I’m excited about the work that our new Pastor of Youth and Outreach is doing already, and now you can keep track of him too at www.refugeministry.net.

Refuge Youth Ministry

It’s amazing how lives can be changed where there are few phones and no televisions next to a lake in rural Oklahoma. We arrived home yesterday from church camp at Grand Lake Baptist Assembly near Grove, OK. We were completely exhausted from the heat, the driving, the activities, the odd sleeping hours and eating routine, but I feel so blessed to have gone and experienced it all.

At the end of the week, at least fifty young people had made the decision to receive Christ as Savior and begin a personal relationship with Him. The numbers, however, don’t tell the half of the real story of how lives are impacted by this very important week. I wanted to reflect on some interesting experiences, and you may hear about some of them in future posts as well. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

One of my favorite Bible heroes is Josiah, the eight-year-old king of Israel. When he was a teenager, he commissioned some repairs on the Temple and the Book of the Law was recovered and brought to him. He took it and read it privately and it sparked a passion in his heart to see revival in his generation. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Normally, I delete emails that get forwarded to me that have already been forwarded to hundreds of other people - they’re kind of like spiritual junk mail in the life of a Pastor. But I decided to follow this particular link, watch this five minute video of a youth conference and… WOW! It’s quite powerful. Watch all the way to the end.

It’s apparent that there is a great departure from the church among twentysomethings. Recent studies have proven this statistically, but as a Pastor, I’ve watched it happen during my twelve years in ministry. It may be somewhat natural for young people becoming adults to experiment with living life their own way, including making choices about whether to continue the family tradition of church attendance or not. What is most alarming, however, is that about one in four do not return to church by age thirty, if at all.

Ideas on how to solve this youth exodus abound. We need to offer more programs within the church… We need less programs and deeper theology… We need to involve them more in leadership… Some of the suggestions are great, others lacking. One thing I do know, by observation and biblical data - the reason many young people leave the church has little to do with the church, and much to do with parenting.

Those families that fostered a genuine and authentic love for Jesus and modeled a truly godly lifestyle of humble dependence upon God, and who saturated their home with scriptural thinking, are the most likely to see their kids understand the nature of conversion, come to faith in Christ, and seek to live for Him perpetually. In many cases where kids leave the church, the problem is not that the church wasn’t good enough or entertaining enough. It isn’t that the family didn’t attend church. Instead, it is that there was not a display of authentic faith modeled by Mom and Dad.

We have a lot of confusion today about what genuine faith looks like. There are those families where the parents tend to focus on rules and standards, on being “strict,” and on discipline. None of those things are bad, in and of themselves, in fact, they can be very good. But if we aren’t careful, we’ll give our kids the impression that the Christian life is all about them, and it isn’t. It’s not about whether we’ve communicated our moral values or even our expectations that our kids live by certain standards. It’s about whether we’ve taught them that loving Jesus and following Him is the most worthy and rewarding pursuit in life. Rather than modeling a set of moral standards, we need to be modeling the adventure of living the Christian life in this world.

Having had some experience in youth ministry, and a lot more as a Pastor, I can honestly say one of my greatest frustrations is in parents. Let me be frank. The mentality among many parents is, “I can’t do this job, so here, fix my kid. If anything goes wrong, I’m blaming you!”

The Old and New Testaments concur that the responsibility of training kids to live Christian lives begins in the home. It isn’t that parents need to reaffirm what kids learn at church, it ought to be that the church reaffirms what kids learn at home. We take drop-offs in our children’s ministries all the time, because we love them and God loves them. But our hope is always that eventually those parents will come on a Sunday with their kids. Our hope is further that they eventually take the reins of spiritual leadership from our shoulders.

I realize this issue is really too large to cover in a single blog post, so I’d encourage some discussion on this one. Let me know where I’m right, where I’m wrong, and what solutions you think might work to help stop kids from leaving the church when they enter adulthood. It’s on my mind because my five-year-old is rapidly moving toward adulthood. I want to see her genuinely loving Jesus, and I want to see that for your kids too. In the meantime, here are some thoughts to ponder in relation to this issue…

• The church today must return to a good balanced diet of biblical and doctrinal preaching and teaching, rather than speaking only to the immediately hot or popular issues and felt needs of the day.
• We must also focus on the timeless elements of Christianity even more than the modern trends of society and church growth.
• The local church, though not ultimately to blame, is perhaps the greatest single solution, when she functions correctly as an evangelistic, prophetic, and instructional agent in the lives of families.
• Kids today are growing up in an age of increasing technological “independence” from God, and a time of tremendous intellectual advancement, often to the neglect of God. They need guidance to navigate the waters of adulthood wisely.
• Men, you need to determine to lead your family, your church, and your community so that your boys will not have the impression that church is just for Moms and kids.

Those are a few of my thoughts, what are yours?

“Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.” -Lamentations 5:19

Cartoons these days!! I can remember when cartoons were actually funny instead of gross and wierd. Remember Bugs Bunny outsmarting everyone? Remember Donald Duck always fighting with Chip and Dale? Recently I saw a show about a cow and a chicken and the cow was shooting milk out of its utters like a gatlin gun. What’s going on? Actually, If I’m honest I’ll admit that Wile E. Cyote was pretty violent toward the Road Runner also, but I miss the good ole days (and I’m only 29)!!!

It’s hard to watch generational changes and shifts. Young people today struggle with new problems. Those who do take a stand for Christ suffer far greater persecution than in times past. Temptations are more prevalent with most of the things that were once viewed as “vices” now being seen as part of the normal adolescent experience. This truth should trouble us greatly. But one thing I know… The God of my Grandfather is the God of my (future) grandchildren.

God is always. He has always been, He will always be. So no matter how our culture may shift, the same, immutable, uncompromising God will be here for our teenagers and toddlers that was here for us. It is possible for young people to be godly in the midst of today’s culture. Sadly, we’ve bought Satan’s lie that it’s “just too hard” to live the Christian life “today.” Well wasn’t it hard for Moses in the midst of pagan Egypt? But he chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Remember when you thought you’d just “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” or “sow your wild oats?” Hmm, maybe your generation didn’t really have it that much better after all.

Let all of us old fogies covenant to pray for the up-and-comers today. They face the fire every day. They’re walking through a spiritual minefield but prayer invites the involvement of the God of every generation. He will see them through. He always has His people, in every generation. He calls them out and sends them forth. Let’s pray right now…

I, like many Christians, pray “in the name of Jesus.” At least I say the words before the almost mandatory finale, “Amen.” But what do those words mean… “in the name of Jesus?” Do we realize the impact of them? And do we realize that more than praying in the name of Jesus, we should live in the name of Jesus? Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:17, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

To live in the name of Jesus means, first of all, to live with His approval or His permission. A few years ago, many Christian teens bought WWJD bracelets to remind them of a monumental question, “What would Jesus do?” As great a question as that is, it’s not quite specific enough. Anyone may ask that question without actually knowing Jesus personally. More specifically we should ask, “Do I have Jesus’ permission to make this decision? Would He grant His approval.

In my role as Pastor, many people come to me for “approval” of various decisions. It may be a teacher asking permission to use a particular curriculum or a youth leader asking for approval to stage a certain event. My nod gives the go-ahead. It says, “I agree that this is a good idea and I endorse your following through with it.” It also says, “I’ll back you up if there’s a concern.” Jesus’ approval is no different. As you live your life today and as you make decisions, big and small, ask yourself, “Am I living with Jesus’ approval right now?