How does God feel about young people?

So how does the church feel about young people? Not just our church, but the church at large?

For some, kids are an afterthought [the nursery as storage room]. Even some healthier churches are too prone to get the kids to another room, both to abdicate their spiritual training to others and to get them out of our hair. Ouch! George Barna has some sad and startling statistics about how small a percentage of most church's resources are actually aimed at young people.

In this church, we're trying, and we can try harder, we intentionally staff aggressively. Most of you know that we have Student Ministries Pastor, a nursery director, a children's director, a preschool director, a preschool facility, a junior high coordinator, a high school director, seven summer youth interns, and two administrative assistants. All of these assets aimed directly at reaching and teaching young people. We are unashamed of this investment and intentional about our hiring strategy. When you give to Regular Ministries, you are participating in and fueling the implementation of our values - specifically, our belief among other things, that young people matter to God.

Along with their intrinsic worth, there is also their strategic worth. Frankly, 80% of all Christians come to faith before age 18. You can say, "Wow, we need to reach more adults!" And, yes, we do. But that statistic is all about teachability and pliability.

Barna writes, "Anyone who wishes to have significant influence on the development of a person's moral and spiritual foundations, had better exert that influence while the person is still open-minded and impressionable - in other words, while the person is still young." We don't need Barna to tell us how fixed people tend to get as we grow older.

Barna has totally shifted his research and writings and conferences in essence that in counting and sorting the fish he "missed the ocean." After decades of tracking growth trends and social movements in relationship to church health, he now says what many have known intuitively all along - the real growth in the kingdom happens when church, and more importantly, PARENTS, are dedicated and intentional about discipling children and youth.

Barna admits, "Like most adults, I have been aware of children, fond of them and willing to invest some resources in them; but I have not been fully devoted to their development. In my mind, they were people en route to significance - i.e., adulthood - but were not yet deserving of the choice resources." Now he says that God has lifted the veil from his eyes and that children as the primary focus of ministry is both wise and a necessity for the church.

So how do young people feel about God and the church? Let's look specifically at teens for a moment. (There is not a lot about teens in scripture…modern invention).

So what do teen look for in a church? 

Community. Belonging. Evidence that people really care.

So what are the real issues here?

Foremost, do we adults really believe God is important? (Not kids, God) If the truth about God isn't important to us, we won't pass it on to our kids. We'll deprioritize it and devalue it. We'll put other things, involvements, commitments like school, sports, our own work, our own play, our toys, our travel, our hobbies, our money, our pets, who knows what else, in positions of priority higher than teaching our kids and teens to love God. If God is important to us, we will pass this on with great fervor and intentionality.

Do we believe that God is important for our kids? I don't see that much evidence that interest in training our kids for Christ is terribly widespread. I see great evidence that some people think the choice of college is more important than the choice of personal faith in Christ - that is not only hogwash; it's just sad.

"Some would argue that other dimensions are more important physical, intellectual, relational, professional, moral, socio-economic and so forth. At the risk of being intolerant or politically incorrect, let me say that they are wrong." - George Barna.

So who is responsible for discipling these young people?

Secondarily, the church. That means all of us, together helping to raise and disciple each other's kids in the ways of Christ.

Primarily, it is and always will be the responsibility of the parent to be the central agent of training, testimony, instruction, discipline and everything that make a personal, dynamic faith in God a likelihood. I'm not shucking this off from the church to you parents. By the way, I'm not the church, we are. And I'm a parent, and I can't imagine relying on anyone to do this critical thing instead of my wife and me. Though we'll take as many partners as we can get, and love the ones we have.

"In a nutshell, parents have a simple, but profound responsibility to evangelize and disciple their children. The local church should be an intimate and valuable partner in the effort…but it is the parents whom God will hold primarily accountable for the spiritual maturation of their children." - George Barna