I read an article recently about different reasons young people are leaving the church. The article in “Leadership Journal” Winter 2012 issue has 6 different reasons young people leave the church. One of the 6 reasons was because they felt that they were forced to decide between the church and their friends, and that got me to thinking about youth ministry and the pressure put on our teenagers.
The average age a young person now begins to drift away from the church is around 15-16 years old…or when they begin to drive, get a job, be more mobile, etc… How do we balance our holding kids accountable and challenging them to move deeper in their relationship with God and not put added pressure on them that also comes from their employers, coaches, parents, etc…?
First of all, we must hold kids accountable when they sin. It is our duty as a fellow believer and the shepherd of our youth as adult youth leaders to do this, however we must be careful to not cross the line to judging. The generation of young people we serve has been saturated with “tolerance and varying absolute truth” and so we must make sure we are very clear that we have the type of relationship with a student to hold them accountable and it be taken in the manner it is given.
Secondly, we must be practical and specific in our challenges. To tell a student that they have to spend an hour reading their Bible and praying is a great thing…but it’s really not practical. Instead we should challenge our students to give God SOMETHING…5, 10, 15 minutes, anything.
Also, with sports and other school events no longer respecting Gods time on Sundays and Wednesdays, we only have our students for so long which means we must take our ministry to students seriously. Our youth ministries absolutely must be more than having snacks and a great time…they must challenge our youth to grow deeper in their relationship with God, and we must do so because eternity hangs in the balance.
What are your thoughts? Anything you would add to this? Let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading!
I agree completely. Not sure what else to add. My biggest struggle is youth thinking they are being singled out. Questions that are pre-written on a piece of paper become an attack by some. Does this mean that we stop asking the hard questions? Or even that when one of our students are blatantly angry about something, that we shouldn't call them on it? It is hard sometimes to be "the bad guy" and risk the cold shoulder, but I think we are called to do just that. If we don't...who will?
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