One Generation Away
"And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel (Judges 2:10).
This passage is a sobering reminder that biblical faith is only a generation away from extinction. Of course, God is sovereignly ruling over this universe and the gates of hell will not prevail over His Kingdom, but there are formidable spiritual consequences emerging in Western culture rapidly divorcing itself from biblical ethics. A generation is rapidly
assimilating into a post-Christian, secular humanistic, religiously pluralistic society void of
absolute truth and inclusively tolerant of every faith except Christianity.
A recent article by Time magazine confirms many of the concerns raised in this post last week. Modern youth ministry, in many cases, is probably doing more to harm the cause of Christ in our culture than it is in aiding the Kingdom and revealing God's glory to the nations. The reason for this is that many youth ministries focus more on entertainment and music than they do on the Word of God and helping students understand the implications of biblical faith on the real life issues that we all face in this world such as disappointment, suffering, dealing with prosperity, death and more.
Check out the article and let me know what you think.
posted by Aaron @ 10:42 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
I think Luce [and you] says it right when he looks to scripture and disciple-making as the answer, I just don't know about the event/numbers-based aspect of it. It's hard to make a disciple over the course of a weekend or a day in a stadium, though it's possible for a meaningful change to occur. It seems like the real problem is that most of the kids in church youth group situations are simply turning out to be unregenerate, thus "fleeing the church" with "nothing to sustain them."
When the students come to the church for "hope and help," we should, like you say, meet them first with the gospel and give them a chance to get their underlying need met, that of a real Savior to replace their fake, impotent ones, even if that's not at the top of the survey they filled out. Whatever we're doing besides that to "fill pews" isn't, apparently, doing much good; it's terrifying.
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