Recently I read Josh McDowell's "The Last Christian Generation." He has become increasingly alarmed that most of our churched young people are becoming less and less like the Jesus they worship and more and more like their unchurched peers, both in what they believe and how they apply biblical principles to their lives. I was intrigued by his contention that many youth ministries in our churches are program rather than process driven. I think what he means by program driven is that we invite young people to an activity, throw a Bible lesson at them along with some very fun stuff, and then send them home. Some of my students seem to confirm that this is how it's done. I'm not a church youth leader, so I want to be fair to those hard-working and little-appreciated youth leaders out there. Is this really the case?
By process, I think Josh is referring to the growth in Christlike character based on the word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Unless our youth ministries make this the focus of their ministries rather than activity and Bible knowledge, the future of our Christian young people looks bleak.
I've noticed it even in my own school. Whether in chapel services or Bible courses, our emphasis on specific application of Bible truth has been weak. Even my own worldview course does not have room for application. So, what happens is that my students get a head full of knowledge, but I have no idea if they really know what to do with it.
I think I'm waking up now.
Yesterday, for our regular chapel we did something we've never done before. After about 20 minutes of excellent student-led worship (which is normal) we broke the entire student body up into small groups of 5-6. We selected the most godly students we knew and trained them in the basics of leading small groups. Then, we gave them a study on love with a strong emphasis on application. Each student wrote down a specific act that they were to do every day the following week as an application of the scriptures they studied. The leaders will informally touch base with them next week to ensure a minimum of accountability.
I have no idea what will happen next. I do know that after meeting with the leaders that they were excited about this new approach and wanted to continue it at least twice a month. Perhaps some of you out there have tried a similar approach.
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I think the conundrum youth leaders face is trying to be "relevant" to their kids' culture, which is generally interpeted as meaning we need to package our programs into "microwaveable" containers. We forget that microwave food, while fast and easy and popular, is often not very nourishing.
ReplyDeleteYour new approach sounds very promising!