BIBLE TEACHING
For certain wings of the church, the future looks bleak but for others there are shoots of hope. The huge shift in the church in the next 10 years has to be in the area of the education of our young people. For too long youth ministry has been about spiritual entertainment, playing ball games with loose faith based conclusions. It’s been about the knowledgeable teacher imparting information and not about taking young people to a place where the gospel makes a real and deep impact. I have recognised in my twelve-year journey in youth work that so often my lack of biblical planning or the lack of my own spiritual health has birthed a 2D ministry with no real ‘dare’ for those I was called to inspire.
The future is bleak unless we as youth workers start to take better care of ourselves, physically and spiritually. How we are doing with our walk with God has major implications on how we lead others placed in our care. When I left theological college with my collection of biblical commentaries I packed them up into a modest size cardboard box. There they lived for three years until I realised I had taught my young people everything I knew. I was empty with nothing left to teach. So I reverted to opening the box and got my head plugged back into scripture. So many youth leaders are surrounded by burnt out church leaders whose bookshelves have not changed since they left theological training. Youth workers need to stop taking the lead from their flagging church leaders. They need to take the lead in becoming leaders who are inspired, gutsy, passionate and willing to call the hard decisions and minister in the less obvious areas.
The way we do this is to be empowered by the spirit of Jesus and to be inspired by his word. Scripture so often is mysterious to the young people simply because those of us working with them find it mysterious ourselves. We frequently don’t have anything to offer the young people we work with other than pithy statements and wacky illustrations that lack any real deep, profound and life-changing move of God’s Spirit. We need to be challenged so that we can challenge. Why are we surprised that our teens are bored with church when their leaders are bored and uninspired? When we have been challenged and changed by the Word, by Jesus and His Spirit, then our teaching will challenge and dare our young people to be the radical revolutionary church we were called to be 2,000 years ago.
I recently came across a young Jewish guy who was no more than 12. My meeting with him was an embarrassment; he knew the Torah; he knew it through and through; he knew it better than any church leader I knew, and far better than I did. Jesus is calling his church to stop seeing Scripture as a tag on to our faith, but to know it through and through, to show our young people what a revolutionary book it is and that we love spending time in it.
Culture tells our young people that spiritual awakening comes from the celebrity guru and not by the words of God. Why is this? Could it be because we have tried to give our young people easy-to-understand-theology with nothing for them to grapple with or be challenged by? The Internet is full of easy options, quick answers, but the way to God has never been easy to understand, yet we try to keep our young people away from the tough stuff because if we are honest we don’t get it ourselves.
The future is hopeful but this hope needs to be birthed in a generation of leaders who are willing to dig into our roots, find inspiration, discuss and debate not just with each other, not just our peers but also with our teens. The church isn’t about individual communities, but communities within a community, the resurrection community. I believe Jesus is calling a new generation, who are willing to live life with people and not keep them at arms length. Not in cell groups or small groups, not on Sundays or in holy gatherings, but learning experiences around dinner tables, around pub counters, around weddings and funerals. So much of Jesus’ ministry was in the reality of life, it was walking along the road, serving wine at a wedding and weeping at a friend’s gravestone. Jesus’ ministry wasn’t one day a week, it wasn’t about bible groups or once a week sermons; it was about Scripture being discussed and churned over in the midst of the messiness of life. When I close my eyes I see a church rising up that sees itself as a resurrection community birthing new life in the world. A Church living out community on the streets we walk everyday. A Church that sees biblical teaching at the heart of a resurrection community, and a generation of leaders all willing to die to themselves so that Jesus’ passion can be birthed and displayed to our young people.
The future of youth ministry isn’t about being more professional but has to be about the character, calling and equipping of its leaders. I see God calling us to a deeper profound passion, moving towards a deeper theological reflection, where young people are biblically aware to transform their thinking and their resurrection community.