Why “Dating Habits of Cult Members During the End-Times” Will Not Be the Subject of Mid-Week Student Ministry Teachings
Our pastors are going to be preaching and teaching our teenagers during our mid-week gatherings beginning in August this year. As we prepare our topics and the gatherings to come, I am reminded of series I led years ago when I had the title Student Pastor. Now, while I am not the “student pastor” I certainly am the pastor of our students and all church members, along with our other pastors on staff. This means that our mid-week gatherings with teenagers is not to be an afterthought or the creation of a sub-church that orbits “big church” like a satellite.
Thus, our gatherings mid-week are to be well-planned and the subject matters.
What does “Dating Habits of Cult Members” Have To Do With…Anything?
That’s a joke…not a funny one, I know, but still. Years ago I joked with youth leaders that if you were struggling to know what to teach teenagers in the mid-week gatherings, surveying the students is not necessarily the best plan. I remember when I was a teenager and I remember what I would say if asked “What do you want to talk about in youth group?” Simple, if you let my friends and me plan the teachings, we will pick one of the following:
Revelation and the end-times (this always is top on the list)
Dating and sex (because…no one ever talked about it at church and wanted the youth leaders to squirm a bit)
Cults and world religions (because studying the weird religious beliefs of others makes us feel superior, maybe?)
Nonetheless, I promised new youth pastors that if they did a teaching on “Dating habits of cult members during the end-times” they would pack the house…especially if they began their service with a messy game and provided unlimited Mountain Dew and pizza.
Thus, the version of youth ministry that was so popular years ago was propagated and growth and “packing the room” was equal to being successful in ministry.
I exaggerate, but there is some truth here.
Now, I’m a bit (more than a bit) older and I know that of the hundreds and hundreds of teenagers who have attended our church over the decades, they would have been better served had I been more intentional early on with the teaching and preaching.
Don’t get me wrong, I had always elevated the power of God’s inerrant Word over the opinions of any teacher (me included) but to be honest, there were times when I would struggle with “What do we do next?”
The pressure to entertain, have fun, make church exciting, and all often overwhelmed me and sadly, at times, drove me to be more focused on the presentation and the fun-meter than on the depth of the teaching. But hey, I was young (not much older than the teenagers I was serving at first) and I am thankful for the grace of a loving church, some incredible teenagers and their parents, and mostly for the longsuffering of the Lord.
But now, we’re shifting how we do student ministry a bit. As a family-equipping church, our focus continues to provide solid, biblical teaching for teenagers as we equip parents and guardians as lead disciple-makers in their respective homes. And with all the entertainment options available for teenagers today, it is clear that the church is not only wasting time and resources, but sadly drifting from her calling if entertaining teenagers and “keeping it fun” is the goal.
In Jon Nielson’s book Bible Study: A Student’s Guide, he says that which I have thought for years and I pray our pastors, student ministry leaders, parents, and mostly our students will take to heart. Here is what Jon says:
If the Bible is powerful, then youth leaders should be teaching the Bible. I know that sounds obvious, but I think this is a real problem in youth ministry today. Here’s where I think it comes from. Youth leaders, in an attempt to be “relevant,” have begun to abandon true reliance on God’s Word and a deep belief in the inherent power of the Bible. They have lost faith in God’s ability to get his work done through his inspired, written Word. So they try in all sorts of ways to “spice up” the message. They analyze the newest Lady Gaga song. They show lots of YouTube clips to demonstrate their main points. They poll the group to figure out what topics the youth want to hear about. They end up doing lots of series on dating, sex, dancing, and modesty. Talks become more funny, more cute, and seemingly more “relevant”…and the Bible plays a less and less prominent role.
Here's what many of us youth leaders have forgotten: the Word of God alone holds inherent, divine power to accomplish the saving work of God in people’s hearts and lives. God’s Word is God’s chosen way to get his work done in students’ lives. So when we make our talks cute, relevant, and funny—and shove the Bible from its rightfully prominent place in our teaching—we have stopped grounding our teaching in the only truly powerful foundation: God’s inspired Word.[1]
He then says this to the students:
If you’re a student, you should absolutely insist on hearing God’s Word preached to you. You should not settle for anything less than a youth leader or pastor who gives you the unmediated, powerful, “straight-up” Word of God from the Bible. Don’t settle for cute! Don’t settle for funny! Don’t settle for talks that are seemingly “relevant.” Demand to hear God’s Word. You deserve to get the good stuff, because Scripture is the only thing that is powerful enough to convict your heart, uncover your sin, and make you wise for salvation in Jesus Christ.
And here’s the ironic twist: it’s actually God’s Word—unmediated—that is the most “relevant” thing of all.[2]
I am so glad that we have not perpetuated an “inch-deep and mile-wide” teaching strategy with our teenagers. What I know is that we will have fun together during our mid-week services. There will likely be some games. Who knows, we may have some Mountain Dew and pizza at times, but I can promise you this. We will NOT be having a teaching series on the “dating habits of cult members during the end-times” or any other voted upon topic of the day in an attempt to be relevant and trendy.
Our students deserve better.
Will we deal with cultural issues? Certainly.
Will we talk about dating, morality, romance, sexuality, identity, etc.? Absolutely.
Will we address truth from an apologetic perspective? Guaranteed.
Yet, with each subject, the topic will not drive the text. Rather, the text will drive the topic. For we cannot relegate good, solid, biblical teaching to adult groups or Sunday worship only. If these students are the “church of today” (which they are) they deserve the truth from the only inerrant source we have.
So, as our pastors prepare, we may end up with what others call a “less trendy” mid-week gathering, but I promise that which is offered will be “meat and not milk” when it comes to the teaching. Imagine what God will do through his well-equipped church!
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[1] Nielson, Jon. Bible Study: A Student’s Guide (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R, 2013), 37-38.
[2] Nielson, 38.
