“Sweet 16 is not a sweet spot for churches. It’s the age teens typically drop out,” says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, which found the turning point in a study of church dropouts. “A decade ago teens were coming to church youth group to play, coming for the entertainment, coming for the pizza. They’re not even coming for the pizza anymore. They say, ‘We don’t see the church as relevant, as meeting our needs or where we need to be today.’ “
In his book The Courage to Be Protestant, David Wells writes: “The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.
“And the further irony,” he adds, “is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them.”
If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that “cool Christianity” is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real.
I’ll comment on the loss of teens in a future post.
I would prefer not to start the week with a rant, but this one has been stewing in me for some time, and unless I get it out, it will only nag at me further.
Please read this post today, even if you’re not up for an in-your-face message. And while much of this is aimed at charismatics, it applies to everyone. Because it’s not just charismatics who are missing the point.
I write this today because my heart is just sick with the way we are presenting the Gospel to the lost. I’m writing because our teens are not getting the proper indoctrination into the Faith. I’m writing because I am tired of fellow charismatics who treat the Holy Spirit like a cudgel. I’m writing because a lot of people who “asked Jesus into their heart” are going to hell.
The pastor of my former church linked from Facebook to the following video:
This video, as labeled, purports to show healing revival going on at Disneyland. A group of Christians wanted to pray for strangers at the park. My response: Great! Go for it!
But then the uh-ohs start. You can find one between 40-50 seconds in. Another comes at 4:07-4:20.
There’s a move in some charismatic churches into what has been deemed “power evangelism.” For those not familiar with the term, it involves using the charismata to evangelize people. This includes healing encounters and speaking words of knowledge and prophecy to the lost.
I want to state upfront that I believe power evangelism can be a remarkable tool to lead people to Christ.
But there’s a big “IF” attached to that statement. And part of that if shows at the 4:07 mark.
Power evangelism works if power encounters with the Holy Spirit are immediately followed with the truth of God’s word, the presentation of the Gospel, repentance, and a completely changed life. In that way, people who have genuine power encounters with the Holy Spirit are not just affected by the power encounter, but by the reality of who Jesus is as presented in the Gospel.
When I hear people claiming to be born again because they asked Jesus into their heart, it riles me. Not because Jesus doesn’t dwell in the believer, but because the whole idea of asking Jesus into one’s heart has no biblical basis for salvation.
Paul Washer provides an eloquent counter to this unbiblical concept. I encourage you heartily to watch the whole video. It’s worth it:
Entire churches are dedicated to equipping their youth for power evangelism (such as this well-known example). And while on the surface that sounds awesome, I have enormous reservations.
My key reservation is the same concern shared by Paul Washer: We evangelicals and charismatics no longer understand what the Gospel is. And we don’t understand it because the people who are supposed to be transmitting the truth of the eternal Gospel of Jesus Christ have fallen down on the job, distracted by prosperity teachings, comfort, the American Dream, fun, entertainment, self-help, and even, sad to say, power encounters with the Holy Spirit (the why of which I’ll explain later on).
I think it would be safe to say that the average teen in a charismatic church who may be receiving encouragement to do power evangelism can’t articulate what the real Gospel is. In fact, knowing what I know of youth ministry today, I doubt that most teens in evangelical or charismatic churches could lay out a basic plan of salvation with a half dozen Bible verses in support.
And that’s a crime.
Say a youth group decides to go out and do prophetic prayer ministry at a mall filled with lost people. A few scenarios exist:
1. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person blows them off and walks away. Result: That person may stay lost because they have not heard the Gospel.
2. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person listens, is touched by the prayer, but walks away. Result: That person may stay lost because they have not heard the Gospel.
3. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person listens, is touched, and asks what next to do. Person is told to ask Jesus into his/her heart. Result: That person may stay lost because they have not heard the Gospel.
4. Teen prays a prophetic word over someone. Person listens, is touched, and asks what next to do. Person is told to ask Jesus into his/her heart. That person manages to retain enough interest in the experience to look into it further and, hopefully, stumbles across someone someday who actually explains the real Gospel to them. Result: That person may truly get saved and develop a love relationship with Jesus.
Numbers 1 through 3 are a complete loss, in my opinion, while 4 is the equivalent of fumbling the football and hoping your side recovers the loose pigskin—except in this gridiron classic, there’s not just one team playing against you, but hundreds, if not thousands.
Chances are, these mallwalkers who do bite may taste the fruits of heaven, end up calling themselves Christians, and fall into that netherworld of religiosity dominated by what I call “antiwitnesses.”
Too cynical? Well, I’m not done yet…
If the teens on this prophetic outreach can’t articulate the Gospel, can we be sure they even know what it is? And if they don’t know what it is, then are they truly saved themselves? And if all this is in question, what spirit is driving their power evangelism? Yikes!
(If you think I’m just charismatic bashing, then you’ll have to argue with well-known charismatics Andrew Strom and Derek Prince on these same issues. And for evangelicals, see “10 Reasons to Not Ask Jesus into Your Heart.”)
Youth ministry in this country is in a full-on freefall if we look at its ultimate results. Surveys by many of the most respected Christian pollsters and organizations repeatedly show that the majority of our supposedly born-again young people go into college as Christians and come out as unbelievers. George Barna paints an even bleaker picture, wherein only 0.5% of those ages 18-23 hold what is considered to be a traditional Christian worldview. No matter how you may want to slice and dice Barna’s figure, it’s a tragedy.
Those heartwrenching numbers exist solely because we in the Church today are not instructing our young people in the faith. They don’t know the Gospel. If they did, they wouldn’t be falling away in droves.
Instead, we teach kids who may not know the Gospel how to do power evangelism. Then they go around trumpeting how they’re going to “whack people up with the Holy Spirit.”
Frankly, I’d like to “whack up” whatever heretical “teacher” ever taught someone to talk about the blessed Holy Spirit in such a crass, demeaning way. Godless people speak that way about the members of the Trinity, not those who are indwelt by the genuine Holy Spirit. And for another thing, the Holy Spirit exists to relentlessly point to Jesus, not to Himself. Again, if we don’t know that, we don’t know the Gospel.
Are you mad yet at the foolishness that passes for discipleship and ministry today?
You don’t give a howitzer to a baby, no matter how much they may scream for it. The early Church did not let people go off spiritually half-cocked like we do today. Maturity was lauded and immaturity criticized.
We MUST instruct the immature in the basics of the faith. Any 13-year-old kid who was raised in a church MUST be able to espouse basic doctrine, including the core of the Gospel, in a coherent way. When I was that age, I had to study my Lutheran catechism for hours, do personal Bible study on basic doctrine, and sit through a one-hour, two-on-one grilling on tough issues of the faith by the pastor and youth worker before I was considered an adult member of the church.
We have GOT to get back to that kind of intensive discipleship or this will be the terminal generation of the Church. God will not forever excuse the kind of educational folly we’re practicing in all too many churches before He takes decisive action.
In a bit of sychronicity, I happened to stumble across a likeminded post over at iMonk’s blog, “Higher Things: A New Model of Youth Ministry.” It reads like a breath of fresh air, even if it’s again the Lutherans doing it right. I’m just glad SOMEONE takes ministry to the next generation seriously. Much more power to ’em.
But as for the rest of us, we’re atrocious at turning our young people into mature Christians. Atrocious. Too many distractions knock us off the core, foundational doctrines.
Power evangelism is incredible when it’s in the hands of people who know the Gospel, can articulate it, and know how to discern good from evil. But that simply is not our young people today.
If we want to undermine the Church in America even more, let’s keep being stupid about discipleship. But God help us then on Judgment Day.
This year (2007) marks my 30-year anniversary of coming to Christ. I met Him at a Lutheran camp on a confirmation retreat weekend. Even to this day, I can remember much of that evening.
I’ve kept my eyes, ears, and spirit open over that time, storing away what I’ve learned. Obviously, what I share here isn’t the sum total of all I’ve learned, just some basic truths God taught me that inform my every day.
I hope these observation get you thinking and praying. Most of all, I pray that they are a blessing that brings lasting fruit for the Kingdom. Thanks for being a reader.
In no particular order…
Love God. Love people. It’s that simple.
Anytime we interact with another person, we should ask the Lord, In what ways can I help this person grow closer to You?
Christians who take time to observe the world around them see God and gain wisdom.
The most worthy lessons of the Kingdom take the entirety of one’s life to fully learn.
You are never more alone than in an unfriendly church.
God could directly feed the widows and the orphans with manna from heaven, but He instead chose us in the Church to bake the bread through the resources He’s already given us and then distribute it.
The world is tired of hearing Christians talk about the Gospel; they want to see it actually lived.
In the end, nothing in life satisfies but Jesus.
It’s a terrible indictment against men and young people in the American Church that old women are praying most of the intercessory prayers.
Always lead with love. Love should precede every act we perform in the name of Christ and love should be the finale.
Small home groups are fantastic for relationship-building, prayer, and sharing, but usually not the best venue for serious Bible study (especially if they’re co-ed).
Admonish an adult once, perhaps twice, then turn the issue over to the Lord in prayer. Never hound people.
We won’t find ourselves transformed, much less change the world, if we pray less than an hour a day.
Most Evangelicals have little or no understanding of the Holy Spirit.
The American Church needs to learn a truth Ben Franklin uttered at the signing of the Declaration of Independence: “We must all hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.”
Too many Evangelicals long to see Jesus thrash those they view as heretics rather than help them come to a better understanding of truth.
One of the most easily seen fruits in mature Christians is that they pray for people who oppose them rather than complain about them.
A simple truth we constantly forget: Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
If all other aspects of Sunday meetings were removed, prayer would be the one untouchable, yet we spend less time doing it in our meetings than anything else.
The mature Christian is more concerned with being loving all the time than being correct all the time.
Each of use should know our neighbors’ names and the names of their children. We should also know their birthdays, if possible, because the card we send might be the only one they receive. And that’s a powerful witness.
It is a sign of our trustworthiness as Christians that other people seek us out when they need help. If that’s not the case, then something is wrong with our witness.
There is no shame in confessing a need, especially before fellow believers. That’s one reason why the Church exists.
Many of Evangelicalism’s most intractable problems would vanish if we adopted the confessional booth.
We must start seeing discipleship in terms of an entire lifespan and not what we can accomplish in the moment.
Preaching is most effective when it’s lived by the preacher.
We do a great disservice to families in our churches when we split them up the second they hit the lobby.
If we wish to see the American Church be all She can be, then let’s welcome persecution.
A youth minister’s primary responsibility isn’t to teens directly but to their parents. A good youth minister teaches parents how to teach their own teens, leaving the bulk of the responsibility to them.
The way we so easily judge people offends the One who said, “He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.”
We are too obsessed with heretics and not concerned enough with understanding what their heresy says about our own shortcomings and failures.
It costs us nothing to judge others, but an enormous amount to walk beside them and help them grow.
Bible study works best when led by highly-trained, Scripturally-knowledgeable people who have lived what they believe.
Busyness is crippling the effectiveness of the American Church, but no one wants to fix the root causes because doing so would call into question the very nature of our modern society.
True love is laying down our plans and schedules to help a person in need.
One of the worst things a Christian can be is unteachable.
God never rescinded His first command to Man: Steward the Earth.
The man who recognizes the goodness of God in nature and sees Christ in the stranger has the more complete theology.
A man is only as deep as his prayer life.
A message every church in America should learn: You never have to advertise a fire.
The more we restrict God in what He can and will do, the more He’ll honor that restriction.
The Holy Spirit is a gentleman; He only shows up where He’s gratefully invited.
Our neighbors should know that our houses are always open to them.
Love truly does cover a multitude of sins.
If we haven’t died at the cross, we’re worthless to the Kingdom.
Who we are in secret is a better gauge of our spiritual maturity than who we are in public.
Not seeng results in prayer? Better check how grateful we are to God for the little things He gives us.
We never know enough of someone else’s story to judge them perfectly. Better to listen carefully, then admonish…carefully.
No great, wise saint of God started out that way. We never know at what stage we meet one of those future saints, so we must always be gracious when interacting with others.
The perfect recipe for helping someone grow in Christ: Six parts love to every one part admonition.
God makes all things beautiful in His time, not ours.
If there were no people, there would be no reason for the Gospel.
If we are unwilling to help others work through the admonitions we give them, we should instead remain silent.
On Judgment Day, God will be far less concerned with how well we knew the Scriptures than how we practiced what we knew.
Too much of what we supposedly do for the Kingdom comes from the arm of flesh, not from the power of the Spirit.
There’s no reason each of us can’t lead at least one person a year to Christ.
Most churches never once consider what it feels like to be an outsider, which is why so few visitors take root.
Most of the West has heard about Jesus (even if they’ve heard incorrectly), which is why our practice of our message is as vital as our pronouncement of it.
A person may have perfect doctrine and a form of religion, but if he doesn’t care about his neighbor, it’s all for naught.
The reason we learn the Scriptures is to be equipped for every good work.
The more tender my heart is toward the least of these, the more tender it is toward God—and vice versa.
We minister best from the overflow of our Spirit-filled hearts, not from being poured out until empty.
For some reason, we stopped making heaven the ultimate destination.
Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers labor in vain.
We make an idol of the nuclear family if we raise it above the needs of the household of Faith.
If a fellow Christian has a financial need, forget about buying that plasma TV. And remember this: someone is always in need.
The first thing the new Church did after being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was to see that no one among them lacked for anything.
Fear drives almost all human failings. The opposite of fear is love.
You can tell the effectiveness of a church’s discipling program by noting how many of the leadership staff came from within.
A king’s ambassador, when sojourning in a foreign land, is the full representative of the king and wields his complete power and authority. Never forget that we are Christ’s ambassadors.
We perpetually underestimate Satan’s wiles; at the same time, we underestimate our authority over him in Christ.
Most lost people aren’t consciously looking for ways to sin; they’re only trying to get by.
You and I have benefitted greatly from the prayers of others, but most people have never had someone pray for them.
Because our God is a God of beauty and truth, we Christians need to honor our artists and intellectuals as much as our pastors and preachers.
Most of the Lord’s finest servants labor in obscurity.
We Christians should spend every day working to depopulate hell.
We may know what it means to be a sinner, but few of us have appropriated what it means to be a saint.
Our communion meals should be feasts as big as we eat on Thanksgiving Day.
Wine is the drink of celebration, not Welch’s.
A church-hopper is a carrier of dissension.
We need to treat our pastors as imperfect fellow laborers, not as Grand Exalted Poobahs.
Without the Lord, we can do nothing.
If we Christians stopped worrying about what others think of us, the Church would be transformed and the world along with us.
We spend too much time trying to keep our youth from sleeping with each other and not enough time teaching them to be husbands and wives.
Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.
We were all born to serve.
American Christians are more concerned about what’s in their bank accounts than in their treasure chests in heaven.
Joy can only well up in a grateful heart.
Gossip destroys anyone it touches.
In Christ, there is no shame or guilt.
Christians who pray prayers with enormous faith get enormous results.
If we don’t reach people with the Gospel before they are 21, most will never come to Christ.
We have not because we ask not.
It is best to think of the Scriptures not as what we can read through in a year, but as what we can read through in an entire lifetime.
We come to Christ full of holes. Whatever hole we forbid Christ to fill will instead be filled by the world.
If we’re discipling correctly, no Christian in a church should be irreplaceable.
A community of Christians is only as strong as its weakest members.
If our lives are filled with everything but Christ, then we are impoverished indeed.
We are all dust.
God is always nearer to us than we believe Him to be.
This year (2007) marks my 30-year anniversary of coming to Christ. I met Him at a Lutheran camp on a confirmation retreat weekend. Even to this day, I can remember much of that evening.