BibleSponge

Perhaps the biggest blindside hit that the most well-intentioned YM will take square on the chin comes from our need to “be engaging” to youth and issues they deal with.  My question for the masses is “at what cost?”

When we focus on keeping youth from getting bored, we set young people and ourselves up for potentially dangerous consequences like:

• Creating A Reactive Christian
• Watering Down Of The Gospel
• Denying The Sufficiency Of Scripture

Creating A Reactive Christian (aka Spiritual Brat)

An unintended consequence of youth services structured around activities and events to “keep teens from getting bored” can be summed up in one word - “entertaining”.  When we “entertain” youth, we base our success on how interested they are by how they react to the message, games, activities, etc.  And if they react the way we think they should, then it is deemed a successful youth service.

Now, let me just say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with mixing in activities to break the ice or get the blood flowing.  However, these start to deactivate the effectiveness of ministry when they are the highlight of the evening.  They become that highlight because of the emphasis we put on them.  If we put as much passion and emphasis on the Word we give to young people, we probably would be in the messed up state that we are in today!  ( Don’t believe me?  Take note next time how many youth actually bring their Bibles.  But I digress.)

When we approach YM this way, youth end up doing what we have taught them to do – they become reactive.

reactive

readily responsive to a stimulus (Merriam-Webster)

reactive Christian

readily worshipful to tailor-made surroundings

Do you see that?  The response is based on a stimulus.  This conditions a youth’s worship habits and/or spiritual temperature to be based on the conditions (or stimulus) around them.  What happens when that stimulus is not there?  Simple.  There is no reaction.  A young person’s worship, attentiveness to preaching – everything becomes dependent on their surroundings.

Some will disagree with me, but youth need a moment or two of downtime.  No, it is not the end of the world if they get bored here and there.  To disallow them some time to seek Christ on their own without spiritual training wheels will only result in creating a spiritual brat.  They will never begin to develop the proactive Christian that Christ has called us to be.

Watering Down Of The Gospel

This is not unique to YM.  It’s been prevalent in the church and has finally trickled down emphatically in the realm of YM.  There’s no long, theological explanation needed.  The warning has already been given to us in 2 Timothy 4:3-4

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

The NASB translation says “but wanting to have their ears tickled”.  The Greek word is knēthō (κνήθω), which means “to scratch” or “to tickle”.  Don’t miss the idea here.  When you have an insatiable itch, you let nothing stop you from scratching it.  I’ve been known to use everything from letter openers to doorways to scratch my back.  When wanting to get youth into a building and fill a parking lot up, churches will put just about anyone or anything in front of youth to keep them interested.

The end result is a message with more Dr. Phil or the odiferous Oprah than Dr. Jesus.  We present love and acceptance in the spotlight, while repentance and judgment from the Father are left backstage in the dark nicely tucked away.  God is love, but God is also holy.

Denying The Sufficiency Of Scripture

Last but not least, when we depend on our antics and schemes, we make gods of ourselves.  No really.  I’ve seen this in ministry as well as at events in the music arena.  For example, my band once played at a secular event with another pseudo-Christian band.  They started the music performance off and I could not believe my ears when I heard their game plan. 

“We’re going to play a few secular songs to get them interested and then we’ll switch over to Christian music…” (paraphrased, emphasis added). 

What?  While this may seem harmless to the casual passerby-er, let me translate this as a seasoned Christian would hear it:

“We’re going to become so much like the world, that we will get their attention, then because of what we are doing they will be interested and then we’ll give God His chance.”

Although that’s an extreme example, it is a very real one that could be applied to our approach to YM.  Too often, I’ve even caught myself orchestrating a service and it wasn’t until I looked back that the Lord revealed my errors in my approach.

Our approach to YM becomes “what I can do” instead of “what God can do”.  Or worse yet, that we shy away from the idea that scripture is able to attract us to its Author and rely more on the world to attract them than the Word.