As I interviewed and then accepted my new Youth Ministry position, I was able to talk through and come to a realization (a Duh! moment actually) with regards to the issue of why young people have a tendency to walk away from their faith and the church within their first few years after high school graduation as the staggering statistics seem to indicate.
And while the title of this blog alludes to a book that makes a convincing case for why the problem is, at its core, a theological one, I tend to put more weight into relationships being a big key as well. Doug Fields, Mark DeVries, Jeanne Mayo, and others have certainly been an influence in my thinking here, but Jeanne tends to put it best--if I can paraphrase--the desire is to build relationships between hearts that Jesus can cross over. What a beautiful image!
My duh moment comes in as I realize that the issue of young people walking away from their faith is likely directly connected to the issue many church parishoners and leaders raise about how they want to see youth more integrated into the life of the church. Rather, we often see the compartmentalized "one-eared Mickey Mouse" issue where the Youth Ministry is connected, somewhat loosely, to the church but largely doing its own thing. The simple realization is that if we want to see youth integrated into the life of the church (and not walking away from their faith), the church must become more intentional about being integrated into the life of the youth.
Mark DeVries puts this well as "architecting a constellation of relationships." Imagine a family based youth ministry--both the nuclear and broader church family--where this constellation or web of relationships means that each young person has at least 5 or 6 God-loving, Christ-centered, loving adults in the church that proactively connect with and care for them on a regular basis. These young people will then be less likely to fall through the cracks and more likely to feel connected, rather than disconnected from the church as they enter their young adult years.
Couple this with charging our youth with the responsibility to create a friendship epidemic in our youth ministries where youth are caring for, connecting with, and accepting other youth, and we have begun to construct powerful bridges between hearts that Jesus can cross over!
Consumed is all about equipping students and their youth ministries for greater impact in God's Kingdom. I have a huge desire to see you change the world for Jesus Christ, and I am tired of seeing ineffective us-4-no-more youth groups. It’s time to create a movement impacting our schools and communities! Thanks for stopping by, and let me know if there is anything I can do. Andrew
Hey Andrew. It also occurs to me that while youth are consumed with technology and information coming from all sides, they garner no truth from it. Youth today read the Bible in the same fashion as they consume web content. They read it and obtain information, but they don't reflect on it,a nd when they come to something that doesn't resonate with them, they dismiss it as irrelevant to their lives. Reading the Bible and not taking the time to meditate on God's Word is "like eating a meal without ever swallowing." Those are not my words but something Pastor Scott heard recently from a conference speaker regarding the very subject of your blog. Regards, Jeff
ReplyDeleteGood point, Jeff, and while I didn't mean to diminish any theological implications as to why teens can be seen as "already gone" in a lot of way, this adds another key issue. It also gets me to thinking about how relational teens are, but the dangers of dismissing relationships too when they are no longer relevant. Dismissing the church too? This causes me to see that the theological and relationship issues are directly connected. After all, theology pertains to our relationship and understanding of God.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dividedthemovie.com/ An interesting (and free to watch) documentary on this subject.
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