As I was reading the book Almost Christian by Kendra Creasy Dean, I stumbled across this sobering thought from her:
“What if the blasé religiosity of most American teenagers is not the result of poor communication but the result of excellent communication of a watered down gospel so devoid of God’s self-giving love in Jesus Christ, so immune to the sending love of the Holy Spirit that it might not be Christianity at all? What if the church models a way of life that asks not passionate surrender but ho-hum assent? What if we are preaching moral affirmation, a feel-better faith, and a hands off God instead of the decisively involved, impossibly loving radically sending God of Abraham and Mary, who desired us enough to enter creation in Jesus Christ and whose spirit is active in the church and in the world today? If this is the case—if theological malpractice explains teenagers’ half-hearted religious identity—then perhaps most young people practice Moralistic Therapeutic Deism not because they reject Christianity, but because this is the only “Christianity” they know.”
What if the indifference of our teenagers is our fault? What if the reason they do not want to commit their whole life to Christianity is because they see our half-hearted faith? What if the reason that teens don’t want to find their identity in Christ is because they see right through our attempts to identify with Christ on Sundays, and that we neglect Him the rest of the week? Are we modeling and teaching true faith in our churches and families?
Now it must be understood that their lack of faith is ultimately caused by their own sin and rebellion against God, but if our teaching and our modeling gives the next generation the wrong idea about Christianity, then we may be unnecessarily hindering true life-giving faith. And it may prove that our churches are full of people who don’t understand the Gospel themselves.
I use this as a challenge to the Church to re-evaluate our own faith in light of statistics that say record numbers of youth are leaving the church as soon as they have the option.
If all this is true, the only answer is for the Church to focus again on the true Gospel by committing to teaching from God’s Word, surrendering everything to Christ, and to begin modeling true faith to the next generation. As long as our youth and children see inconsistencies in what we tell them and how we live, they will struggle to understand exactly what worship of the true God is, which will often result in them never committing completely to Christ.
Psalm 145:3-5 says, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.”
May we pass this kind of faith to our teenagers as the Psalmist proclaims!
By Steve Houser
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Steve is the Youth Director at Songtan Central Baptist Church. He lives in Songtan, Korea with his wife and their toddler son. He seeks to passionately follow God and lead his family in the worship of God. Other things he enjoys when not spending time with his family are hanging out with the youth group, sports, writing, reading, and Christian Rap.