All The Children Of The World (Part 8)

Needed As Never Before

(This is the final post in this series!  To view all the posts click on the label Dans Thought Spot.)

Though youth ministry has been instituted by God since the earliest stages of Christianity it could convincingly be argued that never before in the history of the world has the need to fulfill this mandate been so urgent.  This can be argued on the basis of the fact that there is a larger cultural gap than ever before between youth and adults around the world.  Due to the advancement of technology and the universal rise of Popular Culture youth have formed their own culture apart from that of their parents.  For the first time in history youth do not have to depend on their elders to gain access to knowledge (and therefore power).  Whereas before, recorded knowledge in the form of scrolls and books was only made available to a select few (almost always older men), now, for the first time in history, a young person can gain access to all kinds of knowledge on the internet.  They do not even have to be able to read thanks to YouTube and other forms of visual media.  Granted, the information they choose to gain access to is often either useless or false, but the advent of the internet has nevertheless severed the tie of dependency between older generations and younger ones for the access to knowledge.  Indeed, when it comes to computers and smart phones, the younger often knows more than the older as to how he or she can gain access to new information. 

The book of Proverbs teaches us that youth are naturally wise in their own eyes.  This means that they think they know better than their superiors, including their parents, other adults and God.  Proverbs emphatically teaches that it is the adult’s responsibility to weed this foolish thinking out of our young people by means of instruction and discipline.  While internet and Popular Culture have given our young people access to exhorbulent amounts of information it has not helped them find wisdom- leaving them all the more wise in their own eyes.  The combinations of easy access to new information, grownups who are not involved in young people’s lives (often because they don’t know how to relate) and the proud, foolish thinking that is part and parcel of youthfulness can and has yielded devastating results in our modern day culture.  Let this new reality serve us as an unprecedented call for the Church to rise up as never before and reach young people through biblical youth ministry!  Whether the Church realizes it or not, it has always been important, and is now needed as never before!

So, though it has failed in the past, youth ministry is not a lost cause and should not be thrown out by the church.  Much to the contrary, it is a biblical mandate that we as Christian families and the Church must be diligent to fulfill.  Did you consider why God attached the biblical mandate for youth ministry with the Bible’s greatest command in Deuteronomy 6?  I believe it’s because youth ministry is the very DNA of God's kingdom building plan.  He's always been about passing on our faith to younger generations!  When He spoke to Abraham in Genesis 17:7, God promised to be God to him and his descendants.  This promise is repeated at the inauguration of the Church with the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:39, ‘for the promise is for you and for your children’.  Indeed, the youth ministry mandate will only be relinquished at the end of the Age when the promise is completely fulfilled and we hear God say to us and our children, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Revelation 21:3).