"There is great cause for worry, since many youth do not find a home in our church any more. Must this be seen against the bigger framework of secularisation; have we as adults lost credibility among the youth, or can it be ascribed to the fact that youth have been repeatedly called the ‘church of the future,' which implies that they do not enjoy any space within the adult congregation? We have to deal with these and many other questions."
These words were written almost 10 years ago by a Lutheran Bishop in preparation for an Evangelical Lutheran Church of SA Synod. They could, however, have been written by any one of our mainline churches and are as relevant today as they ever were. When the head of a pre-primary school recently asked the Grade 0 children "How many of you went to church on Sunday?" only 2 or 3 children out of 60 put up their hands.
Perhaps it's a commentary on the secularisation of our society. More likely it is the ripple down effect of our failure in our ministry to young people over the years. This leaves us with an enormous task – to evangelise both parents and children and to really develop an effective ministry to the children we still have.
The failure of our ministry to young people is actually a measure of the failure of our ministry. Ministry to young people is in some respects no different from the all-embracing ministry to everyone. Young people are not only receivers of God's word, but also proclaimers of it, as well as collaborators of the coming of God's kingdom. That God comes to young people makes them no different from any other Christians. All follow the same mission command to go and disciple all people; all preach the same gospel and all belong to the same Body of Christ – filled with the same gifts and empowered by the same Spirit for ministry.
Nevertheless, there are differences and we need to recognise them and plan them into our ministry and worship. The normal parish pattern is not conducive to growing our young people. In both the Old and New Testaments we see examples of God using young people:
David and Samuel were both young when they were called.
Jeremiah was a young person when God called him to be a prophet, and he responded, "Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak, I am only a child." But the Lord said to him, "Do not say, 'I am only a child' . . . I have put my words in your mouth."
In the New Testament Timothy was a young person. Paul said to him, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."
Even Jesus at the start and end of his ministry was still what the ANC call "youth."
God has not changed. God still calls and uses young people for the work of ministry and salvation. Young people are not the church of tomorrow, they are the church today. Ministry to young people is part of the ministry of all believers; ministry by young people is part of the ministry of all believers; and ministry by young people is a ministry to all believers. God does not call young people to minister to each other, but to minister to everyone.
Our task is to nurture the ministry of everyone, including our young people. We can only do this if we are intentional about developing our ministry and intentional about developing our young people. Successful ministry to young people is not so much about having programmes for young people as it is about commitment. If you, as leaders, are not committed to growing young people, it won't happen. And the sad truth is that, for almost all of us, that commitment is lacking.
Let's look at our ministry to young people. Sunday School – is it a serious ministry or a baby-sitting service? What teaching material do they use? Do we have enough really good teachers? How are they trained? Where does our Sunday School meet? Are the facilities adequate? How much money do we budget / spend on our Sunday School? It all boils down to commitment – the commitment of our leaders to make it happen.
We could do ask the same questions in respect of our youth group / confirmation group / young adults. It all boils down to question: How serious are we about growing them? How much are we willing to invest in growing them in the Lord. It is false economy to paint the church at the expense of our ministry with young people. Rather let the church building fall down – that way everyone will see the reality; that the church is collapsing.
What is needed today is commitment – commitment to growing our church and young people. It's not just a commitment to budget / spend, nor simply involving young people in worship services, but a question of orientation. It's putting our children first and re-designing our church life and our worship to reflect our commitment to them.
Let me paint a picture. Imagine that one of our parishes made just such a commitment – and realised that they didn't have the facilities to do what they wanted to do. Instead of extending / building a bigger church which they were planning to do, they realised their first need was to design and build facilities to accommodate their Sunday School and Youth Group (and to meet some of the needs of the older people in the process). As they began talking about what they would do with their children and how the children would help them reach out into the community so people began volunteering to do things and to get involved in ministry with young people. Suddenly there were enough people to teach Sunday School – in fact there was a waiting list of teachers. Youth group / junior youth group programmes sprang up and more and more people got involved. A homework supervision / extra lesson programme started and soon every day there were young people hanging out at the church. So a coffee shop was started so the kids could buy a cold-drink or snack – and some of the older folk started hanging our there, too. Prayer and counselling ministries began springing up – not only to young people, and people who weren't even part of the parish started dropping in for a cup of coffee or a light lunch. And the parish just grew and grew and its ministry spread far and wide.
That dream is just a figment of my imagination. But almost every part of that dream is happening (or has happened) somewhere in our diocese. It doesn't have to be a dream – if we want to, really want to, we can make that dream a reality. I believe it's what God wants. The rest is up to us.
+Brian Germond
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