Why youth are worth it.

Written by Brian Smeltzer

Wednesday, 17 June 2009 03:34

There are lots of books and leaders and ideologies surrounding living missionally. Most all of them are focused mainly on adults with kids brought in mostly through family involvement. In conversation with a friend of mine who is on one of those leading teams, I asked why there wasn’t a focus on youth. It wasn’t an attempt to backdoor him into saying anything. My reason for asking wasn’t to know why youth weren’t mentioned but for many others. So why was it? Was it because most of the people focused on this way of doing ministry were used to working with adults or that it would naturally flow down to teens if their parents were doing life this way? What would happen if it was taught from both ends? Obviously there is a learning curve and process to get there. It’s a big jump and one that, for teens at least, hasn’t been documented well… if it truly exists.

I agree that this missional, incarnational way of living is heading in the right direction but I think that we’re missing some great opportunities if we don’t approach youth with the same ideology. 80% or more of teens leave the church when they graduate high school. What if we directed teens in middle school to own their faith and empower them to grow in their faith without always sitting them down and teaching them? What if they were responsible for who they were? Currently, I am using middle school meetings as a segue from kiddie stuff to incarnational living and a missional mindset. While it’s true that there is a little more hands on interaction from the adults, the 8th grade students understand what these community groups look like and are excited to step into them. Our high school groups are working in the Up, In, Out approach as are the adults and seem to have very similar success and failure as the adults do.

So teens have a natural community that isn’t seen anywhere else in our culture. They attend school, games, practices, parties, study groups, church, movies, etc. with each other and have in many ways an ideal setting for living life together. The students they would be choosing to live life with are the same students they are already living life with. What could be more ideal? Adults, facilitating these groups with a pair of teens who are leaders leading the groups, discussions, projects and meeting the needs of those around them. What an amazing opportunity we have to raise up a Godly, passion-filled generation. But to do this, we need to come together. We need to think bigger than our four walls.

The journey begins. Youth are not our future. They are the now and can change our schools, communities, regions, countries and world.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 12:26

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