The defensive youth ministry approach of saving young people from exiting the churches isn't up to speed with one youth leader who sees tens of thousands of teens' lives changed every year.
"To be honest I’m kind of getting sick and tired of the 'let’s save the children' approach we have taken in trying to get teenagers to keep their faith after they graduate [from high school]," said Greg Stier, president and founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries.
Stier recently came out of a nine-city "Survive" tour that drew tens of thousands of teens from around the country since November and trained them to share about their faith in Jesus Christ to everyone they knew – starting even with that weekend.
Every year, Dare 2 Share hits major cities not to host an "I love Jesus, how about you" spiritual pep rally, as Stier said, but to raise the bar spiritually for teens to take Jesus Christ and the Great Commission seriously.
"Our goal is not to just keep kids from leaving the church. It is to raise up an army of Christian teenagers who are reaching every teenager in their world with the message and mission of Jesus," he stressed.
At every conference, Stier "double dares" young Christians to take the bold approach of talking to their friends about Jesus and form e-teams (evangelism teams).
"Imagine with me every teenager in America hearing the gospel through another teenager that they know. The Double Dare has started making that dream into a reality."
Still, the mass exodus of teens from the pews is alarming, Stier acknowledges. The Barna Group found that two out of three Christian teens will leave the church after they graduate high school. LifeWay Research showed last year that more than two-thirds of young adults who attend church stopped attending church regularly for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. More studies are being conducted and resulting in similar statistics, making it the talk of the town in youth ministries across the country.
But Christians have to do more than play defensive, according to Stier.
"Sure I still use the great graduation evacuation statistic (70 percent graduating seniors walk away from the church after high school)," Stier said. "But the Double Dare this year gave us a chance to be offensive and not purely defensive. As one soldier put it, 'Nobody ever won a war by being defensive.'"
Dare 2 Share kicks off its 2008-2009 tour, titled "Invincible," in Washington, D.C., in November.
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last week there was a forum going about miley cyrus 'hannah montana'. has anyone seen the headlines about her this morn?
This is an interesting issue and there is plenty of blame to go around I suppose. Church, parents, public schools, TV/media, etc. I've been leading The Truth Project at our SBC church and the Christian Worldview and battle of worldviews is so new and startling to many of the adult attendees.How can they instill a Christian Worldview with our youth if they themselves don't know it?
I am now presenting The Truth Project to our youth (13 year olds +/-) and they are gobbling it up and learning better about the power of Christianity in their day to day lives along with the lies of the world. We spend a lot of time discussing these issues because they are so hungry for it. I am presenting David Noebel's Understanding The Times to our high school youth in Sunday School and then having them research the web for Christian based sites that dispell the lies they learn in public school ( this groups' attendance is too sproadic to tell if it is effective yet).
It still will come down to what is in each persons heart, but at least these youth will be able to better discern the Truth Vs the lie.
To smbga, I agree that forcing youth to go to church is not a good idea and that there are many who have made church attendance a legalistic issue as opposed to an awesome opportunity to join other believers in worshipping God, my challenge to people who profess to be Christians but avoid church attendance and/or involvement is granted you can't be at church every time the doors are open nor do I believe that is God's expectation of His children, but why would you not want to be in both fellowship and worship with other believers on a regular basis. Show me a person's priorities and where they invest their time and I'll show you who truly is the Lord of their life. Church is one of the few organizations where lack of attendance and giving appears to have little if any impact on a person's membership status, but it speaks loads with regards to their relationship to God and other believers.
I have relatives who truly think that if they aren't in church every Sunday, then God is going to punish them. I believed it for a long time. But thank God I found out the Truth. Teaching like this is what hurts the youth. It causes them to hate God
The shame falls to the parents.
Berean 07 I agree with you wholeheartedly we need to be challenging parents to take on their rightful roles in the spiritual raising of their children, but when a majority of your kids and youth come from unchurched backgrounds then we as the Church must step-up and set a Christ-like example that will show these young people not only the importance of coming to Christ, but also the importance of living a Christ-like life and example before their friends and in many cases their parents. I think we need to realize that there is more than one elephant in the room and to say if we get the parents to fulfill their roles then our youth exodus problem is solved is both naive and wrong because I personally know of many young people whose parents were a good Christian example, but their kids still bolted for various reasons but most have told me the main reason was that they saw to many adults whose Christian example reaked with hypocrisy, "do as I say, but not as I do" was the main one.
Star2,
Then it is another believer's job to saddle up and disciple the parents and/or the children. It isn't an organizational issue, it is a matter of me doing my job with others and not looking to pawn it off on others.
Grace and Peace,
Jim
I think the battle ground may not be the church or homes, it is at the schools. Most of their time spent in learning is in their school compound. And I believe that the war cry should not be 'keeping them in church', but rather 'keeping up in their faith'.
Brother Greg Stier is right on!! I like this bold young Christian leader! After a week of sickening WillowCreek Youth Conferences with Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball and others; then Rob Bell and the other heretic Doug Paggett compromising the Gospel with pagan religions, it is good to read about a REAL BIBLICAL CHRISTIAN GREG STIER!!
First of all churches are to blame. I was a deacon for three years until I resigned in disgust. They cared more about building and then worrying how to pay the bills, than discipling adults. Sunday morning is like a country club, even if the true Bible is taught. And this is one of the best churches in town!!
You should see what the youth oriented ones are teaching! Half of all major churches in town are in WillowCreek and the other half are withering on the vine. Why? None of them are a praying church! The purpose drivel generation is coming out of High School and not grounded in Truth. Small wonder they will fall for any charismatic slick Elmer Gantry like politician who would not know truth if it fell on him!
How can parents disciple their children if they themselves are not disciples?
Problem is that people expect "the church" to disciple the people who make up the church. When we realize it is MY duty to disciple others and to be discipled myself, and that it is not "the church's" responsibility, we will have discipleship and maturation of the believers.
Grace and Peace,
Jim
I think the problem is with youth pastors who are too young. Our Y.P. isn't very mature and has no interest in building relationships with the parents or older saints in the church. Then again his relationships with the kids are pretty shallow too. Once upon a time I was a new Christian and would have liked to have the church help me grow and help me be a Prov. 22 parent while I was still on the "bottle" myself.
Maybe the answer lies with the parents?
Gasoline?
http://poleblog.polemos.net/2007/01/gasoline_04.html
Pro 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Psalm 127:3 "Children are a heritage from the Lord, a reward from him."
Deu 6:6-9 "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Eph 6:4 "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
This is not a suggestion! It is a duty.
We, as Christians, have a tremendous responsibility given to us when the Lord blesses us with a child. By doing so, He entrusts us with the responsibility of raising up that child in the way of the Lord and establishing early in his life, a foundation built upon Jesus Christ.
We are answerable to the Lord for how our children are raised.
It's folly to think that we can rightly entrust our children's education to strangers, much less those that would teach them the public school basics of moral relativism, religious pluralism and historical revisionism.
In as much as a pastor is responsible to God for his flock - parents are responsible to God for their children. What is needed is for more parents to take their duties more seriously instead of catering to that tongue in cheek excuse, "economic reasons" or "convenience".
UhHuh - try using that excuse before God when He asks you why your children did not follow in the faith of their fathers.
The problem stems from the parents being cold or luke-warm Christians. A hallmark of these folks is that they think that "going to church" is all that is required of them to "please God".
They fail to embrace the fact that daily fervent prayer and personal study and application of of the scriptures is how one grows in Christ. The Word of God is what feeds us, but for some reason these folks think that their soul can survive on a once a week meal delivered via a Sunday sermon! Some diet.
So they apply this same logic to their children's lives. They've delegated the spiritual training of their children to the Sunday school teacher for one hour, once a week - and then are mystified that their children behave no differently than the rest of the world!
A child is a blank slate. Parents, do you honestly believe that if that child receives only 1 hour per week of spiritual training and 100 hours of secular schooling, playing video games, watching tv, and hanging out with non-Christian friends, in between the few "quality moments" that they might get from you, that you're going to somehow raise up a child who loves the Lord?
Believer,
As a pastor and Mission Director, you have great influence to call believing parents to instruct their children. You can not get away from this clear Biblical admonition. We have lulled parents into believing that the youth minister, youth pastor or youth group is the primary source of discipling the next generation. Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room and call parents to their biblical responsibility.