge than older adults. And, because I believe God is moving among this current generation.

The Generation of Hope

Discussions of a particular generation warrants a certain level of caution. I would like to note that any generation of any era has much in common with those previous and those who follow: all are created in the image of God, all have sinned, all need a Savior whose name is Jesus, all have the ultimate destiny of heaven and hell. So, in the macroscopic view of things, generational differences can be easily overemphasized.

That being said, obvious differences exist between generations, and we should follow the counsel of Paul in Romans 13:11 to be intimately aware of the climate, or the season, in which we live. Researchers indicate a clear difference in the rising generation of young people.

While my thoughts on this matter began as a hunch stemming from my anecdotal experiences in many churches in recent years, research has uncovered a larger trend beyond the limited scope of my ministry. I marvel at the skepticism of those my age when I suggest that young people today are showing positive signs. The rebuttal of the stereotype of the youth years merely being a time of rebellion has been most succinctly stated by Howe and Strauss in their provocative book Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation.

The authors begin with the stereotype of young people:(4)

Until recently, the public has been accustomed to nonstop media chatter about bad kids. . . . To believe the news, you’d suppose our schools are full of kids who can’t read in the classroom, shoot one another in the hallways, spend their loose change on tongue rings, and couldn’t care less who runs the country.(5)Then they add:

Meet the millennials, born on or after 1982. . . .
As a group, Millennials are unlike any other youth generation in living memory. They are more numerous, more affluent, better educated, and more ethnically diverse. More important, they are beginning to manifest a wide array of positive social habits that older Americans no longer associate with youth, including a new focus on teamwork, achievement, modesty, and good conduct. Only a few years from now, this can-do youth revolution will overwhelm the cynics and the pessimists. Over the next decade, the Millennial Generation will entirely recast the image of youth from downbeat and alienated to upbeat and engaged–with potentially seismic consequences for America.(6)Howe and Strauss offer several marks of this generation, some of which I will share along with others I have derived from my own research:(7)

They are not pessimists, they are optimists. Contrast this with the more pessimistic Generation X that preceded them. Nine in ten in a recent survey described themselves as happy, positive, or confident. In fact, every survey I have seen of this generation from Barna to Gallup report this reality.

They are not self-absorbed, they are cooperative team players. This generation has been raised on Barney and the Power Rangers, who focused on team activities. This is the generation marking the phenomenal success of Upward Basketball in churches across the land. It is marked by a remarkable commitment to personal evangelism when sent forth in teams.

I recently spoke to almost 2000 Korean students in a rally led by Mitchel Lee, a student at Southeastern. Did those students come to the rally to hear me? Not exactly! They came to be participants in a huge basketball tournament. The rally simply kicked off the event.

They are not distrustful, they accept authority. One study of 12-14 year olds said the people they looked to the most for answers were their parents. Barna notes: “Family is a big deal to teenagers, regardless of how they act or what they say. It is the rare teenager who believes he or she can lead a fulfilling life without receiving complete acceptance and support from his or her family.” He adds, “In spite of the seemingly endless negative coverage in the media about the state of the family these days, most teens are proud of their family.”

They are not rule breakers, they are rule followers. From 1995-2000, homicide, violent crime, abortion and pregnancy among teens dropped at a faster rate than at any period previously.

In a fascinating critique of Baby Boomer pessimism concerning the present younger generation, Mike Males’ opinion is quite scathing:

Suburban chronicler Patricia Hersch brands the entire younger generation “an insidious…tribe apart.” The media’s newest youth-violence expert, psychologist James Garbarino, warns the “epidemic … of lethal youth violence … has spread throughout American society … “
But did the Lord of the Flies ensue? To the contrary. Perhaps no period in history has witnessed such rapid improvements in adolescent conduct. From 1990 through 1999, teenage violence and other malaise plunged: homicide rates (down 62 percent), rape (down 27 percent), violent crime (down 22 percent), school violence (down 20 percent), property offenses (down 33 percent), births (down 17 percent), abortions (down 15 percent), sexually transmitted diseases (down 50 percent), violent deaths (down 20 percent), suicide (down 16 percent), and drunken driving fatalities (down 35 percent).
. . . Overall, 80 percent to 90 percent of today’s supposedly “depressed, lonely, alienated, confused” younger generation consistently tell surveyors they’re happy, self-confident, and like their parents.(9)Such an opinion is echoed by Chris Lehmann:(10)

As almost no media outlet is going to tell you, kids these days are astonishingly well-adjusted, nonviolent, educated, and polite. . . . A record number of American teens volunteer their time to charitable causes — twice as many as their counterparts of 20 years past. Math SATs are at a 30-year high, even teen literacy is increasing: A recent survey conducted by the National Education Association found that 41 percent of teen respondents said they read 15 books or more a year. How many adults can claim a comparable intake?
. . .on or near schools over the 2000––2001 academic year; 19 violent deaths, including suicides, occurred on or near school grounds the year before. Meanwhile, abusive adults still kill children at the remarkably high rate of five fatalities a day.They are not stupid, they are very bright. This generation understands technology better than their parents. My daughter Hannah taught me how to use the DVD drive on my laptop! I challenge this generation to consider that if they can pass their parents technologically, they can pass them spiritually!

Journalist Michael Lewis notes youth who are affecting such normally verboten realms as Wall Street: “Marcus Arnold, the 15-year-old who dispenses legal advice on the Internet to eager adults; [and] Johnathan Lebed, another 15-year-old who roils the Securities and Exchange Commission with his stock recommendations, and buys a $41,000 Mercedes with some of the $800,000 he makes trading stocks on the Net — a car he’s too young to drive.(11) Youth today are inventing computer games, playing in the NBA and winning gold in the Olympics, and dying as martyrs. If they can learn chemistry in high school, they can learn theology at church!

They have not given up on progress, they believe in the future. The idealism of the 60s generation is seen in this group without so much of the anti-authority edge. This past week I was impressed to view a news report on the rising number of G-rated movies and movies that may have been R at one time but have sought a PG-13 or a PG rating. Young people, who carry an inordinate amount of influence in marketing, seem to reflect a change.

They are not unmotivated; they simply want to be challenged. We can decry the low academic standards in our public schools all we want, but the level of expectation for discipleship in our churches fails in comparison. At no other time in their lives will individuals be as consistently challenged generationally both educationally and athletically than in the years of youth; can the church lay claim to a similar level of challenge? Not currently. And this must change.

If Howe and Strauss, and the others cited are correct, why have so few noted this? Because “the predictive assumption is wrong,” Strauss and Howe argue. “Americans habitually assume that the future will be a straight-line extension of the recent past.”(12)

These are the reports of research done by purely secular researchers. It is sad to say that sometimes people who don’t know the Lord have a better idea as to what He is doing in a given culture than believers! But the research has been confirmed as well by Christian observers. Richard Ross, professor of youth ministry at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, probably knows more youth pastors than anyone in America. He was the first to note in my hearing that a new breed of youth were on the horizon, some four years ago.

The November 2001, “Emerging Trends” newsletter of the Princeton Religion Research Center featured the following headline: “‘Millennials’ Have Special Role in New, Post-September 11, World.” The Princeton Center found results remarkably similar to those of Howe and Strauss.

Certainly formidable challenges lay before the church. This is also the most unevangelized population of students in recent history. Barna, in an extensive survey of this generation he dubs the Mosaics, observed: “Mosaic’s will provide the church with a massive and fertile population for evangelism and discipleship.”(13)

Still, perhaps never in American history have youth in the church been more poised to penetrate the culture. The weeks following the Columbine tragedy in Littleton, Colorado, the Internet, email, Christian clubs, and church youth groups witnessed a surge in spiritual fervor. Since 1990, when the Supreme Court allowed prayer clubs to meet on public school property if they met outside class hours and without adult leadership, many thousands of Bible clubs exploded across the nation, culminating most recently in the rise of a network of First Priority clubs spreading across the nation like a Kansas prairie fire.

Biblical Perspective

In Acts 11, Barnabas began with a new generation of people in Antioch. He led them to a remarkable level of ministry. We have the same opportunity with the millennial generation.

Southeastern New Testament professor David Alan Black argues that biblically there are three stages to one’s life:(14)
1. Childhood/pre-adulthood (ages 1-12)
2. Emerging Adulthood (ages 12-30)
3. Senior Adulthood (ages 30-death)
He notes that these stages can be seen in the life of Jesus (Luke 2:41-52; 3:23; and the remainder of the Gospel, respectively), and in the persons John describes in his first epistle (“little children,” “young people,” and “fathers”).(15) The transitions are significant: puberty at age twelve, and the move to responsible adulthood at about age thirty.

The Old Testament denotes other categories. For example, in the Pentateuch, men twenty and older were fit for war (see Numbers 26), and only those twenty and older could give an offering (Exodus 30:14). While these and other distinctives are found in the Old Covenant, Black’s argument stands, particularly his emphasis on the fact that the Bible knows nothing of the separate place of the teen years and the concomitant understanding of adolescence so prevalent in American culture, including within the church.

The rise of the concept of adolescence in my view has led our culture, both in the church and outside, to become systematically organized to fabricate two myths about youth. First, it encourages teenagers to behave like grade school children instead of young adults. Second, it perpetuates the notion that the teenage years of necessity must expect rebellion, sarcasm, narcissism, and general evildoing. “Sowing wild oats” has become a popular term for what is expected of youth, including churched youth, during their young adult days. Certainly hormonal changes and rapid maturation over a brief time opens the opportunity for such behavior if left unchecked. But that is my point: we must not let the bar of expectation be set so lowly.

Increasingly voices are sounding a challenge to the notion of adolescent behavior. Soon after the Columbine tragedy, Time magazine featured a back page article calling into question the way society as a whole has treated young people in recent generations. Lance Morrow observes:

Humans,. . . have turned the long stretch from puberty to autonomy into a suspended state of simultaneous overindulgence and neglect. American adolescence tends to be disconnected from the adult world and from the functioning expectation . . .of entering that world and assuming a responsible place there. The word adolescence means, literally, growing up. No growing up occurs if there is nothing to grow up to. Without the adult connection, adolescence becomes a neverland, a Mall of Lost Children. . . .(16)Morrow noted the week before that Leon Botstein, president of Bard College, suggested in a New York Times op-ed piece, “The American High School is obsolete and should be abolished.” He added, “At 16, young Americans are prepared to be taken seriously . . . They need to enter a world where they are not in a lunchroom only with their peers.”

Morrow then offers a fascinating opinion coming from the mainstream, secular media:

Maybe we should abolish adolescence altogether. Not the biological part, . . .We are stuck with that. But it would be nice if we could get rid of the cultural mess we have made of the teenage years. Having deprived children of an innocent childhood, the least we would do is rescue them from an adolescence corrupted by every sleazy, violent and commercially lucrative fantasy that untrammeled adult venality, high-horsing on the First Amendment, can conceive.He notes how in 1951 J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, “one of the founding documents of American adolescence,” described Holden Caulfield, a young man who was expelled from a prep school. After donning a red hat, a kid asked whether it were a deer shooting hat. Squinting as if aiming to shoot, Caulfield replied, “This is a people shooting hat. I shoot people in it.” A generation later, life has imitated life.

Black’s summation of the result of this is telling:

It is my conviction that the social theory of adolescence undermines both the Christian understanding of human nature and the way in which Christians analyze moral thought. It underscores the modern disinclination to treat a person as responsible for his or her actions. When we assert the “fact” that children are to act like children rather than like adults, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.(17)

Historical Perspective (18)

The first of a series of revival movements in the course of Jonathan Edwards’ Northampton ministry was the Valley Revival of 1734-35. Edwards referred to the role of the youth in its origin: “At the latter end of the year 1733, there appeared a very unusual flexibleness, and yielding to advice, in our young people.”(19) This came after Edwards began speaking against their irreverence toward the Sabbath. The youth were also affected greatly by the sudden death of a young man and then of a young married woman in their town. Edwards proposed that the young people should begin meeting in small groups around Northampton. They did so with such success that many adults followed their example.

Edwards wrote:

God made it, I suppose, the greatest occasion of awakening to others, of anything that ever came to pass in the town..news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of lightning, upon the hearts of young people, all over town, and upon many others.(20)Beyond the impact the awakening had on young people, most of the leaders of the revival were touched by God personally while young. Edwards himself began his passionate pursuit of God as a child, and his precocious spiritual zeal was obvious in his teen years. The First Great Awakening would include further the work of George Whitefield, in his twenties at the height of his influence, and the Log College of Presbyterian William Tennent. Tennent’s log house. built to provide ministerial training for three of his sons and fifteen others, made no small mark on the leadership development of ministers during the awakening.(21)

From the log college advanced several who would be leaders in the First Great Awakening. These included sons Gilbert, the most prominent revival leader among Presbyterians, John, and William, Jr., along with Samuel Blair. In addition, many graduates established similar log colleges of their own. The Log College, which ultimately evolved into the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) has been called “the forerunner of modern seminaries.”(22) At the turn of the nineteenth century the Second Great Awakening spread across the emerging United States. A major precipitating factor in this movement was the outbreak of revival on college campuses. Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia experienced the first in a series of college revivals. The Yale College revival began under the leadership of president Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards. The movement there spread to Dartmouth and Princeton. At Princeton three-fourths of the students made professions of faith, and one fourth entered the ministry.(23)Samuel Mills entered Williams College during a time of awakening there between 1804 and 1806. He and four others began to pray regularly for missions. In 1806 at one particular meeting they had to seek refuge from the rain in a haystack. During this “Haystack Meeting” Mills proposed a mission to Asia. This event was a precipitating factor leading to a major foreign missions enterprise. The first missionaries included Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. Beyond the colleges, revival began in Northington, Connecticut, with meetings initiated by young people. Bennett Tyler was a sophomore at Yale in 1802 and powerfully impressed by the revival there. He later gathered twenty-five accounts of revival by pastors in New England. In those accounts, no less than twenty emphasized the role of youth in the movements.(25) Revivals on college campuses have continued until today.(26)

Several colleges experienced revival during the time of the Prayer Revival of 1857-58. J.Edwin Orr documented revival movements at Oberlin, Yale, Dartmouth, Middlebury, Williams, Amherst, Princeton, and Baylor.(27) One pivotal feature of this revival in relation to young people was the bearing it had on a then-twenty-year-old named Dwight Lyman Moody. In 1857 Moody wrote of his impression of what was occurring in Chicago: “There is a great revival of religion in this city . . .[It] seems as if God were here himself.”(28) Biographer John Pollock wrote that “The revival of early 1857 tossed Moody out of his complacent view of religion . . . .”(29) Moody went on to make a marked impact for Christ the rest of the nineteenth century.

An aspect of Moody’s influence which cannot be overlooked regarding students was his leadership in the Student Volunteer Movement. Although this movement’s roots have been traced ultimately to the Second Great Awakening and the Haystack Meeting of 1806, it was Moody who invited 251 students in Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts in 1886 for a conference. As a result of these meetings, highlighted by A.T. Pierson’s challenging address, one hundred students volunteered for overseas missions. In 1888 the Student Volunteer Movement was formally organized with John R. Mott named chairman. Over the next several decades literally thousands of students went to serve as foreign missionaries.

More recently, the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s touched a significant number of young people. From the hippies turning to Christ and baptizing their music resulting in the revolution known as contemporary Christian music, to the college revivals such as Asbury in 1970, to the effect in churches through youth musicals (“Good News,” “Tell It Like It Is,” “Celebrate Life,” etc.), and Explo ‘72 in Dallas, Texas, the Jesus Movement touched a generation of young Evangelicals. Today, many leaders among various denominational and parachurch groups are products at some level of the Jesus Movement.

The Jesus Movement has been criticized, and rightfully so, because it was driven more by emotion than doctrine. However, it only proves my point that we have failed to give adequate attention to equipping young people theologically while young. How much greater might this movement have been had the many zealous youth been given proper guidance? Instead, the Jesus Movement helped to precipitate the rise of full-time youth ministers and the segregation of youth ministry from the mainstream of the church. Today one can be an active member in many churches as a teen and, except for the Sunday morning service, never be around anyone except other teens and a handful of adult “youth workers.”Sadly, this has not led to a strong growth in either evangelism or discipleship of teens. For example, in the Southern Baptist Convention the number of full time youth pastors has growth significantly from 1970-2000, while youth baptisms declined significantly during that period.(30) While factors in the decline of youth baptisms are more complex than this single issue, neither can this be ignored.

Hope for the Future

II Chronicles 34 records the account of young king Josiah and his reforms. At age sixteen the text states Josiah began to seek the Lord (check it). By age 20 he was leading a major reform. The key to the change for his generation was not innovation or technology. The key was the discovery of the Law. Certainly innovation and technology have their place. I am a member of a contemporary, innovative church, and have learned to fear neither the clear teachings of Scripture or innovation! I have used powerpoint, object lessons, and have even brought snakes into a service! Still, I would argue that the hope for the future of youth ministry must be based in truth, not technique.

While much more can be said, allow me to offer three proposals to raise the bar in youth ministry:
1. Recover the biblical place of parents. While I thank God for the youth pastor out our church, who is committed to raising the bar, I am my son’s main youth minister! Youth ministry must give biblical emphasis to both the strengthening of Christian families in the church and evangelizing lost families of youth who attend. How many youth pastors or ministries can boast in a given year to having scores of youth who attend their church from unchurched homes, while giving virtually no attention to reaching those parents? What could be more important to the future of those youth than to see their parents come to Christ? And what more vital role could older adults have in the church than to take a student from an unsaved family under their wing?

In terms of strengthening Christian families, I am not advocating the position that a 23 year old youth pastor should teach parents how to raise their teens. That youth pastor has no clue! But he can show youth how to walk with God, he can teach the Word, and he can provide resources, such as strong Christian families as examples, to aid other families.

I must take a moment and mention the thorny issue of segregation in our churches. Some advocate the abolition of such segregation, and thus the elimination per se of youth ministry.(31) I would argue that segregation of youth can occur in the church as long as three points are followed. First, those desiring to segregate the youth from the rest of the church should have a clear, biblically justifiable reason. The same should be true for separating women, or the choir, or men’s groups, or others in any on going way. For example, one could argue for a separate youth meeting for the purpose of evangelizing youth, or for the purpose of giving specific instruction to youth.

Second, limit segregation to those times when absolutely necessary. I personally think this can include a weekly meeting. However, I would argue that youth pastors should constantly ask the question, “How can I involve youth more in the life of the whole church?” over, “How can I take the youth away from the life of the church?” In other words, youth need to learn biblical ecclesiology more than how to follow a Pied Piper.

Third, even when you have those times of segregation, make sure a significant number of mature adults are involved. Why? Because that is what youth want, more than we realize. And it is definitely what they need. I asked a young lady in our church what I should say to older adults about communicating to youth. She did not hesitate: “We know how to be teenagers,” she said. “Show us how to be adults.”

Barna has discovered that teenagers really seek the respect of their parents. In addition, he discovered that the people the teens spend the most time with — their friends — were the least likely to give them a since of peace. But, the people that gave them the most since of peace were their parents.(32)

For the multitudes of young people coming from lost homes and who themselves may be lost, we must challenge older adults to pour their lives into such young adults. I recently read of a man in his 60s who retired and decided to become the grandfather at the local high school. He volunteered for everything possible. A short, bald guy, you would never find him on the cover of a youth workers’ magazine. He recently went to a basketball game. When he entered, the entire place was decorated in his honor. He and his wife received a standing ovation from the entire student body. Not many would look at him and say, “That is the guy I want doing youth ministry,” but no youth pastor had earned the affection of the students as this retired gentleman. A.A. Brooks has documented the point that “studies of resiliency in children show time and time again that the constant emotional support of at least one loving adult can help [them] overcome all sorts of chaos and deprivation.”(33)

2. I would propose youth ministry must raise the bar in at least the following four essentials:
Many criticize with some justification so many youth ministries today who seemed to be built on entertainment. The truth is that whatever you are doing, if you see no change in your students over time, you are merely entertaining them.

Biblical truth. A nationally known youth leader, one whose name virtually every reader of this book would know, made the following statement recently to youth pastors at one of his conferences: “Young people today will not listen to a message longer than 17 minutes.” I have to praise a youth pastor I know who was there. He told the so called expert that he would be apologizing to his students for bringing them to a conference where the very leader of the conference so disrespected them. Such a ridiculous notion ignores the capacity for students to sit through movies, class, or even wait in lines at theme parks. Worse, it shows contempt toward the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the place of preaching in the Christian church. It further treats students like children, not young adults.

I fear too many today who work with youth have, without even realizing it, minimized the role of the Word in their ministries. I recently spoke to 400 students at a megachurch. They were wired! But perhaps 10% brought their Bibles. If they do not need their Bibles at church, why would they need them at home?

We should teach youth that truth has no fear. We should take on their hardest questions. To paraphrase a line from a movie: They can handle the truth! We should put the very best Bible teachers in the church in the youth classes (Dr. Patterson suggested that). We should also provide the best materials.(34)

Last fall I presented a paper on this subject at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting in Colorado. Two professors of youth ministry attended the session. During the session I made the statement that too many youth ministers learn youth ministry from youth ministers who learn it from youth ministers. Further, most who have a degree from a seminary have a two year degree with virtually no biblical or theological depth. So, few youth ministers have either the background to teach the Word or the ability to do theological reflection. One of the professors, who admitted he could not deny what I said to be true, asked what degree we offered at Southeastern for youth pastors. I told him we offered the perfect degree: the Master of Divinity! There is a place for specialization, whether in education, music, youth, women’s studies, and others, but not at the expense of significant biblical teaching.

A postmodern culture awash in a sea of relativism needs truth to be proclaimed more clearly, not less. Barna found that about half of America’s teens believe Jesus committed sins, and only about a third believe in hell. Teaching that is neglected in one generation is rejected in the next! He adds: “While youth ministry has become a standard ministry program in tens of thousands of churches, . . . there has been surprising little growth in the involvement of teenagers in the life of the church over the past decade.”(35)

I had basically given up on youth camps as counterproductive to producing spiritual giants as youth. Then, I went to a Go Tell camp sponsored by Rick Gage last summer. The first night, Dr. James Merritt preached a 45 minute message on repentance. Students listened, God moved, and 61 youth came to Christ. Night after night students heard strong, expository messages. That first night was probably the most life changing night in my son’s life since he came to the Lord. I fear some youth pastors unwittingly question whether the Bible still communicates to students!

I am far from the best youth speaker even on this campus, but I have learned in speaking to thousands of teens over the past year that they are hungry for the Word if we show them how it affects their lives. Barna’s research echoes my conviction that when you get to the bottom line, students still seek truth:

When pressed to identify the single most important reason why [unchurched youth] attend [a church] youth group, . . . It turns out that relationships bring the kids to the place, but they will not return unless the church delivers the goods. What are they looking for? Substance. Burning, practical insights about God was listed twice as often as anything else as the most important reason for returning. The fellowship, the games, the music, the casual and friendly atmosphere – all those elements are important to getting kids in the door – the first time. Getting them there on subsequent occasions requires those benefits plus solid, personally applicable content.(36)In other words, if you are going to pamper youth with spiritual twinkies when they need and often long for the meat of truth, leave youth ministry and work in the nursery. Remember the fastest growing soft drink in the youth population is Sprite, with its “image is nothing, thirst is everything – obey your thirst” message of realism. Give them reality, not superficiality.

Intentional evangelism. My son Josh, who is far from perfect, is now a youth. He has already led adults to Christ. In fact, during one stretch he led more to Christ than his Dad, so I grounded him! Seriously, several in our youth group have shared in this experience. Why? Because every Sunday night our youth go witnessing. Josh hates to miss it. We have a big crowd every week. That is the bar for our students.

I learned something over the past three years. As I began to speak more and more at youth events, I made a commitment that if we had a youth weekend, such as a DiscipleNow, we would give strong emphasis to prayer, to worship, to biblical preaching and teaching, and to evangelism. We always have students go out witnessing on Saturdays. Many of these youth, who go for their first time ever, do not want to stop when the time is up for witnessing! I have received dozens of young people on fire for the Lord and who are leading their peers to Christ because they learned to witness by witnessing.

Kelly Green has capitalized on this emerging generation’s desire to change their world by organizing Frontliners, a ministry each summer that includes about 4000 youth in various venues spending an entire week of their summer street witnessing. Rick Gage’s Go Tell camps include a time of witnessing on Thursday afternoon in the local community.

Barna notes that this generation seeks experiences. What better experience than the joy, excitement, and sheer terror of sharing Christ?

Worship. One of the most obvious shifts I have seen in youth in churches is their passionate efforts in corporate worship. Certainly worship involves far more than a service or music. Worship is a lifestyle, not just a service. Worship means the offering of ourselves to God. Romans 12:1-2, offers a biblical paradigm for worship. Following Paul’s vast theological treatise in chapters 1-11, he shows how biblical orthodoxy and orthopraxy come together in worship. In its essence, worship has nothing to do with either a church building or music. It has to do with offering ourselves to God.

That being said, we should teach how music has a role in worship. Music is a huge factor in the lives of youth, and in corporate worship. Do youth ministers take the time to help students discern good from evil, not only with secular music, but with Christian music as well? Do we lower the bar to mediocrity by simply covering our youth rooms with posters of the latest Christian groups without helping students learn the difference between groups with integrity and a heart for ministry verses groups in the “industry” with a knack for entertainment? More importantly, in the music we use, are we teaching young people to worship God? When the second most consistent source of theology comes from the songs we sing in church, do we assess the content in any consistent manner?

There is a worship movement that has spread across the face of the church in the past decade. Newer songs include Scripture choruses like “Better is one day,” contemporary hymn, and remakes of old hymns: “I’m Forgiven” taken from Wesley’s “And Can It Be,” and “Oh the Wonderful Cross” added to “When I Survey,” for example. Teach youth what biblical worship is, and how that worship that fails to lead to obedience, including missions and evangelism, is not at all worship.

Prayer. Today many complain that prayer has been taken out of public schools. But how many of those who complain never pray with their children in their homes? How can we help youth understand the wonder and awe of the Christian life apart from teaching and showing them how to pray?

This past Saturday my kids helped me plant a lot of grass seed at our house. That night, during our family devotional time, I asked Josh to pray for rain. He did, and immediately after that, rain began to fall. Before Josh could put himself on the level of Elijah, his sister Hannah reminded him the next morning that he had also prayed for her to feel better, and she still felt sick! Still, prayer matters, and youth people should learn while young how to communicate with God personally.

If we raise the bar for the coming generation in only these areas the impact on the church over the next generation could be staggering. Teach your youth truths about God their parents do not know – that won’t take much! Raise the bar of biblical truth.

When statistics reveal that only 3-5% of Christians actively share their faith, we can raise the bar for this generation in witnessing. When churches argue over worship style and such critical issues as whether or not to clap (note my sarcasm here) while neglecting the weightier matters of substance and the presence of the Spirit, we can raise the bar for this generation. When Lifeway Christian Resources discovers that 92% of Christian homes have no devotional time in an entire year, we can raise the bar of prayer.

3. We must address the issue of rites of passage

In the culture at large we have such rites: getting a drivers license at 16, going off to college at 18, legal drinking at 21, and loss of virginity at prom night, if not before! Surely we can raise the bar by setting rites of passages for students.

There is a growing parenting movement seeking to address the vital role of rites of passage. Dave Black discusses a special Coming of Age Ceremony at age 12 in Myth of Adolescence, and Professor Waylan Owens recently took his son through such a ceremony.

What if youth pastors took every student and his or her family out to dinner at about their 12th birthday? Not the thirteenth, which is special only because modern culture has made it so. What if that youth pastor set the bar high then, and committed the youth ministry to strengthen the family first and foremost; second, build the character of Christ into that student; and third, set as the goal to lead that student to the place that when he finished high school he could intelligently discuss theological and biblical issues as well as he could pass less Kingdom of God-focused tests like the SAT?

What if families in the church had a ceremony for their children as a rite of passage into young adulthood? In my case, I chose to take the age of twelve as a time of personal, one on one teaching for Josh. I explained that he was from that point onward to act like a young adult, and as he grew capable of handling responsibility, we would give it to him, along with the corresponding privileges. So many of my colleagues here have set remarkable examples in their own child rearing. Josh has responded wonderfully–he plays congas in the adult praise band at church, travels regularly with me, and as I noted earlier, leads witnessing teams weekly at church.

While rebellion does happen with youth, (let’s face it, there are people in their thirties and forties who act like they are in their terrible twos!) and can be attributed to hormones, a sinful nature, and other factors, I believe some youth rebel in part because they are tired of being treated like little children.

I would finally argue for one more rite of passage. Begin challenging youth to prepare to spend the first year of their life after high school in missions somewhere around the world. What a way to unleash an army to the world! It is at this point that the Mormons, who preach a false gospel, can be our teacher. For a Mormon, the highlight of their life is their mission, undertaken while young.

If a religious body were a football team, the Mormons would put their youth on the first string. I am afraid most of our churches would not let their youth on the practice squad! It is time to raise the bar. I believe we could see another Student Volunteer Movement in the next decade. God is able, are we hopeful? There has been no greater time in recent history to challenge students to consider God’s call to missions or other ministry callings.

Wherever you go, whatever you do in ministry, find a young person, and encourage him or her to live radically for Jesus.

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Footnotes

(1) Jonathan Edwards, “Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England, and the Way in Which It Ought to Be Acknowledged and Promoted, Humbly Offered to the Public, in a Treatise on That Subject,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Ed. Sereno E. Dwight (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1834), Vol. I, 423.

(2) Mark DeVries, “What Is Youth Ministry’s Relationship to the Family?” in Reaching a Generation for Christ, edited by Richard R. Dunn and Mark H. Centers, III (Chicago: Moody Press, 1997), 484-85.

(3) George Barna. Real Teens: A Contemporary Snapshot of Youth Culture (Regal Books, 2001), 113.

(4) Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York: Vintage Books, 2000).

(5) Ibid., 3.

(6) Ibid., 4. Italics added.

(7) See Ibid., pp. 7ff.

(8) Barna, Real Teens, 68.

(9) Mike Males, “The Culture War Against Kids,” AlterNet May 22, 2001. http://alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10904 . Accessed 3-12-02.

(10) Chris Lehmann, “Teen-Demon Tracts: Why baby-boomer parents fear their children,” February 2002. http://www.magportal.com/cgi-bin/rdir.cgi?w=87689. Accessed 3-12-02.

(11) Katharine Mieszkowski, “Thank God for the Internet: ‘Next’ author Michael Lewis says that the Net makes lawyers look foolish and Wall Street analysts irrelevant,” (July 18, 2001). http://adfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/fm/1222-5050-1101-0?mpt=2002.03.14.00.15.48. Accessed 2-12-02.

(12) Howe and Strauss, Millennials Rising., 10.

(13) Barna, Real Teens, 16.

(14) David Alan Black, The Myth of Adolescence (Yorba Linda, California: Davidson Press, 1998).

(15) Ibid., 6.

(16) Lance Morrow, “The Boys and the Bees: The Shootings Are One More Argument for Abolishing Adolescence,” Time (May 31, 1999), 110.

(17) Black, Myth of Adolescence,17.

(18) See Alvin L. Reid, Light the Fire: Raising a Generation to Live Radically for Jesus (Emunclaw, WA: Winspress, 2001); Alvin L. Reid, “The Zeal of Youth: The Role of Students in the History of Awakenings,” in Evangelism for a Changing World, ed. Timothy Beougher and Alvin L. Reid (Wheaton: Harold Shaw, 1995).

(19) Jonathan Edwards, “A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls, in Northampton, and the Neighbouring Towns and Villages of New Hampshire, in New England; in a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Colman, of Boston,” In The Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Sereno E. Dwight (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1834), Vol. I, 347.

(20) Ibid.

(21) See W.W. Sweet, The Story of Religion in America (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1930), 140.

(22) Earle Cairns, Endless Line of Splendor (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1982), 42.

(23) Ibid., 92.

(24) See Gardiner Spring, Memoir of Samuel John Mills (Boston: Perkins and Marvin, 1829); Thomas Richards, Samuel J. Mills: Missionary Pathfinder, Pioneer, and Promoter (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1906); Cairns, 261, 262.

(25) Bennett Tyler, ed. New England Revivals, as They Existed at the Close of the Eighteenth Century, and the Beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries (Wheaton: Richard Owen Roberts, Reprint, 1980).

(26) See J. Edwin Orr, Campus Aflame (Wheaton: International Awakening Press, Reprint, 1992); John Avant, Malcolm McDow, and Alvin L. Reid, Revival: An Account of the Current Revival in Brownwood, Fort Worth, Wheaton and Beyond (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1995).

(27) J. Edwin Orr, Fervent Prayer (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974), 11, 12.

(28) John Pollock, Moody (Chicago: Moody, 1983), 34.

(29) Ibid.

(30) Baptisms did increase toward the end of the 1990s in particular. Still, the overall trend of more youth pastors and less evangelistic results remains.

(31) The best discussion I have seen on this issue is the approach taken by Mark DeVries. See the article,“What Is Youth Ministry’s Relationship to the Family?” in Reaching a Generation for Christ and cited earlier.

(32) Barna, Real Teens, 75, 77.

(33) DeVries, “What Is Youth Ministry’s Relationship to the Family?”, 494.

(34) InQuest Ministries (www.InQuest.org) provides some of the best materials I have found.

(35) Barna, Real Teens, 132.

(36) Ibid., 135.

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