Revival and Renewal

What we’re experiencing culturally right now is, parents are awakening to the reality of the world that their kids are inheriting. And there’s concern about it, and I think rightfully so… probably the greatest concern is we’re preparing kids for lives they are not going to lead. And we are not preparing kids for the life that they are going to lead. 

J.T. English in conversation with Collin Hansen, Gospelbound Podcast

In a recent article in the New York Times, David Leonhardt listed several concerning realities of living as a teenager during COVID. The pandemic years have produced a rapid spike in mental health problems and hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and violence against children. 2021 saw over 100 residents of Chicago under 20 murdered, and school shootings hit an all-time high at 42. The issues go on and on. Students across the country are in crisis, and the threat of the omicron variant placed on the already fragile routines eked out during the summer lull has produced even more uncertainty.

As a youth pastor, every week I hear about “anxiety.” That word is used as a catch-all to cover the whole swath of worries that students have about the future, about their parents, families, and the world around them. Students are bombarded with the crushing weight of expectations academically, socially, politically, medically, and environmentally. Mix that with the normal emotional vascillations of adolescence and now we have a cocktail of tension and stress. Even more troubling, social media has produced a culture of honor and shame that produces an added fragility, fear, and pressure on students to be honored and not shamed by their peers. TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and the like bestow this honor on the cynical, the prankster, and the rebel, and so it’s no surprise that teachers have reported a rise in disruptive behavior from fighting and crude joking to vandalism.

It doesn’t take a sociologist to conclude that we have a youth crisis on our hands.

Normal Is No Help

Often, the answer given to this crisis is that students need to return to “normal.” But I think we’ve forgotten how woefully insufficient this “normal” was in preparing youth to flourish, not just as human beings but as followers of Jesus. Trends in social anxiety, youth isolation, and disillusionment far predate COVID. The assumptions and systems of adolescent life in the United States at the turn of the 21st century were rooted in the idea that self-selection, extra-curricular activities, and entertainment made a good adolescence and therefore made flourishing adults. But, even twenty years ago it was becoming clear that adolescents were unable to function as adults after adolescence in ways common fifty years prior. One study noticed how basically all facets of adolescent culture produced a sense of disengagement, isolation, and marginalization. Ironically, this happens through the very systems designed to engage and entertain them. The end result was the elongation of adolescence and a drop in adult resiliency.

The old “normal” was no better at producing thriving disciples of Jesus than producing thriving adults. This prioritization of self-selection, extra-curricular activities, and entertainment trickled down into youth ministry. Sports and events took precedent over youth group, and youth ministry was evaluated more as a “program” than as a vital part of teen life. The youth ministries that thrived were those that prioritized selling youth ministry to teens (since, in this way of thinking, they are the main deciders of its value in their lives) and therefore focusing more on entertainment than real discipleship. In other words, a good youth group “fit” into the assumptions of what makes for teenage flourishing. That meant very little Bible (boring!), very low commitment (too much going on!), and very little disruption to “normal.”

But now we find ourselves with generations of young adults who have left the church, or who while staying in it feel disconnected and alone. What’s more, what they did learn in youth group boiled down to platitudes about sex and dating, and so they know little-to-nothing about the basic structure and content of Scripture, the Christian story, or what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Add to this all the stresses of modern life, and it seems that youth ministry in the “normal” way has failed.

Jesus, Not Normal

If the old “normal” can’t satisfy, what can? That’s where Jesus comes in.

 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11-28-30

The answer to the youth crisis is a robust commitment to leading youth to Christ in and through Christian community. J.T. English writes in his book Deep Discipleship that “the local church is the primary place that God intends to make and form holistic disciples.” The place that we “learn from” Christ is in Christian community. The vision in the Bible of youth discipleship is one of instruction (Deuteronomy 6:7; Psalm 78:4), inclusion (Matthew 19:13-15), and mentoring (Titus 2:1-6). Youth groups, when run well, are special places where these aspects can come to the fore in ways that reinforce the discipleship taking place at home. It is a place where they can be truly prepared for the actual world, and a place where Jesus can speak his rest to them as they learn from him and take his yoke on them. It’s a place, not of achievement, but of openness and honesty. It isn’t focused on “fun” (that great idol) but rather on the deep well of joy that comes from being a real part of a real community. The same research group cited above wrote that “the experience of feeling that one has no meaningful role in the wider community has been cited as the root cause of many problems among youth.” The church, both in youth group and in the wider congregation, is that wider community.

The reality is that the world is not going to magically “get better.” Wars and rumors of wars, pandemics, societal breakdown, and the like are just birth-pangs of what’s to come (Matthew 24:3-8). Jesus has given us everything we need to weather the storm and grow closer to him in it. He’s given us his very body, the church, so that together we might “encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25). So, as the world vacillates between bad and worse, prioritize his body, both for yourself and your teens. In and through the church Jesus promises a rest that “normal” can never give.

If you’re a youth pastor or leader reading this, a great place to start to think about how youth ministry should be structured is Deep Discipleship by J.T. English, Lead them to Jesus by Mike McGarry, Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker by Andrew Root, and Foundations for Youth Ministry by Dean Borgman.