Yesterday I read an article about young adults and churches online at USA today. I was fascinated by it, and found it especially helpful as I get going in youth and young adult ministry. I definitely don't want to be leading a youth group that is just a holding tank with pizza, I want to be helping these youth find their spiritual identity amidst a world of chaos.

Earlier this afternoon I had a conversation with one of my youth who was telling me that it is hard to be a young person these days. So much to be distracted by such as the internet, cell phones, so many people expecting them to grow up without ever having chances to make mistakes, and so much more is just going on in this chaotic world. I know that I myself have gotten a lot accomplished today, and have been seriously multitasking even listening to sermons while finishing up a Bible Study and keeping my eye on apartments and making phone calls etc.

Our culture tells us today that we have to go go go. We always have to be doing something, we always have to be on the move and worst of all, it tells us that we don't need God to do all of this. We can rely on ourselves. Between the sermons I listened to and the Bible Study I finished up today I am seeing this be a recurring theme. Perhaps it is a sign for me to slow down and know that I need God through everything, not just where I call upon God but through it all.

One of the sermons I listened to today quoted this quote from George Orwell that I found especially striking.

"I thought of a rather cruel trick I once played on a wasp. He was sucking jam on my plate, and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him. It is the same with modern man. The thing that has been cut away is his soul..."

I fear that in our busy lives, in our hurried pace, this is what we are really starting to do. I don't think that it is too late yet, but I think if we don't take the charge seriously to include God in every aspect of our lives, one day we will turn around and realize that even though we are consumers eating our jam and being relatively content, our souls have been cut off.

One easy way we're doing that is that the church is not raising up leaders like it should. It isn't doing so because leadership isn't something you just tell people to do, it is something you foster and help people grow through. Like the above article stated.... "Unless religious leaders take younger adults more seriously, the future of American religion is in doubt," says Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow in After the Baby Boomers, due in stores in September.

Cutting off young people is just the beginning of cutting off the soul of the church and ultimately the soul of Christianity in my opinion. The statistics are truly staggering and really opened my eyes to the grave outlook that there is as far as youth and young adult ministry is concerned. Though it might be grave, I am energized by the spirit that is moving in and around what is going on here in this ministry so far.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 09, 2007 at 2:52 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.