When my children were much younger I developed a habit that I soon jettisoned because, well, it was stupid. Whenever I went on a trip I would bring them back a candy bar or some junk food like twinkies. Not a great way to lead your children to appreciate a healthy diet!Children love junk food. But a continual diet of that will not lead to ideal physical maturity. At an early age our children discovered a love for more robust dietary delights–prime rib, steak, etc.
The church has too often assumed that the way to communicate to teenagers is to feed them junk food. I would submit young people want, and from my experience, CRAVE, meat. Enough of treating youth like elementary school children on break when they attend a youth function. I have spoken at large youth gatherings where almost no student brought a Bible. Why? Because youth pastors have not taught youth that God’s Word matters, even in a church service! A nationally known youth leader, one whose name virtually every reader of this post would know, made the following statement 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.
Greg Stier is far more on track when he states: “Within the pages of Scripture we have everything we need to truly be successful in youth ministry.” Most youth pastors would agree with that statement. But most do no practice it in the attention given to serious teaching of the Word to youth. Even more frightening, many who lead in youth ministry would not know a solid biblical preacher to youth when they see one.
I fear too many today who work with youth have without even realizing it minimized the role of the Word in their ministries. 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. I had six different teachers in my six years as a youth in Sunday School. I remember three. One I remember because he acted like a teenager and ultimately had an affair. I remember him because I never wanted to be like him. I remember two others not because they were cool, but because week after week they taught the Bible. I cannot for the life of me remember the other three. They made no impression. Sounds like the impact some youth ministries have had on teens in their area.
I presented a paper on this subject at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting in Colorado a few years back. 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 that Jesus committed sins, and only about a third believes 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.”
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.”
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. If you have a chance to speak to youth, please teach the Word of God. Make it applicable: I had a DMin student discover that youth need a little more help in applying the Scripture to life than adults, so we need to help them. But we do not need to spoon feed them Gerber Bible Smoothies.
The Millennial Generation is the largest group of teens in US history. They want a challenge, something real. Give them the Word. It is real. It is more than relevant–it is significant. Help them see how it matters. Give them a higher motivation than “read the Word because I said so.” Help them to think, to see the world “Christian-ly.”
If you are a youth, work with youth, a parent of youth, or give a rip about youth, try checking out these resources:
Alvin Reid. Raising the Bar: Ministry to Youth in the New Millennium. (this article was adapted from this book).
Alex and Brett Harris: Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations.
Greg Stier: Outbreak: Creating a Contagious Youth Ministry Through Viral Evangelism.
Alvin Reid. Join the Movement: God Is Calling You to Change the World.
Brother, thank you for this post. I have had trouble with youth pastors that promoted an entertainment-only model. I also have trouble with youth evangelism being done around the entertainment and emotional model. I pray we return our focus to the Word of God. May God give you grace to inflence the next generation of youth leaders to Preach the Word.
Bill
Thanks Bill. I speak to a lot of youth pastors every year, so pray that I would be helpful in pointing this out to them.
So many of Well meaning Christian leaders with Youth tend to rely on emotions and what their heart is telling them and yes the emotions can be real but do they line up with the word of God which is the only absolute truth that we can rely upon. I appreciate your willingness to tackle this subject which is near and dear to my heart as well. I speak to many of these issues as well at
http://evangelizetheyouth.com/
Thank you for these thoughts, as a youth pastor, who does not want to be an entertainer, I appreciate them. At school students are given more homework to do, athletes are given more plays to learn, and band members are given more music to memorize, but the church continues to lower their exptectations for students.
Many would argue that if we raise the level of expectations then we might lose some, so the result is to lower the expectations. Jesus told His followers that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, and as a result some walked away. Jesus didn’t stop them from walking away, and say, wait I will lower my expectations, He let them go.
I wish I could say that our ministry as a whole is doing a great job of raising the bar, but we are on our way. Thank you for your thoughts and the resources.