Daily Lesson for March 10, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 2 through 4:

2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and othe wonders that he has done.

Last night we had a deacons meeting and our youth pastor Jakob talked to the deacons about the importance of the whole church taking on responsibility for passing on the faith to our youth. 

Jakob said that for the last 50 years youth ministry has followed a model that takes the youth out of worship and out of the rest of the overall life of the church and sits them in youth rooms with special youth services, messages, skits, and games. Jakob said what this has ended up doing is making  youth group kids into really good Christian teenagers, but poor Christian adults.  Once they graduate from high school and their youth group they leave the church altogether; and few ever make it back. What is missing in this model is meaningful interaction with more mature Christian adults who can show these young people what it means to be a Christian beyond gags and giggles of youth lockins and pizza parties. The most determinate factor in whether or not a young person will keep and practice his or her faith beyond high school is a significant relationship with an adult role model, Jakob told us.

We then had a guy who grew up in our church named Chris stand up and tell about an adult who served as a significant role model in his life as a teenager. Chris is still in the church and is Exhibit A of someone who learned to be a mature Christian by way of relationship with an older, more mature Christian.

Finally, we then read a reflection a guy named David did after one of his role models Stony, a deacon in our church, passed away.  David lives in Austin, but drove up to Lubbock to pay his respect at Stony's funeral because when David was growing up in our church Stony had served as a father-figure to him. After the funeral, David sent along his reflection on Stony, which basically described all the things that Jakob talked about earlier in the evening. And sure enough, David is still in the church -- one of our sister churches in Austin.

I've said it before; read the gospels and its amazing how often Jesus is doing youth ministry. It's like he's always healing somebody's son or raising somebody's daughter; and one of the things he had to chastise the disciples for was their trying to keep kids away from him.  "Let the children come unto me," he said. It's like for Jesus ministry with youth wasn't just youth ministry, but was ministry ministry; and he was willing to do it.

Let the children come; do not stop them with shallow youth group experiences which will only result in them becoming adults. Let them come to us; and let us model for them the high and sacrificial call of following Jesus. Because contrary to what we might think, some of these kids are actually paying attention, and some are even finding it inspiring when they see an adult who takes the story of his or her faith seriously enough to really live it out, and even pass it on.