Reaching a Generation.

With mobile phones they have instant access to the world around them, they fill their insatiable appetite for the latest and greatest technology with each new model upgrade, and they get to express their individuality with each new clip-on cover while simultaneously getting a sense of belonging through the use of their own sometimes indecipherable ‘tribal’ SMS language (who can read that stuff!)

It makes sense then, that young people today are sometimes referred to as the “emerging generation” – emerging from ‘what was’ to something new, pretty much constantly. Change is something they actually crave.

So it surprises me when I see so many youth ministries seemingly stuck in a “time warp” trying to win them over with dated understanding and strategies. If we honestly looked around us we would have to say that we are not successfully reaching this generation for the Lord, and we really do need to take stock and consider that we might need to correspondingly change to an “emerging” concept of youth ministry.

I mean let’s be real. I think it’s fair to say that “pass the orange under the chin” and “pass the lifesaver with the toothpick” have had their day in the sun – it’s time to put them to rest. (No hate mail please).

Church kids comfortable with church culture may still get a kick out of such or similar games, but we should not be in the business of entertaining church kids without continually confronting the issue of how do we win the lost. Those games are not going to et the unsaved through the door.

As a youth leader 20 years ago “Young Life” and “Youth for Christ” clubs were in their prime with unchurched youth turning out in droves to enjoy some good honest fun – and many came to faith as part of the journey. It worked back then, but in some areas now you can be hard pressed getting 12 and 13 year olds past the door of your church building.

Today’s generation are surrounded by an increasingly sophisticated media market swimming with video hits, computer games, the internet, movies, TV, Foxtel, PS2, XBox, DVD, MP3 CD’s and a never ending stream of new technology. Our youth are verging on entertainment breakdown – and they still can’t get enough. Like alcoholics in a bottle shop with a pocket full of cash, they seek it as fast as they can open the plastic wrappers. Forget having you ear pieced! This generation wants nose, brow, bellybutton, lip and even their tongue done.

Welcome to the post modern world of 2003. With family breakdown, sexual and physical abuse, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, aids and teen abortions all part of everyday life now it’s becoming harder than ever for today’s youth to find their way, let alone their identity. They want answers and if the church doesn’t connect with their culture and provide them, they’ll look some place else. The problem is that many churches are in a time warp and youth are barely on the agenda, let alone the budget.

Combine this with the fact that for nearly 20 years now much of Australia has not had scripture in high schools and that a huge percentage of Christian youth have been removed from the state system and put into Christian schools and you can see a problem developing that’s not getting any smaller. Where are the bridges, where are the foundations?

Whereas once you had to just convince the young person to rock up – now thanks to cults and the media, you’ve got suspicious parents ( both churched and un-churched) to contend with. Moreover with issues like health and safety, litigation and sexual harassment, it’s getting harder than ever to simply lead a local youth group. It’s a battle out there and the Christian church needs to explore change like never before.

So what do we change to? How do we nurture our church kids and mobilise them to reach out to their unsaved friends while also creating an environment these friends will want to be a part of?

Cells, I believe, are a great start. More and more churches are embracing cell-church and are subsequently utilising cells within their youth ministries. As a way to break through the hardened cynical exterior of today’s youth – cells work well. Because their focus is on building relationships (with God and each other), an environment is created where young people begin to feel safe enough to become vulnerable, and trusting enough to believe in the message presented. It takes time to build this trust that will produce a lifetime decision for the Lord and not just a fleeting conviction of heart.

Our last youth ministry was founded with one cell, and it was within this context that we started to see our christian kids’ friends get saved. Not at a big hyped meeting – but within the ‘safe’ genuine environment of a cell. As we grew and the ‘big meeting’ was incorporated into our structure, it was still in the post-meeting cells where most of our unchurched young people were saved – led to the Lord by their peers.

Cells, of course, also provide the spiritual & emotional nurturing necessary to mature and mobilise young people in their faith through their application-focused study of the scriptures, their worship, sharing and prayer focus, and their emphasis on ‘gift’ development and active service for the Lord.

Today's youth ministries however also need to get serious about relating to todays youth culture. Cultural cringe is alive and well in many youth groups around the nation – breeding a whole bunch of youth leaders dissallousioned at the lack of fruit from their well intentioned outreach efforts.

Let’s get serious. It’s not about watering down spiritual content with a softly-softly approach that won’t offend. It’s about creating an atmosphere that unchurched youth can relate to. We do want them to stay long enough to get to know us and if we make them feel like aliens from the moment they walk in with ‘Christian speak’ in our words and songs and embarrassing touchy-feely games, then we’ll have to resort to literally tripping them up as they sprint back out the door.

What then do they relate to? Thankfully there are many examples of fantastic youth ministries from whom we can learn, who I believe have managed this balance of generating a meaningful spiritual message within a culturally relevant context.

The “24-7” prayer concept is a fantastic example of how to make a spiritual fundamental culturally relevant resulting in literally hundreds of thousands of young people relating personally to God deeper than ever before. Round the clock prayer meetings are taking off around the world because one church thought outside the box and worked out how to make prayer fun for young people (candle-lit prayer rooms filled with cushions, bean bags, art materials, worship and praise music and walls plastered with scriptures, prayers, and artwork). In many cases the resulting spiritual awakening in the young people has stirred the adult congregations out of their lethargy and into action. Mobilised young people are very exciting to be around and tend to challenge the socks off us ‘oldies’.

The bottom-line is that we cannot rely on what worked in the past because youth today think and respond differently. If we want to make a difference in the lives of young people, we need to challenge our own stereotypes and concepts and begin to think ‘outside the box’.

It’s not OK anymore to hide behind the small or even large numbers of church kids who rock up to youth groups each week and consider ourselves to have viable or even successful youth ministries. We have a call to reach a generation for the Lord – look in the schools and on the streets to remind yourself how unsuccessful we really are.

It’s time for change.