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Northeast
Bible Church
19185 FM 2252
Garden Ridge, TX 78266
| March 2010 |
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"Apathy is
a sort of living oblivion," wrote 19th-century editor
Horace Greeley. A common refrain from many parents is
that their teenagers are lackluster, or hard to "fire
up" - especially when it comes to God and the church.
Ironically, the apathy epidemic today just may have its
roots in overactivity.
"With so much going on
for school and traveling teams, [kids] have no time for
church, youth groups, and even family time," says one
youth minister in Group Magazine's "State of Youth
Ministry" report. "Kids are getting pulled in so many
directions." Other respondents said their biggest
struggles are kids whose lives are compartmentalized and
who don't make Christ a priority for daily living.
Youth ministers said they're dying for teenagers
who are engaged and passionate about their faith, ready
and willing to commit their lives to Jesus. On the
positive side, they said they've noticed a hunger among
today's teenagers for "deeper" things, as well as a move
from "flash" to substance.
So how can you fan the
flames of your kids' faith and convince them to invest
in it 100 percent? First, lift up your teenagers in
prayer often. The Holy Spirit is the one with the power
to change hearts and lives. Next, make faith applicable
to everyday life. Don't limit talk of God to Sundays.
Tie in Scripture to issues that kids face at home, at
school, and in their activities and jobs. Make Christ a
priority in your own life, and show kids by example what
a committed Christian walk looks like. If necessary, cut
back your busy schedule to focus more on God. Finally,
harness kids' hunger to go deeper by asking them tough
questions and issuing spiritual challenges. Teenagers
seeking a cause won't find a better one than Christ.
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Veteran
youth pastor Jason Ostrander offers these tips for breaking
through with kids who are jaded, bored, or
apathetic:
1. Be yourself.
When you are who you say you are, unengaged kid are likely to
crack open their windows wider. Doing an honest assessment of
yourself will turn into a priceless gift to yourself and your
kids.
2. Be a passionate, engaged observer. Spend time
studying your teenagers and work hard to understand what makes
them tick. If we're not fully awake to our kids, we're just as
dead as they are. Jesus always paid remarkable attention to
the details people unconsciously revealed to him.
3.
Don't treat kids or spending time with them like just another
box on your to-do list. The last thing kids want to be is your
latest project.
4. Take a risk. Engage teenagers
through their (sometimes) hidden passions by providing a niche
for them to succeed or grow. Often they need something beyond
the "status quo" to get them going.
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Check
out these interesting statistics about how brightly
people's fires are burning for God:
* Sixty
percent of Christian teenagers lose interest in church
activities and organized religion, despite their
previous participation.
(Barna Group)
* Researcher
George Barna uses the term "casual Christians" to
describe the two-of-out-three adults who are spiritually
middle-of-the-road or even ambivalent about their
faith.
* On the positive side, in a survey of almost
30,000 Christian teenagers from last summer, the
majority of kids were passionate about their faith.
Seventy-seven percent of Christian teenagers disagreed
with this statement: "I've met a lot of people who seem
more interesting to me than Jesus does."
(Group
Magazine)
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