CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Youth Ministries

The Future of the Church?

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Perhaps I am a little biased on this subject, but I have to admit that each time I hear someone referring to high school students as the “future of the church” a part of me cringes, Don’t get me wrong. I agree with the idea that teenagers must be trained and equipped to one day become the leaders of the church. However, it seems to me that we do a disservice to the next generation if we treat youth ministry as a holding pen for students until they are old enough to do the real work of the church.

Just a few years ago, the Baylor University School of Social Work conducted a study where they found the students with the most mature, vibrant faith that carried on from the teen years to adulthood were those who were actively involved in the ministries of a church as teenagers and those who were engaged in meeting the needs of people in their communities. Given the overwhelmingly negative statistics concerning young adults and church involvement, I am willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that engaging teenagers in the life of your congregation is one of the more important things you can do in your student ministry. Stepping a little further out on the limb, let me also suggest that though the application of the Great Commission must be contextualized, the call to make disciples is equally as valid for the teenagers in your congregation as it is for the adults who inhabit your pews.

I was reminded of these truths again this summer as I had the privilege of directing Youth Excelling in Leadership (YXL), CEP’s denominational student leadership conference, and taking part in our sister conference, YXL Glorieta, held in Glorieta, New Mexico. The goal of both conferences is similar: to develop student leaders through the strong preaching of the Word. dynamic worship experiences, interactive leadership initiatives, leadership assessment, and the expansion of their biblical world and life view. One unique aspect of the YXL conferences is that the local church is asked to identify and recommend high school students that are ready for a week of intense Christian leadership training.

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This past summer, over 100 students and adults participated in YXL at Covenant College and another 85 took part in YXL Glorieta. In keeping with YXL’s theme of COMMIT, men such as Southern Methodist University RUF Campus Minister Chad Scruggs, Covenant College Chaplain Aaron Messner, and Assistant Pastor of Redemption Fellowship EJ Childs challenged students to explore more fully the commitment that Jesus expects from his disciples. The worship leader, Kirk Ward, Worship Director at New City Fellowship in Saint Louis, added music from around the world to encourage students to think more globally as they worship together. Add to the list a ministry project with Hope for the Inner City (www.hope4.org), paintball, caving in Raccoon Mountain, hiking on Lookout Mountain, and dozens of other leadership activities and YXL 2008 at Covenant College was a life transforming experience for not only the students who attended but for many adults there as well.

At YXL Glorieta, students were encouraged to RISE UP because “the resurrection changes everything.” Under the direction of John Ranheim, Development Director at Covenant Seminary, YXL Glorieta was a huge success. RUF campus pastors Justin Clement and Tom Franklin unpacked from Scripture the resurrection and helped students understand the implications of this event in their lives. Musician Ryan Anderson used his unique music style to draw students into wonderful worship experiences. The natural beauty of Glorieta, New Mexico, coupled with paintball, whitewater rafting, high ropes, and various leadership initiatives help set YXL Glorieta apart as a premier Christian leadership conference for PCA churches in the western United States.

However, it was during the nightly prayer times as I listened to high school students at both conferences crying out, grieving over personal and corporate sin issues, with almost childlike faith asking to be used of God that I realized again that students are more than just the future of the church.

I have been a believer for a little over two decades. For most of that time I have been involved in youth ministry. I am seminary trained and will soon possess the necessary credentials to be a pastor in the PCA, but I don’t know that I can recall many adult prayer meetings where prayers were offered with the sincerity and abandon that I experienced at YXL and YXL Glorieta this summer. let me go as far out on the proverbial limb as Ican this time and make one last suggestion. Perhaps the next time your church has a significant prayer need, you should move your teenagers out of the “future of the church” holding pen and into the ministry of your church by asking them to lead the prayer meeting. Based on my YXL experiences this summer, I have a sneaking suspicion that the adults of your church may be encouraged and challenged at the way the Holy Spirit can use young people to further the kingdom of God.

Asking the Right Questions About Youth Ministry, Part 2

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Equip1stQtr2008.jpgI have a confession to make. The pressure was on and in the heat of the moment I succumbed to what Jason Stephenson, youth director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, labels the “pragmatism of youth ministry.” In the last issue of Equip to Disciple, I stated that the first question that should be asked about youth ministry is not programmatic, but should concern itself with the theological foundation. Yet when a pastor looking for a youth director called and asked what the distinctives of a Reformed youth ministry were, I forgot my own sage advice. After describing the discipleship programs of several PCA youth ministries, the pastor stopped me and pointed out that nothing I had described was distinct to a Reformed youth program. Without intending to, I had fallen into the trap that so many of us who are engaged in student ministry find ourselves in: looking for a program or event to solve all the problems in our youth ministry. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with programs or events; however, I am more and more convinced the proper foundation on which to build and sustain a youth program is God’s covenant relationship with humanity.

From the origin of your calling to work with the next generation to the importance of assisting parents in raising their children, a covenantal understanding of scripture has multiple implications for youth ministry. Let me try to whet your appetite by highlighting just two of the many aspects of this special relationship between God and man that have direct bearing on how we do youth ministry.

First, the covenant is relational. In it the Lord declares that He is our God and we are His people. This statement helps us begin to develop a proper view of both God and man. How many self-absorbed or self-loathing teenagers could use a youth ministry which helps them understand this distinction? Implicit in this relationship is responsibility. For example, we have a missional responsibility to be a blessing to others. This gives a better foundation for why we do those summer mission trips to exotic locations and those service projects in the inner city.

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The second aspect which has direct bearing on youth ministry is that the covenant is about community. Through salvation we are brought into a community that not only shares a common bond in Christ but also shares in joy, pain, and accountability. That one idea of covenant community alone can help us better know how to address the inevitable issue of cliques within our youth groups.

Now, I know that in today’s spiritual climate words like doctrine and theology are often labeled as boring and irrelevant. I know for some the thought of trying to teach a doctrine as deep as the covenant to a room full of junior high boys causes you to break out in a cold sweat. I also fully appreciate that advertising your next retreat as “The Retreat of the Covenant” would be a tough sell to high school students. That being said, what I am suggesting is that we should think theology before programs and work to understand and integrate the covenant implications of our relationship with the Lord into the DNA of all we do in youth ministry. Our challenge is to avoid the temptation of running to and fro looking for the next big thing in youth ministry until we have evaluated our programs based on our covenant relationship with God. Then maybe, just maybe, the next time a pastor calls asking about the theology of youth ministry, I can remember my own advice.

1. For further reading on the subject of the covenants, I recommend the classic The Christ of the Covenants by O. Palmer Robertson. For those who want a good summation of the doctrine, I recommend Making Kingdom Disciples by Charles Dunahoo. See especially chapter 5. For those who want to understand the covenants in relation to teaching it to the next generation, I recommend Heirs of the Covenant by Susan Hunt. For those interested in a primer on Covenant Theology for high school students, new believers, or people investigating the doctrine for the first time I recommend What is Covenant Theology: A Contemporary Explanation of Biblical Covenants by J.H. Varner.

Asking the Right Questions About Youth Ministry, Part 1

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I recently heard a veteran PCA youth pastor say that only 6% of the current generation of students claim to be evangelical Christians, compared to 65% of the Baby Boomer generation. I then read an online study conducted by LifeWay Research (www.lifeway.com) which found that two-thirds of adults between the ages of 18-22 who were involved in church as high school students will stop attending church for at least a year, with only 35% of those returning to regular church attendance. Also, researchers such as George Barna, Walt Mueller, and Christian Smith are finding a disconnect between what evangelical teens profess to believe and the moral choices they are making, especially in the area of sexual activity.

It is hard to know what to make of these statistics, but I am convinced that they should lead those of us involved in youth ministry to start asking each other honest, hard questions about student ministry in the PCA. Jamie Lambert, youth director at Covenant Presbyterian in Fayetteville, Georgia, pointed out to me that in order to find the right answer, you have to ask the right question. I believe this axiom can be rightly applied to the trends above with the question being: What is the theological foundation that empowers youth ministry?

My concern is that without a clearly-developed theological foundation, we a re building our youth programs on sinking sand. For example, there was a time when those of us in youth ministry thought the answers to the spiritual problems facing teenagers could be found by getting them to attend youth events. So we spent money on technology and marketing, wore chicken suits at youth group, and gave away t-shirts at every event. Success was determined by how many students showed up. We then read that we needed to be “relational” to be successful. Borrowing ideas from Young Life, we started “meeting students on their turf.” Then someone informed us that we needed to be relevant, so we learned the idioms of the day, grew goatees, listened to popular music, and added a few profanities to our vocabulary. Doug Fields came along and told us to have a “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry,” so we all wrote carefully-crafted purpose statements. Now the Emerging Church folks are pushing us to be missional, authentic, and to rediscover the ancient (for more on this topic see A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee). So we are burning candles in our youth rooms, working to build community in our youth groups, and talking about social injustices around the world. Yet no matter which of the latest methods we try, the statistics continue to grow more alarming.

This is why I believe the first question of youth ministry is one of theological foundation. I am convinced that the particular model of ministry that a church uses is secondary to the theological foundation on which the model is built. I will suggest in the next issue of Equip that God’s covenant relationship with humanity is the proper theological foundation for youth ministry. However, I am afraid that all too often the theological implications of that relationship have little to do with the planning of our youth ministry calendars.

Is youth ministry a lost cause in the PCA? Absolutely not. There are hundreds of churches doing great work around the country, as well as a number of quality youth ministry resources within the Reformed community. For a list of these refer to the youth ministry section of the CE&P website www.pcacep.org. However, for many of us it is time to deconstruct much of what we have been doing in youth ministry in order to build a proper theological foundation. Somehow the cart (the ministry model) has gotten ahead of the horse (the theological foundation). Getting those back in the proper order is, I believe, a process that will begin when we start asking the right question. What is the theological foundation that empowers youth ministry?

CEP Welcomes Danny Mitchell

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dannyhorns.JPGDanny Mitchell will become the new Coordinator of Family and Youth Ministries for Christian Education and Publications in June 2007.He will succeed Dean Conkel, who returned to local church ministry in June 2006. Danny graduated from Covenant College in 1992 with a BS in Biblical Studies and will graduate from Covenant Theological Seminary in May with a Master of Divinity.

Danny has had good experience in youth ministry prior to and during his enrollment at Covenant Theological Seminary. He has worked at both New City Chattanooga and New City St. Louis. Danny has also served as the camp director at Camp Westminster in Conyers, Ga., youth director at Carriage Lane Pres. In Peachtree City, Ga., and as a youth intern at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian. Danny and his wife Mary Pat are already familiar with the CEP family. Danny worked as a member of the PYA, now YXL, task force and Mary Pat is a former CEP staff member.

Danny and Mary Pat met at Covenant College and have been married 15 years. They have two children, Claire and Benjamin.

Coming from a military family, Danny lived in many different places during his early year s. He moved to the Chattanooga area as a high school freshman and became a believer at age 18. He says that he was greatly impacted by both the youth director and a male volunteer in the process of the Lord drawing him to himself.

Danny’s 17 years of experience in youth ministry will serve him well in his new position with CEP. Danny says that even in college he had a specific sense of calling to work with teenagers within the local church.

When Conkel left the position last year, Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator, began a search that took him through many r

What Would Jesus Do?

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bob.jpgWWJD – What would Jesus do? It’s a question that was recycled from a book written over 100 years ago. It became a fad that quickly faded. But what would it mean to take the question seriously?

The evangelical church in the United States has trouble identifying just what kingdom living entails. It’s another way to ask WWJD. Many would suggest we ought to try to win as many people as possible to the exclusion of any other task. An extreme version of this would see secular employment as only a means to the end of evangelism.

Without detracting from the great command to make disciples, there is another command – to subdue the earth. That is to cultivate it. That command has never been abrogated.

For the most part, however, it would appear that we Christians are not unduly exercised about being kingdom disciples. That’s undoubtedly one reason pollsters contend there is little difference between those who claim allegiance to Christ and everybody else. Christians in the United States seem far more attuned to middle class American culture as expressed in their communities than the desires of Jesus.

That’s a stinging indictment. Yet Christians have a propensity to hear such things, perhaps even feel guilty, but have little motivation to do anything differently. In fairness, anything different would be counter-cultural and could have a ripple effect with profound consequences.

For instance, a relatively small minority of Christians advocates a simpler lifestyle. In theory many Christians agree with some aspects of that desire. But consider some of the difficulties:

1. Consumer spending is the engine that keeps the American economy going. If large numbers of people cut way back on spending we would experience a significant economic downturn. Those who produce “stuff” need us. This is despite indications that the more we have the less happy we become.

2. There are expectations that come from our children. When our daughters were little we had a lunch box issue at the beginning of every school year. They had to take their lunch in a lunch box. A paper bag wouldn’t do. But it couldn’t be just any lunch box. There were just a few deemed acceptable by the other kids. And it seemed that most years we bought the wrong one.

3. There are expectations that come from our community. For the most part these are not expressed in words but attitudes. Cell phones have moved from the province of a select few to the mass market. If you don’t have a cell phone (I’m still holding out), it’s obvious you’re out of step.

4. We’ve got our own desires too. I’ve got a car with over 200,000 miles on it. It’s beat up but it runs fine. Yet I find myself watching the new car ads regularly. With all the price competition it’s stirring a desire in me for some new wheels.

Which lunch box a child carries or which car a person drives are not intrinsically moral issues. Yet these decisions shape us.

A few will sacrifice for the sake of Christ. Consider the lady who is giving everything away so that the work of the kingdom can prosper. And the medical doctor who left a thriving practice to work with children who live on the street. The physician who retired early to treat the homeless. The couple that moved into the inner city. They experience poverty as they minister to the impoverished. But these are dramatic illustrations.

Consideration of the kingdom ought to guide us in every endeavor. That consideration is always in danger of being trumped by the quest for success and status. It’s bad enough that such desires detract from the kingdom. On top of that we live in a society where those who have achieved success are held up as models. This is as true in the Christian community as it is elsewhere. A life of sacrifice may be admired but it is seldom imitated. Couple that with our propensity toward evil and kingdom values can easily be suppressed or distorted.

So how do ordinary people like us attempt to influence society with Christian values? Scripture urges us to look after the fatherless and widows (James 1:27). Single moms have been with us for a long time. Micah asked, “What does the Lord require of you?” His answer, “To act justly (treat people fairly) and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). At times fairness is not enough. To show mercy is to risk being used. This is more than a prescription for an exemplary life. It is what it means to walk with God — what it means to influence society with Christian values.

Suffice it to say that it is in the church that we ought to learn what it means to be messengers of grace wherever we are. It is in this context that we are to make disciples. We have the great privilege of self consciously bringing the influence of God’s kingdom to a society dimly aware of his nature and purposes.

Just so we get it right. More things are caught than taught.

The Kingdom and Generations

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The church is getting older.

It might not seem like it where you are but there has been a steep decline in church attendance beginning with the baby boomers (those born between1946-1964) and continuing to the present generation. The most recent statistics indicate that we are not far from the place where the majority in the United States will identify themselves as something other than Protestant.

This presents a great challenge.

One is to reach the generation growing up around us. In many cases this group relates better to grandparents than parents.

In the church I serve there is an 87-year-old widow. She no longer drives. But she has become a Pioneer Club pal to a child some 80 years younger. That involves things like remembering a birthday, speaking briefly at a worship service, and praying for her pal.

To date, every child from age 2 to 5th graders has had a pal. Sometimes the child is invited to the pal’s home. On occasion pals attend school functions in which the child is participating. They might celebrate a birthday together.

There are adults who seem fearful of interacting with young people – especially middle and high schoolers.

If you’re a grandparent you have a great place to start. Should your grandchildren do what the vast majority of young people are predicted to do-either never start or drop out of church? Is it possible for you to build enough of a relationship with them so that you can be heard when you encourage them to follow Jesus? Are you willing to pray for them – regularly, fervently?

If you’re willing to take a bigger risk, talk to the person responsible for children or youth ministry at your church. Ask if there’s a place where you can help.

Another older lady in our church has participated in a project with our children and youth over the last two summers. One Sunday she gave her testimony to the group. She said she did it because she wants to get to know our young people.

A retired couple in our church has been Pioneer Club leaders for some time. They have become critical in making that ministry work. And they light up when they talk about the children– the way they memorize Scripture, what they do in their groups.

To make an impact will take more than a Sunday or two. Think of it as a long-term investment in the Kingdom.

Another challenge is this. There are seniors who are feeble and all but forgotten. They don’t come to services and after a while they’re not missed. Sometimes their faith gets shaky as this life draws to a close. A great many others have a faith that has never been sure. This is one reason so many of their children have decided not to make the Christian pilgrimage.

As those associated with the church advance in years it is our privilege and responsibility to demonstrate the reality of the gospel to them.

Last year one of our small groups took on the challenge of doing the “honey do” list an elderly couple had accumulated. They have suffered much. Their health is declining. And that group reminded them – our hope is real.

Were I to live through another generation or two, I might have trouble recognizing the church. But I am confident of this. There will be a church. And it will be composed of every age group just as it has people today from every nation, tribe, tongue, and generation.

We’ll see God work, in part, through our actions.