Koke and I sat down for our discipleship in my living room. Koke is a fun loving youth who doesn’t seem to care much what others think of him. He’s a sucker for youth camps and a committed disciple of mine. Looking him in the eye I asked him for his assessment of our discipleship class that had now been going on and off for the past two years. “It’s good, filled with great stuff”, he replied, “I just wonder if we couldn’t do it in a way that’s a bit more… entertaining.” I watched my disciple intently and with an understanding smile as he answered, for this was the very response that I was probing for. I’m no stranger to this idea: that learning about the Truth should be fun. Many of my fondest memories (including meeting my wife) are from attending Young Life clubs and camps. The founder Jim Rayburn, though an ordained Presbyterian minister, was famous for saying things like, "If you want anybody to show up, don't have it on Sunday and don't call it school" and "It's a sin to bore a kid with the gospel." In many ways Rayburn was the founder of a new movement in Youth Ministry that started in the 1930’s: the para-church ministry. This movement was in part a reaction to the failure of the church to reach kids both inside and out. In Rayburn’s case, instead of trying to reform the church, he created new solutions outside of the institution by establishing Bible studies in high schools called Miracle Book Clubs, hanging out with the town’s riff raff, and later building ‘Christian camps for non-Christian kids’.
These kinds of outside-the-church ministries have played a significant role in my life. For years I helped lead the only Bible study in our secular high school of 5,000 plus students, I grew most in my relationship with the Lord during summers spent working as a counselor at Christian camps, and my greatest mentor was a Young Life leader who invited me out to pizza and asked, ‘how’s your walk with God?’ I consider myself intimately acquainted with these ministry methods and indeed they hold a dear place in my heart as I strive to reach the Paraguayan youth. So, being one among so many who has experienced great spiritual growth outside of the local church I eventually had to ask myself, ‘what do I believe is so important about the church?’
Apparently nowadays many young people are asking this same question but coming to a disconcerting conclusion: the church is irrelevant! One youth worker says, “Many youth tell me that they haven’t given up on their relationship with Jesus Christ but they have given up on the Church.” I hope this makes you freak out a bit as it does me. Can we have a relationship with a Savior and at the same time completely reject his bride!?! I know that I would condemn this attitude in my own children if they were ever to say to me, ‘Dad, I’ll submit to you but not Mom.’ nor do I believe the Bible teaches this. I am greatly concerned for our young people who believe that they can have a saving relationship with Christ while rejecting His bride! This problem is not only occurring in the United States, it is present here in Paraguay, and is occurring internationally as I’ve heard reports from concerned youth workers in all parts of the world. This problem, I believe, is a symptom of an even graver problem that like a cancer is interwoven all throughout youth ministry philosophy! You may be surprised to hear what it is. My disciple Koke showed signs that he had been infected by it when he answered me that day- indeed I’ve been infected and most likely you and your children have been infected as well. I’m referring to the cancer of ‘me-centered ministry’. In these articles I want to first diagnose the problem and then propose the solution of how we might uproot the tumor that is rapidly growing in our churches each day.
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