81, 61, 19, 20. Numbers that are shocking when the information that they represent is filled in. 81% of teens attend a church for at least 2-months during their teen years. 61% of twenty somethings do not attend church even though they attended church for a period of at least 2-months during their teen years. That means that 20% of teens maintain the same level of church involvement into their 20s, and 19% of 20-somethings were not in church during their teen years and do not attend church during their 20-something years (statistics courtesy of The Barna Group www.barna.org). Though my source for these statistics is a few years old, I think that they still apply today.
What is the cause of this shocking decline in church attendance? Though I am no expert, I feel it is because the youth's faith was not authentic, deep, personal, or encouraged. Far too often a successful youth program was more of a social club for teens. While I am not against social gatherings (and even find them beneficial), if that is as far as we go, we are doing a disservice to youth.
So how do I think we can fix this disturbing statistic? Glad you asked... though I am no expert, I feel that a four pillar approach to Youth Ministry will help turn this disturbing trend around (though it may take some time).
1st pillar:
The first step is the most important, and that is to involve the family. A successful youth ministry is one in which the youth minister (or director, pastor, etc.) seeks to actively engage the families of the youth. There should be special youth gatherings in which the families are invited to attend. In these the students and families will interact with each other and hear solid biblical teaching to encourage each member of the family in their respective role. There should also be gatherings where only parents attend. (in which things can be discussed that may not be appropriate for the youth or other children to hear). These gatherings are meant to provide the atmosphere where parents can discuss their concerns and the concerns facing their children and receive encouragement and solid biblical teaching to equip them to raise a teen and encourage them toward godliness. (realizing that we do not live in a perfect world and that not everyone's parents will want to be involved, volunteers within the church should be recruited to invest in the lives of the teens). The goal is to get the families involved and equipped to teach their children spiritual truths from scripture.
2nd pillar:
The 2nd pillar of youth ministry (and just as important as the 1st pillar) is solid biblical teaching. Each gathering, whether social or not should have some varying degree of biblical teaching. Youth ministry is first and foremost a ministry and should therefore always have a period of time in which the Words is opened and taught. My personal belief is that expository preaching is the most effective way to teach the Word because it helps to keep everything in context and continues to build upon itself the further along you go in the teaching. The expository preaching should rightly divide scripture to teach proper theology, sound doctrine, the truth of scripture, how scripture applies to us, and how it all points to Christ and the redemption of the church. The goal of this pillar (and the third pillar) is to save the lost youth and disciple the saved youth to a deeper relationship with Christ and deeper, authentic, understanding of their faith.
3rd pillar:
In conjunction with the 2nd pillar, the 3rd pillar is to look deeper into scripture through studying the Bible. This approach is more of a study/discussion approach to the scripture in which we will read through scripture together and dive deeper into it (consulting parallel passages and biblically sound works) to determine further meaning and application of the scripture. The goal is to seek to practically apply the scripture and learn how to properly interpret the scripture ourselves; to teach the youth to get out of their "highchair" and feed themselves the spiritual nourishment found in scripture.
4th pillar:
The 4th pillar is a practical education and application approach (it could also be referred to as a missional approach). The purpose of this pillar is to teach the youth how to practically share their faith, have a quiet time, and pray. And then to put them into practice through acts of service and spending time on their own in the Word. The goal of this pillar is to get the youth to a point where it is natural for them to serve, pray, spend time in the Word on their own, and share the Gospel.
I will be the first to admit that this is not perfect, and I definitely don't have all of the answers. I do, however, know that God has laid this vision on my heart for a purpose, and I am writing this post as more of a reminder to me than anything else.
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