The classroom seemed somewhat empty this Sunday without the presence of last year’s seniors. Obviously, we knew they were leaving. Our team of youth workers went to their graduation ceremonies in June, and several people from the church went to the kids’ open-house celebrations. It was fun to look at the old photographs their parents had displayed. Yeah, we knew these kids were leaving our group at some point. Most of them had attended this church since they were little. But this was the first week they didn’t come to our senior high Sunday School class—and we missed them.

We reminisced a little bit about each of these kids and talked about what each had contributed to our youth program. Let me tell you about a few of last year’s seniors. Stacy came to everything we did and always sat in the front. She contributed to every discussion, called visitors, and demonstrated solid leadership skills throughout our ministry. She left early last week to attend a well-known Christian university in the Midwest. (more…)

The phrase “thinking outside the box” has become en vogue recently in certain areas of our culture. As many readers will recall, this analogy morphed into our culture’s vernacular due to the puzzle made of three vertical columns of three dots each. The goal of this brainteaser is to use four straight lines to connect all nine dots without lifting your pencil off the paper. The only way to successfully complete the puzzle is to draw the line outside the box. The point, of course, is “outside the box” thinking.

I’ve come to the conclusion, however, that this concept of thinking outside the box may have done us a disservice in some areas of life. Many of us applaud the idea of creativity, and we revolt against the concept of conventional thinking. We cheer free thinkers and disdain the idea of conformity. I’m afraid that many youth workers have accepted this kind of thinking when it comes to ministry.

In some areas I would agree that it is time to think outside the box. Reaching people for Christ and ministering in the context of our culture may demand creative and relevant thinking—and action.

Yet when it comes to doctrinal integrity, we should think inside the box. In other words, let’s remember that our “box” needs to be the inspired and inerrant Word of God. Biblical truth must make up the very fabric of our ministries with students instead of being relegated only to the pages of an oft-ignored doctrinal statement. Is doctrinal integrity merely an outline point in our church constitutions, or is it a highly visible characteristic of our ministries? We must loyally and intentionally ground our student ministries in Bible doctrine.

Most youth workers who read this post would champion doctrinal integrity. They would argue that they want their students to possess such a working knowledge of Scripture that they can personally apply it to their lives and live in accordance to the principles of God’s Word. But there’s a trend that I’ve noticed in many local churches. Many churches are doing away with educational ministries in lieu of other methods of reaching and ministering to today’s students. It seems as if the trend is to emphasize relational ministry at the expense of prioritizing the clear and complete teaching of Scripture. Some churches have begun using the regular youth ministry functions (i.e., Sunday School, youth group meetings) to spotlight entertainment (often in the form of music or video) or social interaction (giving kids the opportunity to just hang out with each other).

I certainly don’t intend this article to be an indictment of all youth workers. In fact, I have visited several churches recently where youth workers are intentionally emphasizing Bible doctrine with students. Many churches still make educating their youth in Biblical truth the top priority of their Sunday Schools and other youth meetings. I also recognize that students need fun, and our churches should provide legitimate opportunities for enjoyable fellowship with other believers and creative outlets for evangelism.

Each youth worker will need to do a comprehensive evaluation of his or her own ministry. Are we utilizing Sunday School as a culturally applicable means to teach Scriptural truth to students? Do our teaching materials and curricula contain sound Biblical truth, and do our lessons reflect the doctrinal truth we want our students to know? Are our other youth meetings intentionally designed to teach students what they need to know about Biblical theology before they graduate from high school? Are we creatively teaching our students the complete Word of God in a way that will change their lives and mold them into mature followers of Christ?

I believe that today’s millennial generation wants to know what they believe. This is a generation that craves depth and substance. Gone are the days when fluff and entertainment can attract great numbers of students. Today’s young adults want something genuine and real—not the diet of contrived reality that is so prevalent in their media-driven culture. According to well-known researcher Christian Smith in his book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, the vast of majority of this generation is interested in what he calls “religious beliefs.”

It’s time to think inside the box.

I had the unique opportunity during my college days to work for a couple of summers at an enormous Procter & Gamble paper mill near my hometown. The factory was an huge operation. On one end of the massive complex, loggers would deposit their semitrailers loaded with felled trees from the northeastern Pennsylvania forests. Out the other end would come a wide array of Procter & Gamble products ranging from Bounty paper towels to Pampers disposal diapers. The process this company went through to turn timber into paper was amazing. The logs were made into pulp, and the pulp was then turned into an assortment of paper products.

I have often wondered about this process as an illustration of local church youth ministry. At one end we receive undeveloped and immature early adolescents – called junior highers. Out the other end of our “factory” comes the finished product – high school graduates. Of course, I understand that this analogy breaks down in places. The natural resource we work with is the lives of individual teenagers (along with their families), which makes our task of molding hearts and lives vastly different than the inanimate process of turning wood into paper. Yet I do believe that we must begin to think intentionally about our product as well as the process by which we turn out graduates from our ministries. (more…)

The Lord gave me a unique opportunity a few weeks ago. On a recent flight I sat next to a young man who was on his way home for the holidays following his first semester at a well-known university. Justin was one of the most outgoing and engaging young people I have ever met. Almost instantly after he sat down in the window seat in our row, he began asking me the typical “airplane questions”: Where are you headed? Where are you from? What do you do? I answered that I work with church youth workers and teenagers and that I was headed to a church to speak to a group of students and their adult youth workers.

His response startled me, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. “Why bother?” he asked before he launched into his story of how he had grown up in an evangelical church and had attended Sunday School and youth group meetings from a very early age. He was quite anxious to inform me that all of his church teachers and youth workers were inconsistent and unreliable and that his first semester at the university had demonstrated to him that Christianity is false. Justin’s brief college experiences had caused him to believe that his Christian upbringing was nothing more than make-believe, feel-good, historical stories that were made up by and for people who need that kind of emotional crutch. (more…)

I am always amazed and astonished by the Biblical story of the birth of Christ in Luke 2:1–39. I love to read it at Christmastime, plus I find myself reading it several other times each year. I love that account of Mary and Joseph’s trip to Bethlehem for the birth of the Christ Child. Humanly speaking, I am saddened that the birth of our Lord—the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Creator of the universe—took place in a manger and not in a grand and gorgeous palace. I can intellectually appreciate the role that prophecy played in that location, but my heart hurts because of the place that the world had for Him.

It is for that reason that I tend to look at Luke’s account of this event as a masterful three-act drama that culminates with the response by the shepherds to the angelic pronouncement of the birth of Christ. Imagine with me the unfolding of this magnificent production. (more…)