Joshua Hawk

This past weekend, I attended our West Texas Men’s Ministry Fuel Conference. Since 2017, I have been attending district events for men and they have yet to disappoint! As I write this, I have been to a total of three district conferences and two retreats. Something that I noticed this weekend and at the other events in the past is young men between the ages of 20-29 are largely absent. If you counted how many of them actually attended these events, they could be counted on one hand. I can’t say this with absolute certainty because I don’t attend women’s ministries but I would imagine there is also a low number of young women who attend district functions for women.

I found myself wondering why this was so and often attributed this to the negative stereotypes associated with Millennials; however, back in the summer of 2019, my perception about young adult Christians changed. This past June, I got to serve as an adult monitor at our West Texas youth camp. I wasn’t sure what to expect because this was my first time going to a district youth camp as an adult, but as I pulled up in the people mover to the Roaring Springs camp, I was surprised by what I saw. A large welcoming party of Camp Crew came to greet us. Can you guess what their ages were? That’s right, they were all in their 20s!

During that week of youth camp, I got to visit with a lot of these young adults just to see where their hearts were. Most of these young adults felt called to be youth pastors, worship leaders, and missionaries. Some of them even referred to themselves as “lifers” meaning they fell in love with youth camp as a teenager and have no plans on missing a youth camp any time soon. At face value all of this sounds great but I began to have great concern for the future of the church.

Sadly, the church is shrinking in size and is getting a lot older. In fact, the average age of a senior pastor in America today is 54 years old and that number is increasing with every passing year (Barna Group). Many pastors have had to come out of retirement or overextended their tenure because of the shortage of pastors and the lack of fresh blood to carry the baton. Throughout the years, I have discovered that people between the ages of 18-30 are more likely to do full-time ministries involving children, youth, college students, and missions. Most of them if any don’t give pastoring a church a single thought. When was the last time you heard a young person say, “I feel called to be a pastor or an evangelist?” Odds are it has been a while or perhaps you cannot bring one to memory.

So what exactly is going on with young people and the church? Why are young people distancing themselves from the established church in favor of other ministries? Granted, some people are legitimately called to do these other ministries but I am convinced that too many confuse passion with calling. Surely God wants more young people to step into the larger roles of the church but many don’t. Factors such as spiritual immaturity, fear, and lack of interest are all obvious symptoms of the issue; however, I believe one of the many culprits is something that the majority of church leaders would dismiss as far fetched and absurd. Despite how people may feel, please allow me to take a moment to present my case.

As a kid, I grew up in Royal Rangers. I like to compare Royal Rangers to a church version of the Boy Scouts of America. In Royal Rangers, we learned how to tie knots, make camp fires, went on camping trips, learned how to post the colors, and competed in pinewood derby’s. I loved Royal Rangers as a teenager and probably would have stayed with it until I graduated high school but my mom pulled my brothers and I out of it and stuck us in youth because the roughhousing was getting out of control. But come to think of it, the only thing I remember about Royal Rangers are the things I listed before. Sadly, I cannot remember a single bible devotional that our Commanders taught us. Royal Rangers did very little for my spiritual growth because I was more interested in earning the next badge or going to the next Pow Wow. This became painfully evident when I was chosen to represent our Outpost as Ranger of the district. I vividly remember competing against one other boy from another Outpost in NM. There were two parts to the competition, display of survival skills and knowledge of the Bible. I was the superior candidate in the survival skills category but the other boy mopped the floor with me in the the Bible knowledge category. Needless to say I was not chosen as Ranger of the district.

In youth, I quickly put my Royal Ranger days behind me. I fell in love with the youth group and for the first time in my life I felt a sense of identity and belonging. We represented our youth group in school by wearing youth t-shirts, we played games, and we put together some amazing human videos. I was never more proud of belonging to a group than I was with Soldjah’z youth. But again to this day, I can’t name a single sermon that my youth pastor preached. Perhaps I was more interested in the band, the girls, and the pizza but somehow the most important thing didn’t leave an indelible impression on my memory.

I will admit that I am largely to blame because I wasn’t teachable enough but I also believe these church programs failed me to some degree. As an adult and third party observer, I have seen too many kids who graduate to middle school and have a difficult time leaving children’s church. What will often happen is these middle schoolers are granted the opportunity to stay in children’s church as “student leaders” until they are ready to join youth. Tragically their biblical literacy and spiritual growth are stymied because they’re fed puppet shows, kiddie songs with hand motions, and the same bible stories taught at a five year old’s level. This is repeated again a few years later when seniors graduate from high school but don’t want to leave youth because they love the culture and community. To avoid kicking them out or hurting their feelings, they are made into “adult leaders” and stick around youth well into their 20s. They avoid the adult service because it’s not as exciting for them. They would rather be playing SQUADS and listening to bumping music than forced to sit still in a sanctuary for an hour with a bunch of old people and receive the bread and butter from the Word of God.

Now please do not assume I am against age specific church programs. I think it is amazing that we have ministries that cater to people of all age groups; however, these programs can become detrimental to the church body as a whole when they are ran by prayerless leaders who lack the anointing and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Again, I am not bashing on church programs. I believe church programs can be great tools for teaching age appropriate material but I also believe these programs can also do great harm when there is zero integration with the rest of the church body, a greater emphasis is put on “fun”, and when unqualified leaders are placed in charge of these programs. I truly believe that poorly ran programs are the very reason that young people do not identify with the church. Look at it this way:

Imagine growing up in a city that has just about everything you could think of; nice restaurants, a local university, places to hangout, and plenty of entertainment. Imagine then you graduated college and you were offered a job that required you to move to a podunk that had no internet, no movie theater, and no Starbucks. How difficult would it be for you to adjust to the new lifestyle if you accepted the job? Would you even consider accepting the job? Sadly, this is exactly how it is for young people in the church. Young people have become too dependent on the commodities and entertainment that church programs provide so when it’s time to finally grow up and join “big people’s” church, it’s a culture shock. Instead of rocking out with a band, they’re sitting on a pew as two white haired ladies play unfamiliar hymns on an old out of tune piano and organ. Instead of playing games and eating pizza, they are having to hold something in their hands that isn’t their smartphone (the bible) and sadly they’re not as familiar with it as they should be. Church programs have relied too much on keeping kids and students entertained that young people now require the church to entertain them to stay “relevant.” Young people are acting in such a way that clearly communicates, “You’re outdated and need to change. You’re the problem so I’m staying right here!”

This is one of the many reasons why young people struggle with the church. Poorly ran church programs have done very little to prepare them for the future and has set the church up for failure. But the truth of the matter is, the church needs young people to survive! There is indeed a problem but the church needs young people to be a part of the solution!

60 plus years ago, things like nurseries, children’s church, and youth ministries did not exist. Babies, kids, teenagers, parents, young adults, and seniors all worshipped together under one roof so attending church services never felt alien to young people. One thing that I am grateful for is my mom made my siblings and I sit through church services when we were younger. Even though I didn’t appreciate it then, I got to see God move in incredible ways that I never saw duplicated in children’s church and youth services. I saw people healed, demons cast out, people slain in the Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit. God is not a respecter of persons so there is no reason why these things should not be occurring in our Next-Gen programs; but sadly they’re not happening as much as they did in decades past.

Next-Gen leaders, I implore you to teach your kids and students the Word of God. Teach them to love prayer. Your goal is to get them off the milk and bottle and start feeding them solid foods. Stop expecting “big people’s” church to do that. Dial it back on the fun activities. Condition your kids and students to entertain God instead of expecting to be entertained. What will kids remember most about their adolescent years in church? Will the only thing they remember from children’s church are the words and motions to Father Abraham? Will the only thing they remember from youth is the boy or girl they crushed on and how much they enjoyed the music and games? Or will they remember what you taught them? Will they remember the lessons and messages and choose to apply it for the rest of their lives? The time you have right now with your kids and students is crucial. Make the most of the time you have with them. Not only is the church counting on you but so is God!

“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” James 3:1 NIV