The 90s. The glorious age of 2 Unlimited, Tamagotchis, dial-up Internet, and The Macarena. Good times. It was also the time that I was a “young person”, doing my best to navigate the minefield of school and friendships and girlfriends as a Christian. I don’t miss it!
I had a great youth group though, with some leaders that really invested into us and some friends who were super-passionate about Jesus. Like most Christian young people, we wanted to change the world for Jesus. Me and my best mate at the time used to talk about girls and God fairly interchangeably and really believed that God could - and would - do significant things through us. Yes, we loved it. I remember going with our church to a Christian family camp where me and my mate pre-planned to be the first people “moshing” (90s again) when the youth band hit their opening chorus. The future was bright. The future was Jesus. Until…
Until my best mate went away on a not-so-Christian holiday and met a not-so-Christian girl (you already know where this is going, right?). She was talented and attractive, and my mate was, well, a teenager, so it wasn’t long before they started “going out” (more 90s chat). But I wasn’t too worried. After all this was the guy I’d dreamed with about changing the world for Jesus, he’d be OK. He was destined to be a “history maker”, or at least, that’s what the preachers had told us. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. As their relationship became more serious my mate slowly drifted away from the youth group, eventually they started sleeping together, living together, and then, when a crisis hit his family life, it was all the reason he needed to exit church - and faith - completely.
Here’s the thing… I’m not the only one with that kind of story, am I? In fact I’d be willing to wager that we’ve all got friends who once knew Jesus and have since given up, or, perhaps even more painfully, have invested ourselves into young people who we were convinced had an amazing future in God, but lost their faith to the trappings, temptations and paradigms of this world. And it sucks.
So here’s the big question. How can we as youth leaders equip our young people to walk faithfully with God for the long haul? How do we raise up young people to lifelong, fully devoted followers of Jesus? What are the things that we want to help our young people build into their lives today, that will help them to survive and thrive in faith once they’ve left the relative safety of our youth groups? Well, I don’t have the answers, but I do have some thoughts. So here are five things I believe we might need to do differently if we want to cultivate lasting faith in every generation…
EXTEND THE JOURNEY
There’s no hiding it. The Church in our nation faces a crippling problem: a generation that is so absent from our churches that they have actually been tagged as ‘the missing generation’. And with good reason…
Studies have shown that only 3% of Britons in their 20s regularly attend Church, which is significantly below average in comparison to all other age groups. Hands up who thinks this is OK? I thought not.
Yet it is not simply reaching people when they are older that will solve this problem, it is also reaching them while they are younger. Children's ministry is so crucial if we are to establish disciples who know what it means to stay the course and walk faithfully with God when they leave home and explore their independence for the first time. Studies tell us that people who become Christians before their teen years are more likely to remain “absolutely committed" to Christianity into adulthood.
If we want to raise up a generation of life-long followers of Jesus, then perhaps we need to think about extending the journey beyond our traditional 11-18 framework. What would it look like for you to engage with the emerging generations while they are young, and be “committed to journey with those children through to adulthood”?
MOVE FROM INDIVIDUALISM TO CORPORATE MISSION
“You can be a history maker!” Have you heard it? Have you sung it? Have you preached it? I know I have. But does Jesus really call for isolated heroes of the faith, fully equipped to meet every need and reach every nation all by themselves? Is it possible that the Church has fallen into the trap of individualism along with the rest of society? Could it be that the sense of failure we feel in our twenties when we realise we haven’t changed the world just yet is a hangover from over-hyped youth meetings? Could it be that one reason people exit their faith journey when they exit our youth groups is because history didn’t change like we told them it would?
So let me paint for you a bigger dream, a better vision. It’s called the Church. Yes, I’d love to see our message change from “You can change the world” to “We can change the world”! This isn’t a smaller dream than being a ‘world-changer’, it’s a bigger one. It’s a call to be part of something global; something that unites people across ages, nations, colours and creeds; a mission that is far bigger than any one individual; a world changing, culture shifting, era defining movement called the Church. And that’s something I want to be a part of!
LESS TALK, MORE POWER
The Apostle Paul once said, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power." (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). Our programmes, courses, teaching and small groups are all important, but if that is all we have then we will have young people whose faith is built on human wisdom, not on the Spirit’s power. And that foundation will crumble. We need young people whose faith is built on the solid foundation of the Spirit’s power.
They cannot survive on a diet of youth meetings and summer camps forever
So what opportunities are we providing for our young people to encounter and witness the power of God at work? Are we praying for the sick? Are we teaching them to hear from God? Are we expecting them to prophesy? Are we facilitating a risk-it-all faith that fails without God? Or have we programmed the Spirit out of our programs?
TEACH A COSTLY GOSPEL
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25). Ouch. Tough stuff Jesus. But that, friends, is the gospel that Jesus preached. Could it be that one of the reasons our young people exit the journey when the going gets tough is because we have communicated a ‘self-help’ gospel? If we are preaching a Gospel that has no cost, then should we really be surprised when our young people are not willing to pay it?
There is no shortcut to a lasting relationship with Jesus that bypasses time in his presence
EQUIP THEM TO ‘FEED THEMSELVES’
I’ve got a little boy who’s just approaching two. We’re currently teaching him to feed himself, and friends, it’s messy! In spite of that we have to persist, because we know that if he cannot feed himself by the time he leaves our home, he will not survive!
Without food people die. And if our young people cannot feed themselves, so will their faith. They cannot survive on a diet of youth meetings and summer camps forever. We must equip our young people with the tools to pray on their own, to read their Bibles day by day, to help them find a healthy pattern of personal devotion. There is no shortcut to a lasting relationship with Jesus that bypasses time in his presence.
Perhaps if we applied these five principles we’d begin to disciple a generation of lifelong Jesus followers. These are my thoughts; I’d love to hear yours!
Tim Alford is the national director of Serious4God, the youth movement of Elim Pentecostal Churches in the UK and Ireland.
