Let's focus on Number Two: Fixing the Youth Problem!
Sounds a bit ridiculous, eh? How dare I suggest that a problem may be present in the church youth today! What would possess me to actually believe that youth groups are, by and large, losing the battle and missing the point?
Well, there's a question I can answer. No matter how old you get and how much things change, you never really "un-belong" to your home youth group. I still belong to one. I was a faithful attendant at youth meetings throughout high school and I have a little experience at belonging to the classical example of a youth group.
We had loads of fun. We were frequently encouraged to 'get real' with God and deepen our faith in Jesus Christ. We were a close-knit communtiy--most of us became best friends at school and at home as well as church. And these things were all great.
But what was missing? I did not have an actual relationship with Christ. And I would be willing to venture that none of my friends did either. When I got to college, I struggled immensely--because I was essentially faithless and had never truly converted to Christianity--I was just a hypocritical liar attending church meetings and hanging out with my friends in a church building. We all know how difficult the walk is when we are attempting to be genuine--so it is no surprise that someone without any real appreciation for the things of God would be completely and totally--well, UNSAVED.
The core of the problem? We teach and allow the children who grow up in church to become comfortable with being pew-warming, potluck-attending, dry-as-bones Christianity. Christianity, to those few precious youth we manage to bring in early enough to be impacted by our holy cause, becomes simple adherence to a set of binding doctrines--not a true and heartfelt love relationship between the only Living God and his frail and fallen Creation.
To a young person, getting saved is becoming defined as--
"Agreeing (generally) with a presuppossed and binding set of doctrines about things that happened 2000 years ago--and attempting to live your life as though such things (which defy logic and reason) actually happened."
This definition is without faith, and as such is also seeded with doubt. Faith is thought of as "agreeing with" and at the most basic level it is a faith in some THING, and that thing is nothing but seemingly archaic knowledge--that of course must be wrong by the standards of modern science and philosophy.
Getting "saved" is
"coming to believe that Jesus Christ is who he said he was (the Son of God) and accepting the forgiveness of sins through His atoning sacrifice of Himself on the Cross."
When you have faith is some ONE, things change. It doesn't matter how long ago He lived on Earth--because His Spirit is still alive and active today. It doesn't matter what people say about you and your beliefs--because there is always a defense and Jesus Himself said that we would be hated because of Him--by this we will know that we are His followers. And when you understand what faith really is--you can really have it. And when you really have it--you will undoubtedly feel the work and presence of the Holy Spirit in your own life.
Until youth groups begin to become hardcore, radical, SLAVES of Christ--I fear our problem will continue. We will continue to see stale, lukewarm youth who grow into stale, lukewarm adults. We must pursue the Work of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ without crutch or hinderance if we are to succeed--and this means laying aside our preconcieved notions of what a youth group is or isn't supposed to be. All youth who are old enough to understand the Gospel Message are old enough to begin living for Christ on His terms.
We cannot continue to allow youth groups (and in many cases, whole churches) to sell out wholesale to the wiles of Satan--and become breeding grounds for wordly desires and sinful activity. Because they can quickly become just that. God expects godliness. Are we willing to cast our crowns aside and start acting like the people He has called us to be or not?
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