Change can be a scary word. There’s uncertainty when it comes to change. And we aren’t sure if we’ll like it after change happens. Sometimes, change can be good, such as my decision to change majors from Math Education to Youth and Family Ministry. A lot of good in my life has come from making that change in college. But sometimes change can be bad, like my decision to stop exercising during Covid, which resulted in me gaining 30 pounds that year. There are a lot of changes happening for students this time of year, as we move into summer. We have 6 high school graduates, whom we will have the honor of recognizing June 2nd. We also have some 5th graders moving into 6th grade, thus joining the youth group. This is a big season of change for these students, with all the transitions happening for them.
It reminds me of my time in college and all the moving around I did. I spent the first two years of college going to community college, but still living at home. After those two years, however, I moved away from home. I was out on my own for the first time in my life, living in Normal, IL (yes, that’s the real name of a real city). It was a new experience for me. It took some getting used to, but the real question at that time in my life was, “how will God fit into it all?” It was my first real opportunity to live life how I wanted. It marked a crossroads for me, as it does for all who come to that time in their life. As for me, I couldn’t imagine life without God, church, and Jesus. It was what I knew I needed.
Unfortunately, not everyone comes to that conclusion. The vast majority of seniors leave the church after high school, a trend all youth pastors and, I would argue, all churches have to contend with. It’s a trend that does not bode well for the future of the church, and so it leaves us asking, “what can be done?” How can we help these young men and women stay connected to the church when it becomes so easy to leave after high school? Satan has many tools in this country and culture he can use to tear people away from God, and Satan is very good at using those tools. He plants excuses in students’ heads or puts people in their lives that persuade them that church isn’t for them, or isn’t that important. Satan is a very tactical being. He knows how to get under our skin, how to exploit our weaknesses, and he’s very good at it.
In my small group, before we took a break for the summer, we did a series on spiritual warfare. We looked at how Satan works and what we can do about it. One passage that everyone goes to for this subject is Ephesians 6. Paul describes the armor of God: The breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. These are our tools to fight against Satan and his evil schemes. But does everyone have this armor? I’m not convinced they do. So the next question for us is, “How do people get this armor?” as well as, “What role do we play in the equipping of the armor?”
Jesus gives us a great picture of this process in the gospels. He calls the twelve disciples to him, and these 12 men would follow him for the next 3 years, learning from him how to live in the kingdom of God. In Matthew 10, after they’ve been with him for a while, he sends them out to cast out demons and heal the sick. They’ve never done this before as we are told, but Jesus expects them to do it, as they’ve been watching him. Unfortunately, a while later, they are confronted by a father whose son has a demon and they can’t cast him out. Jesus tells them that it can only be cast out by prayer. Because they failed to rely on God in that episode, Jesus has to come and sort it out for them. They hadn’t yet figured it all out, but they would eventually get there.
The reason I bring this up is that Jesus didn’t just have the disciples watch and listen. He expected them, as did every rabbi with his disciples, to carry out the mission and do what Jesus was doing. How do we replicate that in our churches today? What role do we allow students to fill? What roles are we holding back from them that they could excel at? This is something that I’ve been working towards in my role as youth minister. Studies suggest that if students have a responsibility at church, then they are far more likely to stick with it after graduation. And more so, if they have strong relationships with people in the church, then they are exponentially more likely to stay after graduation, if not to RCC, then to another church wherever they move.
This is what Jesus modeled for us. He not only equipped his disciples to lead the church after Pentecost, but he did life with his disciples for 3 years. They didn’t just get together once a week for a few hours. It was all day everyday for the better part of 3 years. My last question for you, and it’s for me too: Are you committed to following Jesus’ example in this? If we do, then some really big changes will come not only for RCC, but potentially for the American church at large.
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. -Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
