Archive for the ‘Youth Ministry’ Category
Short Thoughts on Why Young People are Leaving the Church
Statistics tell us that many of the young people now attending church while in high school will drop out of attending church when they head off to college. You can read various approaches to why this is the case. For the seeker churches, it’s because church is boring. For the emergents, it’s because church is too doctrinal. For the fundamentalist churches, it’s because the church was too liberal. For the charismatics, the church lacked the presence of God. For the reformed churches, the young people failed to be taught the doctrines of grace. For the Arminian churches, the young people fell away from the faith.
On and on the analysis could go. Let me give my two cents worth here at my lowly blog.
I read this morning from a liberal “Christian” blog about why the blogger feels young people are leaving the church. He felt that the reason is hypocrisy. Of course while saying that he was not “into politics,” he took aim at conservatives making church all about the Republican party and about how conservatives don’t care for the poor (which is a lie) and how the Church has made the enemy the world and thus turned the battle into an us versus them mentality. But the blogger lacked much in his post.
1. Satan
The liberal blogger never mentions Satan. I don’t expect him too. He probably doesn’t believe in Satan. Satan would love that. Satan is real. Satan is called the “tempter” in Matthew 4:3. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we read that the god of this world (Satan according to John 12:31) blinds the minds of unbelievers. Satan does this to many people whether young people heading off to college or old people in their idolatry.
In Matthew 13:19 we read that the evil one comes and snatches away the seed of the Word. I believe that Satan does this all the time. He wants to destroy the Word of God that is in people’s hearts. I have seen him do this many times to friends of mine who appeared to be walking with God and then Satan comes and snatches away the Word in their hearts. They quickly fall away.
2. False Conversions
How many people are sitting in evangelical churches week after week but are not true disciples of Jesus? So many people are false converts. They are lost. They are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1-3). They do not love the truth of God (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). They do not abide in Christ’s teachings (John 8:31-32; 2 John 9). They are those in Matthew 7:21-23 or 13:20-21 who are not truly following Jesus.
So many young people have been raised on a Christless Christianity. They have not heard the true gospel. They have heard that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. They accept this and head off to a secular university full of false teachings and sin. Because they have not heard the true gospel of God’s Law, His judgment, and His grace, they take their “positive and encouraging” Christianity into a university where they are hit with false ideology, temptation, and Christianity is mocked. Like those in Matthew 13:21, they have no root in Christ (Colossians 2:6-7) and their “best life now” Christianity fails to keep them during the hour of temptation. They succumb to their flesh and abide in sin (1 John 3:6-9). They were raised on a false gospel that never preached the truth of God’s righteousness nor did they understand the truth of the cross.
3. No Accountability
One of the drawbacks of the traditional church is that so many people gather together in edifices but never know each other by name, never interact with one another, and never truly apply the “one another” passages. Because the traditional church has become a “show” instead of the Body of Christ, relationships are lacking. When a young person heads off to college, they don’t come back to church because the show is old. They are not truly saved because they never heard the true gospel and those who did were never held accountable through discipleship. Yes they attended Sunday School but one on one discipleship was missing.
In the house church movement we strongly believe in accountability. We are not a cult. We will not be in all your business but we don’t want to help people maintain a real faith in Jesus that is always growing. When we put our hands to the plow, we must not look back (Luke 9:57-62). We want to help people fight to keep their faith in Christ (Hebrews 3:12-13). We all face temptation at various levels but we all need to help each other overcome sin (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). When was the last time you saw James 5:16 applied? When was the last time you saw church discipline in operation at all? People fall through the cracks in the traditional church all the time (unless they are big givers to the church and then they are missed) but in the house churches, we should care for one another deeply and pray for one another to overcome sin and temptation. A young person should feel comfortable confessing their struggles with their brothers and sisters in Christ who understand the temptations of our flesh.
4. Boredom
Lastly, the seeker church has set itself up for many to fall away because what you win them with is what you win them to. In this case, teenagers come to your kicking church to jam to the latest worship fad songs but they never hear the hard gospel (Luke 14:25-35). They never repent of their sins (Acts 2:38). They come because a girl or guy is there they like. They come because the young pastor is cool. They come because it’s much better than the small church they came from. Soon they are there not because of Jesus or His grace or the Word but because they are being entertained.
That gets old fast. The bars near the college campuses are competing for the souls of teenagers too. They offer what the seeker church offers and more. Cool music. Cool atmosphere. Pretty girls. And oh yes, beer. The seeker church offers all these too but they try to disguise in religious tones and soon the young people are bored with your games. It’s far easier to hit the bar scene, have some drinks, meet some guys or girls and fool around. They find church boring.
The answer to this is not to become like the bars. The answer to this is to preach true salvation and allow the Holy Spirit to convict of sin. If we will stay faithful, preach the truth, He will save sinners. The life above in the bars is empty. The life above is defeating and hopeless. We must preach the Law of God and show these young people their sins (Romans 7:7). The answer is not to become a “bar church” but to preach the gospel. The gospel will save sinners (Romans 1:16-17). The gospel will deliver people from sin. The gospel will draw sinners to the Savior (John 6:44). Sin is fun for a season but we all fear death but praise God that we disciples of Jesus have the answer for that (Hebrews 2:14-15). Jesus bore our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21) and we need to preach that truth on the rooftops of every building we can find.
>We Have Such a Low View of God’s Sovereignty
>Did I ever tell you that I once was a youth pastor? I drive a truck now for a living and enjoy it though the hours are not desirable for prayer like I would want them to be. But I digress. One of the things that troubled me most about youth ministry and all the youth conferences I ever dragged our youth to were that they were so shallow. Yes Jesus was mentioned. Yes they had the typical “altar call” along with the “sinner’s prayer” and yes the music was kicking but the gospel of repentance and the message of holiness was oddly lost. Most of the youth I would take to these events would “get saved” again and again. We had one young lady in our youth group who probably was saved at least 10 times during the time she was in our youth group.
The youth pastors I knew where, for the most part, shallow themselves. Some of them are now full time pastors and out of the ones I knew, only one is still serious about God though he leans emergent in his “worship experience.” Most of them knew much about the culture, the songs, the movies, etc. but little about the Bible. In fact, not one of the youth pastors I knew were expositors of the Word. All of them were either topical teachers or they used a book to teach from. The Bible had little place in their youth ministries or even in their own lives. I remember youth camp and how I would plead with the youth pastors to pray and few would. I even started a prayer meeting for youth pastors and only one guy would come. The others were too busy watching movies I guess. Youth ministry was big on personal relationships with your teenagers but not big on staying close to the Father’s heart. Discipleship was not so much about holiness, being like Jesus, etc. but was big on helping teenagers become leaders.
Sadly, from what I can see, youth ministry has not changed much since I left it nearly 10 years ago. I keep up with one youth pastor through a blog he writes. What is amazing to me is to see the low view of the sovereignty of God among him and so many in the American church. The semi-Pelagian view of mankind (oops I meant to say humanity to keep it PC and adapt to the youth culture) means that we must use all types of gimmicks to try to get people to church. Forget the commitment part. Forget the repentance part. Forget the baptism part. It’s all about getting youth (or adults for that matter) to show up for the show. As long as a church can boast that they have X amount coming, that justifies the means no matter what.
Take my former friend above. On his blog he writes about movies, televisions shows, and books that he is reading. The books he reads are always focused on church growth or the like. None are theological in nature. None really deal with Scripture. Most of the authors he reads are emergents or lean seeker sensitive. A recent post of his was how the Church needs to be in the world using the unbiblical quote, “In the world but not of it” (which is not in the Bible I remind you). He talked about how people get so bored with Church. He wrote on how Easter is the most visited Sunday in America and he was wondering why most people never come back until Christmas. His answer: church is boring. Church offers nothing that they can relate to. His answer: church needs to be more culturally relevant. He suggests using more technology, avoid being so “Christianity” in our language, seek to connect with the culture and not run from it, and love the people of the world and not bash them with the Bible. He suggests that evangelism should be more about helping people reach their full potentials as people created in God’s image than just memorizing a bunch of Bible verses to show them that they are not “saved” (his emphasis on saved).
My answer is easy. First, the Church is not the world. The Church is to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) not get them to come to us and like us. I wrote on his blog, “What you win them with is what you win them to.” If we are seeking to bring people to the god of entertainment then we must keep them with this god.
Second, we have such a low view of God’s sovereignty. God is the Savior (Jonah 2:9) and not the Church. People can go to church all the time and still go to an eternal hell (Matthew 7:21-23). Jesus saves sinners and He draws them to Himself (John 6:44). The duty of the disciple is never to save anyone but to preach Christ and Him crucified and God will do the rest (1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 3:6-9). Ephesians 1:3-14 makes it clear that we are chosen in Christ Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict and save sinners (John 16:8-11). Salvation is not based on the music or the light show or the drama skit or the candles burning in your coffee shop. Salvation is the work of God that He does in the heart of the person who hears and believes the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus alone is able to save to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25) and He does so by His grace alone and not by my hand or yours.
Third, by being holy we demonstrate the power of God to an unbelieving world. Jesus said in Matthew 5:11-16 that we were to be the salt and light of the earth. In Philippians 2:12-16 Paul speaks to the Church and he says that we are to be lights in the midst of darkness as we hold out the word of truth. 1 Peter 1:15-16 and 1 Peter 2:12 speak about God’s people being holy as He is holy and that pagans will see our holiness. Will we be persecuted for holiness? Yes (2 Timothy 3:12; 1 Peter 4:12-19) but we are to rejoice in that! Jesus never said the world will like us but He said that it would hate us (John 15:18-25). There is nothing in the New Testament that suggests that we are to be like the world so that they will find our God attractive and perhaps will come to Him. This is not just semi-Pelagian but is demonic.
I want to be different than the people I work with. I want them to see Jesus in me. I want them to know that I don’t watch ungodly movies or use profane language. I want them to see my passionate love for Jesus Christ for all that He has done for me in saving my soul. I want them to know that I am a citizen of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21) and that my focus is completely on pleasing Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:9; Colossians 3:1-4).
In the house church movement there is no emphasis that I am aware of on trying to be relevant so that people will come to our house church. We want to see souls saved by God’s power and we want to live for His glory and His kingdom. We are not interested in building up a name for ourselves nor are we interested in being on the front of Christianity Today
Errors I Made In Youth Ministry
For seven years I served as a youth pastor and sadly today I only know of a few of the students that I worked with who are still walking with the Lord. Now please don’t misunderstand my post here. I am not beating myself up. In fact, I want to share with you the errors I made in youth ministry so that you too can see the errors that we so often make when it comes to evangelism and discipleship and hopefully prevent them in the future from repeating them. I believe the errors I made are far too common in the Church and this doesn’t just include youth ministry but nearly all ministries. The errors I made are largely due to the training and leadership often given in youth ministry and the evangelical church at large.
Errors I Made In Youth Ministry
For seven years I served as a youth pastor and sadly today I only know of a few of the students that I worked with who are still walking with the Lord. Now please don’t misunderstand my post here. I am not beating myself up. In fact, I want to share with you the errors I made in youth ministry so that you too can see the errors that we so often make when it comes to evangelism and discipleship and hopefully prevent them in the future from repeating them. I believe the errors I made are far too common in the Church and this doesn’t just include youth ministry but nearly all ministries. The errors I made are largely due to the training and leadership often given in youth ministry and the evangelical church at large.
