2013 Fall Series Generation to Generation Part 1: Teenagers, The 21st Century Challenge of the Church

    "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy based on the principles of this world rather than on Christ."  Colossians 2:8

I was coming out of our local library when I ran into a former student.  I was so happy to see him, for five or six years had passed.  In the short amount of time we talked I had asked the question, "How is your relationship with the Lord?  Are you attending church?"  His response, "Well not at this time, I'm on a spiritual journey."  In trying to understand why, he shared how he was looking into other things.  Now this young man was a top student in my class.  He knew the Scriptures and could hold a conversation with anyone concerning Christ.  We would spend time after class talking about theology and doctrine.  For cry'n out loud…..this guy was later the student chaplain of his school!  Here he was three years out of high school and he was on a spiritual journey.  My heart broke as we said our goodbyes.  In my sixteen years as a high school Bible teacher, whether it be through Facebook or a visit, I have had many students share with me the same story.  Kids who grew up in the church, with  Christian parents and a Christian school education, turning their back on the Lord.  A famous secular humanist and professor, Richard Rotry stated,

    “When we American college teachers encounter religious fundamentalists, we do not consider the possibility of reformulating our own practices of justification so as to give more weight to the authority of the Christian scriptures.  Instead, we do our best to convince these students the benefits of secularization.  Rather, I think these students find themselves under the benevolent teaching of people like me, and to have escaped the grip of their frightening, vicious, dangerous parents. “

I believe the largest pitfall for the church (the body of believers) has been the lack of knowledge towards Gods Word and Apologetics.  In a culture where all ideas toward salvation is accepted, we better have an answer to why we believe that Christ is the answer.  Many of our children have become captive to hollow and deceptive philosophy because they do not know how to effectively give an answer for what they believe.  Some researchers have stated that “70% will leave the faith in college “, where others have stated that “90% of youth active in high school church programs drop out of church by the time they are sophomores in college.”  Whatever the percentage, the reality is, young people are leaving the church by the masses.   I even heard the argument, "Well, the young people leaving the church were really not saved in the first place. Thus the reason for  the exodus of their faith".   Maybe true, to some point.  Yet I think it is deeper than that.  I have had students in my classes who grew up in the church, yet did not have a personal relationship with Christ.  They said all the right things, knew all the right answers, yet you would hear the stories of their weekend adventures.  Their Christian witness was always questioned, yet living on the outside as if their relationship with Christ was important to them.  Then you have the students that really lived out their faith.  These are the students who were not ashamed to stand up for Christ amongst their peers.  What about them?  Their witness was genuine.  Something happened to challenge their faith.  Something happened to change their mind.  I personally believe that it was the constant barrage of ideas that came from the Rotery's of their college campus that began to put doubt into the hearts and minds of our young people.  When you have “about 25% of college professors are professing atheist or agnostics and 51% describe the Bible as a book of fables and myths”  It begins to tear the very core of a student's belief and if they do not know how to use their critical thinking skills to defend their faith, doubt begins to set in.  That's why I believe that Apologetical training is vital.  When you have the likes of Rorty defining his teaching goal to entice his students to read Darwin and Freud “without disgust and incredulity”,  and to “arrange things so that students who enter as bigoted, homophobic, religious fundamentalist (ie, Christian students) will leave college with the views more like our own.”   We better prepare our students to be thinkers of the Word and encourage them to live a life that reflects the life changing decision of Christ salvation. You see, our worldviews shape our values and our values shape our behavior.  If a child's worldview is attacked and demolished, their values that they grew up with will change and their behavior will reflect that.  C.S. Lewis writes,

    “We are now getting to the point at which different beliefs about the universe lead to different behavior.  Religion involves a series of statements about facts, which must be either true or false. “

In a culture where absolute truths are being challenged everyday, it is important as parents and pastors to train and equip our young people with the answers to their faith.  To do this I have organized four questions for my students to understand and build their worldview.  I call these the Four Basic Questions or 4Bq’s.  They ask simple questions that allow a person to identify other worldviews, yet helps build a foundation for a person to build their confidence in the dialogue of ideas.  The 4Bq’s include the following questions:  How do you see the world created?; How do you see human beings?; How do you see life after death?; How do you determine right and wrong?

To learn more about the 4Bq's go to the following article:  From the Classroom: Everyone has a Worldview part 2

 His call.  His gift to you.  Your purpose.  Irrevocable.