Young Adults Matter More Than They Think

Okay, there’s a demographic that I need to define here really quickly.  What do I mean by “young adults”?  I suppose I am referring to those young people who are post-high school and have not settled into the “rigors” of raising a family just yet.  You may be married with kids, but they are young enough that you aren’t quite spending all of your time running to soccer, school, and ballet lessons just yet.  I know this is a little subjective, because my message is for a LOT of people, but I want to focus in on a couple of things here today. 

I have noticed some key things in my twelve years of ministry (I know.  That’s not very long compared to some, but long enough to have noticed some trends).  Churches that are missing generations in their ranks are “incomplete”.  If there is a generation that is “missing”, so to speak, it is the Millennial generation in the church.  I do not mean this to demean those who are present, but by and large, there is a noticeable lack of those young adults who are hanging around and taking an active role in discipleship. 

Hold on!  What do I mean by “active role in discipleship”?  By that, I mean those who are able to prioritize their walk in such a way as they are gathering, learning, assimilating the Bible, and pouring that back out in some way in the form of ministry.  Showing up once or twice a month isn’t “participation”.  Let me now affirm that I do see a presence of those who DO all of these things (you know who you are and you make me proud!), however, they are not the norm. 

What’s the norm?  Well, from what I see, the young adult demographic seems to attend church or Bible study sporadically, not have a personal Bible study time, and live life in such a way that the main filter for life is not yet (many of you are getting there!) through the pages of Scripture.  This is a problem. 

Why is this a problem?  Well, instead of focusing on the problem, I would rather focus on the benefits of young adult ownership in ministry and this is best approached by giving anecdotal evidence.  This week has been a GREAT week at our VBS!  Our student ministry has been involved in presenting the Bible story for a few years now and they do a GREAT job!  As the student pastor, I have intentionally stepped back further and further in order to let other adults and teenagers take the bulk of responsibility.  I have some AWESOME youth staff members who have stepped up and taken a great deal of responsibility for the student ministry in this project (and in other ways, as well).  Some are adults with kids in the student ministry (how awesome that parents and teens are ministering side-by-side!) and others are the young adults to whom I am referring.  One young adult in particular is doing a great job doing the main presentation of the Biblical material, which was my job just a few years ago.  Her husband (yup, she’s married guys.  He’s too awesome, so just forget about it!) is actually running the game station and doing a FANTASTIC job!  Yet another young adult has taken a leadership role in the presentation of VBS as sort of an MC that gets the evening kicked off.  There are other examples of teen and young adult participation, but time and space limit me here. 

Here’s what I notice as I watch these young adults: they are able to connect with a lot of children and teens in a way that I cannot.  I am 40 years old.  I am overweight.  I am not very cool.  I still listen to 80’s thrash metal and like it.  I am becoming more impatient with technology every day.  I didn’t even know what Snap Chat was until last night!  These young people are ideal in that they are none of these things.  They are able to reach into the lives of the generation behind them in a way that I cannot.  But wait, there’s MORE!

It isn’t just the generation behind them that young adults impact.  I have noticed that they cut a far wider swathe through a church than even they realize.  While they provide a solid “next-step” example for children and teens, they provide something for people like me, as well.  For one thing, young adults are an outlet for mentorship.  They give me someone to whom I can pass the torch of ministry.  After all, they do have more years to live than I do.  They also provide the church with hope.  I cannot count the number of times that I have heard our senior saints RELISH in the fact that they look around and see children, teens, and particularly young adults in the church.  It indicates to every generation that the church is alive and well and actually growing in a direction.  I think it displays a legacy to our senior saints and validates all of the years that they have been teaching, working, sweating, and bleeding for the local church.  They look around and see young people from five years old to thirty five years old and realize that it was all worth it! 

So what’s my point?  I suppose my point is that I want the young adults who may be reading this to understand their potential in the church.  Your church needs you.  We NEED you.  We need for you to take the Bible seriously.  We need for you to get up on Sunday morning (or whenever you have a Bible study available) and get to church.  We need for you to grow in faith and stop being mere consumers of the gospel.  We need for you to dig into your Bible and find a willing mentor who will help you to navigate the tough things you encounter.  We need for you to assimilate faith into action and help us to advance the Kingdom of God!  We need for you to make Jesus your first priority and rearrange your life as such.  You are NOT the future of the church, but the very real present. 

When Teenagers Run the Church

Did the title of this post scare you a little?  If so, ask yourself why that is.  Teenagers get a pretty bad rap today.  Lots of them are considered narcissistic (in love with themselves), self-centered, and just downright selfish.  How could such a person really be relied upon to take leadership in the church today?  I mean, teenagers don't want to take any responsibility, right?  Why would we hand them the reins of a ministry when it is certain to be an exercise in futility and failure?  Really?

I have a question for you.  What if we took a chance on teenagers?  What if we looked around, found those with some leadership potential, equipped them to lead, and then turned them loose?  You might be surprised.  I think some people are afraid of doing just that because it means that their own ministry becomes superfluous.  I admit that I was hung up on this for a while.  That all changed when I found out that trusting teenagers who were gifted where I am weak helped the ministry.  I have been leaning on kids for a while now to help organize details of ministry.  Some of them are REALLY good at it!

There have been two instances in this last year when I was unable to be at our regularly scheduled Wednesday night youth group gathering (what we call "Renovate" at New Bridge).  On one occasion, I had completely forgotten that one of my teachers was going to be out.  She was the one teaching Bible study to our young ladies.  I have three teen guys who are rotating the teaching in our young men's small group (under careful supervision, of course).  The one who was up to teach that week had only taught maybe a handful of times and was relatively new to teaching.  My father-in-law's health was declining rapidly and Katy (my wife) and I had to return home to help with some things.  I looked at this ninth grader that week and asked him, "How do you feel about just teaching the large group this week", clearly indicating that he was to teach the entire group.  I will never forget his reaction.  He looked at me with these huge, overwhelmed eyes.  He said, "Well, that's different.  Not BAD, just different".  His tension melted away to determination as he adjusted and prepared his mind and heart for a new challenge.  He did a GREAT job that week!

Just this last week, I have had a case of poison ivy (or Virginia Creeper.  Whatever the case, I'm human bubble wrap this week).  I wasn't able to attend, so I had one of my other guys (a ninth grader) lead youth group this last week.  He selected a game, controlled the flow of the evening, and really came through in leadership.  There have been other times when I have allowed others, particularly on our worship team, to take responsibility for leading worship, prayer, and reading Scripture in our worship gathering.

1 Timothy 4:12-16 says this:

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. ¹³ Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. ¹⁴ Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 

¹⁵ Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ¹⁶ Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 

My point is this: If our church is to survive, we have to realize that young people matter.  Equipping young people to lead NOW matters.  It is crucial to our church's survival.  They are capable and willing.  They just need a church that is willing to take a chance on them.  Will ministry be as well-organized, well-taught, and as polished as if we adults do it all ourselves?  Not at first, but give it time and let them gain some experience and you just watch what God does with a bunch of knuckleheaded kids!  

If you are an adult reading this, my message to you is this: don't be afraid to hand off ministry.  Give a handful of kids just a little responsibility.  Figure out who has potential and who does not.  Notice the gifts that the Holy Spirit is developing in your kids and meet them where they are.  Once you find out who will carry out small duties and give incrementally more responsibility.  Invite them to learn how to teach.  Let them shadow you.  Rotate them in.  Let them actually lead a youth group meeting from front to back one night with notes that you have carefully written.  Coach them.  Walk with them.  Be a leader of leaders.  

If you are a teenager reading this, my message to you is this: take responsibility for ministry.  ASK for responsibility!  Prove that you can be mature enough to handle it and maybe someone will take a chance on you.  Don't just expect someone to hand you ministry if you sit in the back of youth group with your head stuck in your phone while your youth pastor is talking.  Listen to him.  Watch him.  Notice how a gathering is led.  Take the good leadership points, throw out the bad ones, develop your own style and just LEAD!  Ask your leader how he does it.  Be a disciple.  It starts with you taking responsibility for your own leadership and faith development.  If you don't participate well, you won't lead well.  

At the end of the day...

Well, I'm sitting here having recently been exposed to poison ivy, Virginia creeper, or some such other random poisonous, rash-inducing, hell hath no fury plant.  I'm covered pretty much head to toe in a rash and these little blisters that make me look walking like bubble wrap.  I haven't been out of the house in a couple of days.  July in Virginia is, in the words of the great Matthew Broderick, "Africa hot" and I sweat like a Kentucky Derby thoroughbred in the summertime, which means that I can't workout or spend more than five minutes out in "East Coast Africa" without breaking out into an itch that could qualify as some sort of Taliban torture.  Who needs waterboarding when you can just give someone a huge rash and send them out to sweat, right?  I just glanced back at what I was reading in my Bible this morning.  I've been reading through Romans for MONTHS now, studying just a little at a time.  Actually, I'm going through it for the second time.  I'm at Romans 5:6-8.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God has created some really strange and amazing things.  We live in a CRAZY, awesome creation where even a little plant can defend itself by inflicting discomfort when you try to strip it from its bed.  That really just makes me wonder what tomorrow will bring in his Kingdom, in my marriage, and in my ministry.  Not much of a point here except to say that the human experience can certainly be distracting can it not?  What is really real?  Is a rash real?  Well, it certainly is, but rashes go away.  Eternity doesn't.  In the grand scheme of life, ministry, rashes, reading, studying, scratching, living, and loving nothing really matters except that Jesus, while I was mired in my sin, in SPITE of my sin, when I was so NOT worth it even in my own eyes, died for me so that I could live and have a chance at grace.  So, at the end of the day...and a really weird blog entry...I suppose I just wanted to say that I am just grateful for one more day.  One more day with an awesome wife.  One more day with a great church.  One more day to study the Bible and to have the privilege of knowing Christ as my Savior.

What I Am Not

This is the first blog post of my entire life.  As this is my very first blog and no one will read it anyway, I feel free to say pretty much whatever I feel like saying whether anyone likes it our not.  I do have something on my mind just in case someone finds their way here and actually follows the ramblings of a deranged student pastor.  I have been in ministry for about 12 years now including lay, part-time, and full-time positions at the same church.  In that time, I have worn few hats to include student pastor, young adult speaker, guitar player, occasional worship leader, and Bible teacher.  

Now, these are some pretty common "churchy" hats that a lot of guys wear.  These "hats" are sort of a description of who I am and what I am in my church ministry.  There are a few things that I am NOT, however.  

1. Babysitter - Parents, I am not here to keep your kids occupied while you're getting your weekly Jesus fix.  If you need a babysitter, hire one.  
2. Cruise Director - I am not here to ensure that you make connections in the church.  I am not here to plan events for you to attend.  If you need friends or need to attend events, go to the mall or a concert.  
3. Your Therapist - I am not here to make sure that you feel good about yourself.  If what you say and what you do just don't add up, be sure that I will let you know (I would hope that you would do the same for me).  

Lots of guys in the Bible led really lonely lives.  Jeremiah was called "the weeping prophet".  Amos made a regular habit of telling people that the way they worshiped God pretty much sucked.  Micah took on the issue of blemished sacrifices.  These and many others did not feel as though they needed to be liked or respected.  They took on a life or persecution that was born or their desire not only to love God, but to see those around them love God, as well.  All of that stated, if you ever show up at New Bridge and expect 1, 2, or 3 from above, just keep on moving to the mall.  You'll be much happier and more fulfilled there.