The Red Bull Gospel: There’s A Lot More to Youth Ministry Than Pizzas, Movie Nights and Video Games
Great article from LeadershipJournal.net
The Red Bull Gospel by Drew Dyck
A few years ago I volunteered at an event put on by a national youth ministry.
The evening was fun but grueling. We bobbed for apples, captured flags, and raced eggs across the floor using only our noses. The games culminated with a frigid indignity: I laid on my back and let three giggling teenagers make an ice cream sundae on my face.
As I toweled chocolate syrup from my chin, a leader ordered the teens into a semicircle. It was time for the devotional, which included a gospel presentation—but it was a gospel presentation that made me want to stand up and scream.
“Being a Christian isn’t hard,” he told the group. “You won’t lose your friends or be unpopular at school. Nothing will change. Your life will be the same, just better.”
Maybe his words would have slipped by me if they hadn’t been such blatant reversals of Jesus’ own warnings about the offensiveness of his message or the inevitable hardships of following him.
I glanced at the teens. One was flicking Doritos chips at a friend. Others whispered to each other or stared at the floor. None of them seemed to be listening. And why should they? I wondered. Who cares about something that involves no adventure, no sacrifice, and no risk?
Unfortunately what I witnessed that night is hardly unique. Often ministries, especially youth ministries, are heavy on fun and light on faith. It’s fired up entertainment and watered down gospel.
Amused to death
The entertainment emphasis can be traced at least a generation, and perhaps nowhere was the impact felt more profoundly than in youth programs. Instead of stressing confirmation of faith—youth ministry’s original raison d’être—the focus shifted to attracting more and more kids to the ministry (which inevitably involved entertaining them). Not necessarily bad goals, but there were some ugly unintended consequences.
Today some youth ministries are almost devoid of religious education. They are “holding tanks with pizza,” as church researcher Ed Stetzer has called them. Some use violent video game parties to attract students through the church doors on Friday nights.
Over the past year I’ve conducted dozens of interviews with 20-somethings who have walked away from their Christian faith. Among the most surprising findings was this: nearly all of these “leavers” reported having positive experiences in youth group. I recall my conversation with one young man who described his journey from evangelical to atheist. He had nothing but vitriol for the Christian beliefs of his childhood, but when I asked him about youth group, his voice lifted. “Oh, youth group was a blast! My youth pastor was a great guy.”
I was confused. I asked Josh Riebock, a former youth pastor and author of mY Generation, to solve the riddle: if these young people had such a good time in youth group, why did they ditch their faith shortly after heading to college?
His response was simple. “Let’s face it,” he said. “There are a lot more fun things to do at college than eat pizza.” Read the rest of the article by following this link.
Very interesting article. Back when I was a HS teen over 35 years ago, I preferred getting into the Word rather than pizza parties, partly due to hearing loss, but also due to wanting support to develop a deeper faith. This would have been a help to reinforce the learning from Confirmation. Guess I was odd even then. My Lutheran youth group did not have pizza parties then; but it was not all Word study, either–a mix of socializing and this and general discussion.
The leader’s saying that there was no cost to being a Christian would be shocking to me then and today. The article said that in a book, “Unchristian”, followup of the young adults in a survey showed only 3 percent of them having a biblical view. Sad. Some people have commented about my having a Christian viewpoint over the years even when I never verbally voiced it. This surprised me and made me think.
Forgive my ramblings. I think the situation among young adults today and even back then is horrible, and the adults leading them with lies to non-restraint, irresponsibility and life-long regrets have had never had their best interests at heart.
I’m sure that some of this youthful abandonment of the church results from a phenomenon that is, I’m sure, not unique to Lutherans, but certainly present among many. That is, that Confirmation Day is regarded and treated as “Graduation Day”. Instruction, per se, ends, and the kids move on to “entertainment hour”, i.e., high school Youth Fellowship.
Part of the problem is with parents. They feel their responsibilty ends with their child’s confirmation. (And, many fathers never even know or are taught that, as Dr. Luther insisted, it is the responsibilty of fathers to teach their children the catechism!) Without parental involvment in that process, confirmation becomes akin to a “rite of passage” Thereafter, their teenagers are “on their own” in their quest for a “Weltanschaung”, which may or may not have a religious (Christian) component. They are free (abandonned) to find their own answers when, in fact, they still need help (instruction) in first finding out what the important questions are.
That’s why the church has a never-ending responsibility for catechesis, i.e., Qs & As — not just for youth, but for adults (young and old alike), as well.
I would say that the problem starts long before the youngster enters the teen years. I have been involved with Sunday school and youth group activities for some time, in large and small churches. And I’ve observed many children whose parents drop them off at the door for Sunday school, without participating themselves. And I recall one instance when the pastor suggested to a young man’s mother that it might not be appropriate for him to wear sexually suggestive T-shirts to church, only to have her angrily reply, “It’s hard enough for me to get him to come to church!”
@Jami
The problem sure does begin before the teenage years! As a corrective, and to create not more “spirituality” but greater and on-going spiritual discipline, I suggest all Lutheran parents:
1) place a crucifix on the wall at the end of their child’s bed; and
2) just as the Small Catechism directs, teach and cause each child, while still at a single digit age, when he/she wakes in the morning, to:
a) make the sign of the holy cross;
b) say the Trinitarian invocation;
c) recite the Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer; and
d) recite the prescribed prayer of thanksging and petition.
Then, at night, to perform the similar spiritual exercise prescribed in the catechism.
This all assumes a willingness on the part of parents to teach kids to memorize. It takes some parental involvement and commitment. But, my parents did this for and with each of my 4 brothers and me. And, during my teenage days and to this day, I’m still doing it, as are those of the next generation(s) in our family.