why the church can't survive without youth

Why does the church need youth? Recent circumstances prompted me to consider this question in greater depth than day-to-day ministry normally requires. Churches everywhere expend thousands of dollars annually to build and sustain student ministries. But why? Is it truly worth the cost? Here are the top reasons why young people are indispensable to the church’s existence:

1. They are the future of the church. This is obvious nearly to the point of being trite. But it cannot go without being said because it is easily forgotten. Deuteronomy 4:9 tells us, “Be careful never to forget what you have seen the Lord do for you. Do not let these things escape your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren” (NLT, emphasis mine). This directive to give a spiritual inheritance to succeeding generations through instruction is repeated at least 4 times in the Old Testament, and this repetition serves to underscore its importance. The point is that successive generations are spiritual heirs who must be trained to take up the mantle of leadership. And this applies not only to our biological descendants, but to adopted spiritual heirs as well. In the New Testament, Paul writes at length about adoption into the family of God, and calls himself a spiritual father to many.
2. They perpetuate the faith. Where there are generational gaps, there is discontinuity in the succession of faith. Scripture highlights the importance of teaching our inheritors while they are young, before the cynicism of secular (read “godless) thought has its say. As Proverbs has it, “Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it” (22:6, NLT). It certainly is not coincidental that Jesus taught on the importance of childlike faith. Indeed, the Old Testament, particularly the chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah, provides sober accounts of the enormity of damage that can be done in a single generation’s time.
3. They are the here-and-now of the church. It is all-too easy to consign youth to a future tense as leaders-in-training whose voices are not yet developed. But this attitude ignores Biblical reality. Broadly speaking, all of us – veteran saint and sage included – are works in progress. If we waited until we were “ready” for leadership, the church would be perpetually leaderless. True, we are instructed to carefully select our leaders and avoid hastily thrusting untried individuals into such positions (1 Timothy 3:10, 5:22). Yet the fact remains that the perfect and fully-prepared leader is nothing more than a pleasant fiction. In particular, young people are a vital element of church dynamics; their as-of-yet unfettered zeal lends an energy and drive that pushes us toward the fulfillment of our lofty calling, and it complements the time-tempered experience of seasoned believers.
4. They are powerful examples of the faith. So much of secular culture focuses upon the young. So when they rise as champions of the cross, they send a compelling message, both to those outside the church and those within it. Paul understood this quite clearly, reminding his young protégé, Timothy: “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you teach, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity” (1 Timothy 4:12, NLT). One needs only to consider the many heroes of faith who were “underage” when God used them: Samuel, David, Josiah, Esther, Mary. And we cannot forget Jesus in that list: “And a little child will lead them all” (Isaiah 11:6, NLT). Without question, the church would be a different place had these individuals waited until an “appropriate” age to do God’s work.

 

Young people are prone to being rambunctious, rash, ill-mannered, and self-centered. But we need them, just as they need us. We all wore their shoes once, and we are where we are because caring elders took the time to lovingly, graciously, and patiently instruct us through our own unloveliness, gracelessness, and impatience. None of us arrived at our present spiritual state independently. We, then, owe it to our forebears – and to our own successors – to do likewise.