I recently read where Dr. Albert Mohler, President of SBTS, lamented losing the youth of today from our SBC churches. (link) (Who can argue with numbers--or Dr. Mohler, for that matter?) He said if the SBC doesn't change something that we will die. I remember hearing that same lament in the early 80's just after my husband took his first church in Kentucky. I even wrote a letter to the editor of the Western Recorder about the youth they felt the churches were losing then. I had a great burden for youth and followed God's leading to teach them and love them for two decades afterwards. By God's grace many (but not all) have gone on to be ministers, worship leaders, deacons, S.S. teachers, youth leaders, nurses, teachers, moms, dads, and community leaders. Many (but not all) stayed in their churches or joined others in the SBC later on.
Could I have done more? Definitely. Can we do more today? Certainly. Is the problem unique to our generation today? I don't think so.
Yesterday I stumbled upon a little ditty from one of my hubby's bookshelves. The book's preface seemed to echo what Dr. Mohler said:
" 'Hostile to the church, friendly to Jesus Christ.' These words describe large numbers of people, especially young people, today. They are opposed to anything which savours of institutionalism. They detest the establishment and its entrenched privileges. And they reject the church--not without some justification--because they regard it as impossibly corrupted by such evils.Yet what they rejected is the contemporary church, not Jesus Christ himself. It is precisely because they see a contradiction between the founder of Christianity and the current state of the church he founded that they are so critical and aloof." John R. W. Stott, BASIC CHRISTIANITY, 1958, (emphasis mine).
Dr. Mohler is right to exhort us to change how we reach out to the youth and the young college students. He is right that we should look inward to curb what appears to be an exodus of young people and focus on outwardly reaching the world around them. The question is how do we do that? How do we ascertain faith-filled, faith-oriented, faith-driven, faith-centered young people who mature into faithful adult leaders?
Recently I wrote a blogpost and linked to an article which I felt to be quite positive about a group of youth here in Lawton. Unfortunately, my exuberance and zeal was met with negative views about youth and the youth ministry from a few blog voices in the ministry. I found that quite sad. Instead of seeing an outpouring (possibly a third of the comments on SBC politics?) of postitive anecdotes and stories about other youth in the SBC, I read complaints and finger-pointing to what was wrong with youth ministry and youth.
Fortunately, the editor of our county newspaper thought my article worthy of publishing. Today I received our Associational newsletter with an edited reprint of my news article. Beside it was an article about another youth group that is reaching out in our area. There are people who think it is important to emphasize the positive about youth. I am so very encouraged by it.
A couple of years ago a young woman (from a former youth group I led) contacted me and asked me to write about youth and how to reach them. I never followed up on that. Partly because I didn't think myself any expert voice for youth ministry and partly because I was simply lazy. Since the article I wrote, I've tried to just keep this topic a matter of prayer and leave it all to God. But I can't. It won't let go of me. Therefore, I'm offering the next few posts on youth and hope they make some difference for someone. Part 2 will address finding them. until later...selahV
