Below is a look into the question of what defines Christianity in response to a question asked.
Firstly this is taken from a website, and is a pretty good description, but isn’t all of the details.
“What defines Christianity? What sets it apart from other 'religions'? what makes Christianity the right way and others the wrong way?
If you were to look at other religions you would see something similar of sort, they all promise almost the same thing, do good, and get a good "afterlife" , based on a set of morals set by some god. they all seem like they could be possible ways to attain salvation of sort....
You can run through the lists, Buddhism, you got this karma concept where you do good so you have good things happen to you, you die, you reincarnate, you continue doing good until you attain this so-called nirvana state
Islam, work out your salvation through your works etc... want an instant passport to heaven? go and be a martyr, or suicide bomber... jihad... and, they also have this single all powerful God, the same God of Abraham , as the Jews and Christians have
What therefore sets us apart as Christians?
The answer?
The Resurrection of Jesus. No other religion ever had its religious founder die and rise again, all of them died eventually...
if the resurrection was a lie, we Christians would be the most pathetic people of the lot...
The resurrection showed that God had truly come down in the form of Man to die for us
We unlike other religions, have our salvation paid for , we are saved by Grace alone
and we cannot earn our salvation, the bible tells us that our good deeds etc, are deemed filthy rags in front of God, because He is holy , we are sinful...
we as such can have a living relationship with God, because Jesus has paid the price, our sins are washed as white as snow, because of what He has done on the cross
We have a God who is both just , and loving and merciful.
The resurrection of Jesus, that God came down in the flesh and died on a cross , laid in the tomb for 3 days before rising again , is what sets Christianity apart...”
That’s from the site. This is what I’d add. The biggest key to this are the doctrines of salvation, justification, sanctification and regeneration. Big words, but will explain! Salvation is the simplest, God died for your sins, he sent his son on the Cross to take away your sin so that you don’t have to perform sacrifices, of which there were different types depending on what you were atoning for, fun! Most of all he saved you from hell, from an eternity of damnation because as human beings we cannot reach God’s standard. This is the standard laid down in the law, found in the book of Exodus/Numbers/Leviticus/Deuteronomy because in Genesis when we sinned our relationship with God was ruined, and there was a gap, and until Jesus came and made a away (John 14:6 “Jesus answered: I am the way , the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” and John 3:16 “That God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”) This is also grace, because by Jesus dying it means when you or me makes a mistake, or when we’re unable to lead a holy lifestyle, God still loves us, and our belief in Christ and trust in him enables us to still be in his family. So we can say that Salvation is the undeserving gift of God to his children of deliverance from hell and is granted to those who believe and repent of their sins, placing there trust and faith in Jesus. This leads into Justification, and the verse below:
‘…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-13
Justification is simple, but amazing! Basically it’s that when we are saved, God doesn’t just simply wipe the slate clean, and chooses to forget our mistakes and past, no it’s far more! Although this is part of what happens, he also justifies us! This raises us up, we are held up as holy and righteous in the site of the Father, higher then the angels! He doesn’t sit with a list checking how we’re doing, he makes us holy, and lets us have access to all the gifts and glory he has for us, he has good for us! It’s like this, if you were meant to run a race, but failed to make it for injury, Jesus doesn’t just provide a second chance to run it, he puts you in the race, but before you even start, he declares you the winner! Physically you might be completely unfit and there is no way you should win, but Jesus lets you already be the winner!! It’s also connected to Jesus “adopting us” into his family and letting us be joint heirs with those who have gone before, he promises us soo much! This leads beautifully into Regeneration and Sanctification.
“Regeneration” is another term for “Rebirth” which is where we get the phrase “Born again” Christian. The new birth is a spiritual birth, Epheians 2:! Tells us we were “dead in trespasses and sins” but then Jesus by his death and resurrection has “made alive” us. The heart is regenerated when we give ourselves to Christ and are made alive in him. It makes us aware of the spiritual and causes our behaviour to change, to want to seek to do things the way Christ does. Galatians 2:20 explains best “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
And finally Sanctification, this is the constant work inside of us to do what is right and continue to be attempt to be holy. As we have already seen, in many ways we don’t need to do this, because we are already justified, but when our hearts are regenerated we can’t help but want to do the good things, we still make mistakes, and often in our attempt to do good we make mistakes, but this doesn’t separate us from God, it’s an active choice from us because we love God, and want to do good things for the one we love. Just as you would for a parent, or other loved one. We don’t follow the word because we’re scared or because we’re trying, but because it’s a natural reaction to following Jesus.
So in conclusion, how does this link into the question, what defines Christianity? We are saved by Grace through salvation, Jesus’s death and resurrection, so there has to be a choice by the person to follow, and a clear choice of repentance, which in Bible times meant “To change one’s mind that results in a change of action” . Acts 2.38 say “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”. As a result of the vocal acknowledgement and faith placed in Christ, our hearts are “regenerated” (see Galatians 2.20 above) and we seek to do the will of God. God adopts us into his family and justifies us, raising us higher then our own moral and human standard would ever let us be. Then through the process of sanctification (which is from the same root word as “Holy” which literally means separated, or set apart) we on earth seek to follow, learn, and act as Christ has taught us, not to earn his love, but because we want to do what is right by him, and not by anyone else. People will think we’re foolish, but that’s part of the fun!
So put plainly, if someone says there a Christian, but doesn’t desire to do God’s will, then I would say there probably not a Christian. They may believe in God, and in Jesus, but then the Jews, Muslims and even atheists believe in both or at least Jesus. A Christian has to say “Lord, be lord of my life” not “Lord, I want to be lord of my own life.” This doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, but it’s a desire of the heart to want to do good. Sometimes we might still end up getting drunk, or smoking, and it takes a friendly reminder to say these arent’ right . sometimes we are just still only working out our salvation. There are people in youth who would probably say they are a Christian, but who still are holding onto things and wanting to do it there way, there on a journey, but it’s not complete.
I hope this is helpful.
Blessings.
Rich
Firstly this is taken from a website, and is a pretty good description, but isn’t all of the details.
“What defines Christianity? What sets it apart from other 'religions'? what makes Christianity the right way and others the wrong way?
If you were to look at other religions you would see something similar of sort, they all promise almost the same thing, do good, and get a good "afterlife" , based on a set of morals set by some god. they all seem like they could be possible ways to attain salvation of sort....
You can run through the lists, Buddhism, you got this karma concept where you do good so you have good things happen to you, you die, you reincarnate, you continue doing good until you attain this so-called nirvana state
Islam, work out your salvation through your works etc... want an instant passport to heaven? go and be a martyr, or suicide bomber... jihad... and, they also have this single all powerful God, the same God of Abraham , as the Jews and Christians have
What therefore sets us apart as Christians?
The answer?
The Resurrection of Jesus. No other religion ever had its religious founder die and rise again, all of them died eventually...
if the resurrection was a lie, we Christians would be the most pathetic people of the lot...
The resurrection showed that God had truly come down in the form of Man to die for us
We unlike other religions, have our salvation paid for , we are saved by Grace alone
and we cannot earn our salvation, the bible tells us that our good deeds etc, are deemed filthy rags in front of God, because He is holy , we are sinful...
we as such can have a living relationship with God, because Jesus has paid the price, our sins are washed as white as snow, because of what He has done on the cross
We have a God who is both just , and loving and merciful.
The resurrection of Jesus, that God came down in the flesh and died on a cross , laid in the tomb for 3 days before rising again , is what sets Christianity apart...”
That’s from the site. This is what I’d add. The biggest key to this are the doctrines of salvation, justification, sanctification and regeneration. Big words, but will explain! Salvation is the simplest, God died for your sins, he sent his son on the Cross to take away your sin so that you don’t have to perform sacrifices, of which there were different types depending on what you were atoning for, fun! Most of all he saved you from hell, from an eternity of damnation because as human beings we cannot reach God’s standard. This is the standard laid down in the law, found in the book of Exodus/Numbers/Leviticus/Deuteronomy because in Genesis when we sinned our relationship with God was ruined, and there was a gap, and until Jesus came and made a away (John 14:6 “Jesus answered: I am the way , the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me” and John 3:16 “That God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”) This is also grace, because by Jesus dying it means when you or me makes a mistake, or when we’re unable to lead a holy lifestyle, God still loves us, and our belief in Christ and trust in him enables us to still be in his family. So we can say that Salvation is the undeserving gift of God to his children of deliverance from hell and is granted to those who believe and repent of their sins, placing there trust and faith in Jesus. This leads into Justification, and the verse below:
‘…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-13
Justification is simple, but amazing! Basically it’s that when we are saved, God doesn’t just simply wipe the slate clean, and chooses to forget our mistakes and past, no it’s far more! Although this is part of what happens, he also justifies us! This raises us up, we are held up as holy and righteous in the site of the Father, higher then the angels! He doesn’t sit with a list checking how we’re doing, he makes us holy, and lets us have access to all the gifts and glory he has for us, he has good for us! It’s like this, if you were meant to run a race, but failed to make it for injury, Jesus doesn’t just provide a second chance to run it, he puts you in the race, but before you even start, he declares you the winner! Physically you might be completely unfit and there is no way you should win, but Jesus lets you already be the winner!! It’s also connected to Jesus “adopting us” into his family and letting us be joint heirs with those who have gone before, he promises us soo much! This leads beautifully into Regeneration and Sanctification.
“Regeneration” is another term for “Rebirth” which is where we get the phrase “Born again” Christian. The new birth is a spiritual birth, Epheians 2:! Tells us we were “dead in trespasses and sins” but then Jesus by his death and resurrection has “made alive” us. The heart is regenerated when we give ourselves to Christ and are made alive in him. It makes us aware of the spiritual and causes our behaviour to change, to want to seek to do things the way Christ does. Galatians 2:20 explains best “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
And finally Sanctification, this is the constant work inside of us to do what is right and continue to be attempt to be holy. As we have already seen, in many ways we don’t need to do this, because we are already justified, but when our hearts are regenerated we can’t help but want to do the good things, we still make mistakes, and often in our attempt to do good we make mistakes, but this doesn’t separate us from God, it’s an active choice from us because we love God, and want to do good things for the one we love. Just as you would for a parent, or other loved one. We don’t follow the word because we’re scared or because we’re trying, but because it’s a natural reaction to following Jesus.
So in conclusion, how does this link into the question, what defines Christianity? We are saved by Grace through salvation, Jesus’s death and resurrection, so there has to be a choice by the person to follow, and a clear choice of repentance, which in Bible times meant “To change one’s mind that results in a change of action” . Acts 2.38 say “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”. As a result of the vocal acknowledgement and faith placed in Christ, our hearts are “regenerated” (see Galatians 2.20 above) and we seek to do the will of God. God adopts us into his family and justifies us, raising us higher then our own moral and human standard would ever let us be. Then through the process of sanctification (which is from the same root word as “Holy” which literally means separated, or set apart) we on earth seek to follow, learn, and act as Christ has taught us, not to earn his love, but because we want to do what is right by him, and not by anyone else. People will think we’re foolish, but that’s part of the fun!
So put plainly, if someone says there a Christian, but doesn’t desire to do God’s will, then I would say there probably not a Christian. They may believe in God, and in Jesus, but then the Jews, Muslims and even atheists believe in both or at least Jesus. A Christian has to say “Lord, be lord of my life” not “Lord, I want to be lord of my own life.” This doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, but it’s a desire of the heart to want to do good. Sometimes we might still end up getting drunk, or smoking, and it takes a friendly reminder to say these arent’ right . sometimes we are just still only working out our salvation. There are people in youth who would probably say they are a Christian, but who still are holding onto things and wanting to do it there way, there on a journey, but it’s not complete.
I hope this is helpful.
Blessings.
Rich
Even though I'm not sure if I actually have any readers left due to lack of writing, I would like to inform people I am still alive, but that things are a foot and hopefully I will reveal more soon! I would put up a better design, but my Mac seems to have finally past away, meaning I am without design tools at this minute. All will be revealed soon, promise, until then!
Reports are unclear but it would seem since his wife getting pregger's Jon has dissapeared from the online world. His blog remains silent, his facebook inactive apart from a status update about nothing....has the Jolly finally run out of words? Possibly.
Did I not really have anything to blog about....possibly....
Am I blogging when I should be working....likely....
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Mr Jolly then please inform the police...they'll probably think your making the name up...and laugh.
More soon...
PS. A redesign is in the pipeline...this design is temp.
Did I not really have anything to blog about....possibly....
Am I blogging when I should be working....likely....
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Mr Jolly then please inform the police...they'll probably think your making the name up...and laugh.
More soon...
PS. A redesign is in the pipeline...this design is temp.
Well it's been a little while since writing, so this post I'm afraid differs from the aim of the blog, so I apologise for both it being different to norm, and for the lateness of it!
For anyone who doesn't know, I've now finished uni, averaged a 2.2, which isn't the best, isn't the worst, and is probably typical of my attitude towards the whole thing.
Since then I've been working and Furious Records doing Data entry, although the last few days I've been ill so unable to work. I've also now moved to Selsey to live with a family who have offered me free Board and rent, which is amazing in it self, plus I get my clothes ironed!
In August we're taking the youth away to "Newday", a Soul Survivor style camp for the youth in the New Frontiers network, and we're really excited about that as we currently have around 30 kids booked in, although we're believing for more.
After that I go on holiday for a couple of weeks, then in September I come back and start working for the Church in Chichester (Grace Church) doing a gap year called "Impact" which I'm really excited about!
Speaking of Youth, we've had some really exciting events, we did a 24 hour "around the table" table tennis tournament, nicknamed Donkeyathon, although technically it wasn't donkey that we were playing, but shhh. Through doing that we raised 1500 pound to buy provisions for the youth for newday, including a new marquee!
On top of that on Sunday mornings we've invited the spirit into the youth session (when the adult's talk is happening) and seen it manifest with different young people being touched in different ways, although never at the sacrifice of Bible teaching. Such comments have appeared since that as "Wow, I'll never be the same" as the young people have been totally blown away by it. We had 5 people become Christians the the other week, and on a social recently, where we turned the Church building into a massive youth hall, with 3 games consoles set up, including duel dance mats and a wii, table football and table tennis and smoothies, we hit 47 young people, beating are average of 25.
Tonight we're going to the beech and have 48 booked in, extremely exciting stuff, and as a result some are starting to gradually filter in on a Sunday morning as well.
It's all incredibly exciting and I ask your prayers for this time for both my future, but particularly the youths!
Blessings,
Rich
For anyone who doesn't know, I've now finished uni, averaged a 2.2, which isn't the best, isn't the worst, and is probably typical of my attitude towards the whole thing.
Since then I've been working and Furious Records doing Data entry, although the last few days I've been ill so unable to work. I've also now moved to Selsey to live with a family who have offered me free Board and rent, which is amazing in it self, plus I get my clothes ironed!
In August we're taking the youth away to "Newday", a Soul Survivor style camp for the youth in the New Frontiers network, and we're really excited about that as we currently have around 30 kids booked in, although we're believing for more.
After that I go on holiday for a couple of weeks, then in September I come back and start working for the Church in Chichester (Grace Church) doing a gap year called "Impact" which I'm really excited about!
Speaking of Youth, we've had some really exciting events, we did a 24 hour "around the table" table tennis tournament, nicknamed Donkeyathon, although technically it wasn't donkey that we were playing, but shhh. Through doing that we raised 1500 pound to buy provisions for the youth for newday, including a new marquee!
On top of that on Sunday mornings we've invited the spirit into the youth session (when the adult's talk is happening) and seen it manifest with different young people being touched in different ways, although never at the sacrifice of Bible teaching. Such comments have appeared since that as "Wow, I'll never be the same" as the young people have been totally blown away by it. We had 5 people become Christians the the other week, and on a social recently, where we turned the Church building into a massive youth hall, with 3 games consoles set up, including duel dance mats and a wii, table football and table tennis and smoothies, we hit 47 young people, beating are average of 25.
Tonight we're going to the beech and have 48 booked in, extremely exciting stuff, and as a result some are starting to gradually filter in on a Sunday morning as well.
It's all incredibly exciting and I ask your prayers for this time for both my future, but particularly the youths!
Blessings,
Rich
In youth group the other day we had a boys night which we do once a month. At the same time the girls do a girls night. Both groups watched different dvd's with the purpose of creating discussion, to which both did. The girls watched "Heart of Soul Surfer" the story of a Christian female surfer called Bethany Hamilton who was attacked by a shark resulting in her losing an arm. From what I hear the Dvd was a fantastic discussion starter, although perhaps boys would have been a bit distracted by girls constantly walking around in bikinis. For the guys, we watched a documentary on Hillsong United and how they started, found in the "united we stand" cd+dvd combo from a few years back.
The guys found this particularly inspirational as they realised that this amazing ministry they were witnessing started with only a few, was not always the "cool, hip, trendy" thing perhaps we are use to seeing today, and for many of them it was a realisation that the event was not the only place they could engage with God, but also within youth, and within church.
This led to some fantastic discussions about going deeper with God in both youth and church, but what was interesting was that for many of them, it was church that was the problem in terms of engaging with God. Many felt embarrassed knowing their parents were there, or that people might comment, or even in some cases embarrassed to worship.
One commented that what happens if another family comes in, and their son isn't truly Christian, what would they think, and if they were part of the school, would they reveal something to everyone at school.
This seemed to be a real fear. Obviously, as Christians school is a challenge in it self, but surely church should be a safe haven for these individauls?
Another point that came out from the dvd was the realisation that the youth could be the missionaries into school. So often we can spend all our time as youth workers attempting to get into schools to do assemblies, run groups, etc, which is all fantastic, but the reality is the best evangelist are the youth themselves.
A friend of mine once said that people to not come to Christ through being yelled at, but rather through love and friendship, and I hold that value true.
The questions then are these:
How do we best equip are youth?
How do we get them unashamed in church?
Blessings,
Rich
The guys found this particularly inspirational as they realised that this amazing ministry they were witnessing started with only a few, was not always the "cool, hip, trendy" thing perhaps we are use to seeing today, and for many of them it was a realisation that the event was not the only place they could engage with God, but also within youth, and within church.
This led to some fantastic discussions about going deeper with God in both youth and church, but what was interesting was that for many of them, it was church that was the problem in terms of engaging with God. Many felt embarrassed knowing their parents were there, or that people might comment, or even in some cases embarrassed to worship.
One commented that what happens if another family comes in, and their son isn't truly Christian, what would they think, and if they were part of the school, would they reveal something to everyone at school.
This seemed to be a real fear. Obviously, as Christians school is a challenge in it self, but surely church should be a safe haven for these individauls?
Another point that came out from the dvd was the realisation that the youth could be the missionaries into school. So often we can spend all our time as youth workers attempting to get into schools to do assemblies, run groups, etc, which is all fantastic, but the reality is the best evangelist are the youth themselves.
A friend of mine once said that people to not come to Christ through being yelled at, but rather through love and friendship, and I hold that value true.
The questions then are these:
How do we best equip are youth?
How do we get them unashamed in church?
Blessings,
Rich
A few months ago I mentioned I was looking to focus my blog more. My aim now is to avoid articles on my own self motivation, and instead discuss my youth worker experiences, and hopefully share my knowledge within the online community, a trade if you will, since I'm aware that there is much I need to learn.
In this vein, you will see over the coming weeks highlights of youth ministry, interesting experiences that have happened, and also bringing to the table difficult questions that are raised. I will also outline how our church runs the youth, and the overall aim.
For now I will leave you with this:
Recently I ran a feedback session for the youth at the end of term. The aim was simple, I would ask questions, they would answer, and someone would write down. One of the question was on the worship of the church and how they felt about it, and what they thought would engage them more. Many of them gave responses, often quite negative.
Blessings,
Rich
I write this post in two minds. I have just returned from helping at the 11-14’s venue of Spring Harvest, aka, Distinctive. It was a fantastic time, watching 450 young people worshipping God passionately declaring their love for him through song and prayer. It brought me on more then one occasion to a place of tears. It was awe inspiring, yet something was wrong with this picture.
The thing that was wrong was simple: for many of these young people, this was their spiritual top up for the year. It was a one-time thing. For some of them they’ll go home, be on a high for a week, then have a set back, and suddenly they’ve forgotten that high. They’ve forgotten that moment of excitement. That moment where they looked to the Father, lost in His glory, His wonder, His awesome nature. Where they stand united as one, denomination not mattering, just acknowledging the presence of a King.
For us as youth workers, the question is this: How do we keep our young people away from an event mentality to a realisation of God in everyday living.
Much of this, I believe, comes down to how we run our youth ministries. To finding the balance between having a laugh and being crazy to drawing into a place of intimacy with God. Phil Dooley of Hillsong United (The Hillsong joint aged youth group) say in the early days the mission was simple, Youth had to be fun! On the other end of the scale though, they still had regular talks every week, and gave the youth guys a chance to play one or two worship songs to lead the response. And they grew, and praise became a major focus of their youth.
What we need to be careful of in this is that we don’t go overboard with the fun and dumb down God for the youth. They need to be routed in solid Bible teaching, to know what they believe, where they stand on issues, and in this they need to be given the chance to come to their own conclusion on things, and not just be told “this is what we believe” but to accept that truth for themselves.
Young people also need to experience God outside of the event. Many of them struggle with worshipping in front of their parents, or even their peers in church, feeling that they are the odd one out. We need to encourage this uniqueness and willingness when it surfaces. Church for some of these young people is boring, so again, we need as youth workers to engage them on the Sunday morning.
When I was in Texas a few years ago, I helped out at a Kids/youth camp. We had meetings every night lasting often up to 4 hours. These weren’t filled with games, and fun activities as such, it was just praise and worship, followed by a 45 minute talk, and the young people listened. They engaged, they responded, they wanted more! I saw 7 year olds, worshipping God, hands in the air loving their God.
There are churches in Columbia, where kids are the ones leading it. We need to make sure we’re not dumbing it down and realise there is something deeper for them, even those on the fringes.
Much of this is making sure ourselves and our youth teams are in a place of worship as well, yet being able to engage the young people during the worship times, encourage them to reach for the blessings of God, and understand that he is as much there as in Spring Harvest/Soul Survivor/Newday etc.
At the same time, as a youth team we need to exit this mentality of the Event. Ourselves, we need to be in a place where everyday is walking with Jesus. Where we can be hanging with a group of friends, and go from having fun together, to praying for healing, to prophesying for each other, to taking a bigger step into his kingdom.
This has to be the first place we start, ourselves. What our are expectations of events, are we waiting for them to change and challenge our young people? Or are we believe God to do that in them whatever? Even on our residentials with just our own youth, we can all come back thinking “that was great, when’s the next one”, and maybe even with events the same can happen. What we need is a mentality of God is with us everyday.
The thing that was wrong was simple: for many of these young people, this was their spiritual top up for the year. It was a one-time thing. For some of them they’ll go home, be on a high for a week, then have a set back, and suddenly they’ve forgotten that high. They’ve forgotten that moment of excitement. That moment where they looked to the Father, lost in His glory, His wonder, His awesome nature. Where they stand united as one, denomination not mattering, just acknowledging the presence of a King.
For us as youth workers, the question is this: How do we keep our young people away from an event mentality to a realisation of God in everyday living.
Much of this, I believe, comes down to how we run our youth ministries. To finding the balance between having a laugh and being crazy to drawing into a place of intimacy with God. Phil Dooley of Hillsong United (The Hillsong joint aged youth group) say in the early days the mission was simple, Youth had to be fun! On the other end of the scale though, they still had regular talks every week, and gave the youth guys a chance to play one or two worship songs to lead the response. And they grew, and praise became a major focus of their youth.
What we need to be careful of in this is that we don’t go overboard with the fun and dumb down God for the youth. They need to be routed in solid Bible teaching, to know what they believe, where they stand on issues, and in this they need to be given the chance to come to their own conclusion on things, and not just be told “this is what we believe” but to accept that truth for themselves.
Young people also need to experience God outside of the event. Many of them struggle with worshipping in front of their parents, or even their peers in church, feeling that they are the odd one out. We need to encourage this uniqueness and willingness when it surfaces. Church for some of these young people is boring, so again, we need as youth workers to engage them on the Sunday morning.
When I was in Texas a few years ago, I helped out at a Kids/youth camp. We had meetings every night lasting often up to 4 hours. These weren’t filled with games, and fun activities as such, it was just praise and worship, followed by a 45 minute talk, and the young people listened. They engaged, they responded, they wanted more! I saw 7 year olds, worshipping God, hands in the air loving their God.
There are churches in Columbia, where kids are the ones leading it. We need to make sure we’re not dumbing it down and realise there is something deeper for them, even those on the fringes.
Much of this is making sure ourselves and our youth teams are in a place of worship as well, yet being able to engage the young people during the worship times, encourage them to reach for the blessings of God, and understand that he is as much there as in Spring Harvest/Soul Survivor/Newday etc.
At the same time, as a youth team we need to exit this mentality of the Event. Ourselves, we need to be in a place where everyday is walking with Jesus. Where we can be hanging with a group of friends, and go from having fun together, to praying for healing, to prophesying for each other, to taking a bigger step into his kingdom.
This has to be the first place we start, ourselves. What our are expectations of events, are we waiting for them to change and challenge our young people? Or are we believe God to do that in them whatever? Even on our residentials with just our own youth, we can all come back thinking “that was great, when’s the next one”, and maybe even with events the same can happen. What we need is a mentality of God is with us everyday.
