Infant in Grace

I’m about to begin seminary in the fall and it’s not cheap. Between Jade and I we have student debt that equals the price of a nice house. To make matters worse we didn’t actually pick professions that are known for over paying. Teachers and Preachers aren’t the richest Americnas that’s for sure. Bishop Will Willimon addressed this issue recently on his blog.

http://willimon.blogspot.com/2009/03/educational-indebtedness-of-new-pastors.html

The bottom line is that most mainline ministers graduate with the same amount of education as lawyers and some in the medical field, also having the same amount of loans. The good news for the lawyers and doctors is that they will make substantial salaries (probably double mine) after graduation and shouldn’t have as much trouble paying off their lonans.

Wow. I never thought that I would see this happen. For those of you who don’t know, Michael Tait was one of the singers in DC Talk. Now he will be the frontman of Newsboys. I’m excited about it, but to be honest, it’s just weird. This is kind of like Derek Jeter become the shortstop for the Red Sox; Coach K becoming the coach at UNC; Bill O’reilly joing MSNBC. Ok, i’m exaggerating, but Tait with the Newsboys just seems strange to me. I’m taking my youth group to see the Newsboys in April. I’m glad that I heard about this before I went, otherwise, I would have been really confused.

I’ve been given the opportunity to preach this Sunday and so this week I have been working on my sermon. During my sermon preparation I came across an interesting quote in Donald Miller’s book, “Searching for God Know What”. It’s a great book and I highly recommend it.

In the book he was thinking about humanity and wondered that if aliens came down to earth, what would they find out about humans? Here is what he said:

Humans, as a species, are constantly, and in every way, comparing themselves to one another, which, given the brief nature of their existence, seems an oddity and, for that matter, a waste. Nevertheless, this is the driving influence behind every human’s social development, their emotional health and sense of joy, and, sadly, their greatest tragedies. It is as though something that helped them function and live well has gone missing, and they are searching for that missing thing in all sorts of odd methods, none of which are working. The greater tragedy is that very few people understand they have the disease. This seems strange as well because it is obvious. To be sure, it is killing them, and yet sustaining their social and economic systems. They are an entirely beautiful people with a terrible problem.

This certainly gives me something to think about.

This past week I took a handful of my youth to a local youth rally. The local Baptist churches (with a few other churches I think) got together some months back to put together a youth rally. They said that they wanted to see Cordele taken over by Christianity and for the power of Christ to transform this area. Here are my thoughts and observations on the event.

When we arrived, there were probably 100 adult volunteers, all wearing a shirt that said “Staff” on the back. They all looked like they had clothes hangers stuck in their mouths (see picture above). Coaches and teachers that are usually mean to the students were walking around telling teenagers, “God Bless you!”  ”Glad to see you here!” “Will you join my religion!” (o.k. they didn’t say that but that seemed to be the point of the rally.)

When it started, there was an announcer who threw out t-shirts and raffled away an I-pod.

When the music started we were basically commanded to stand up and clap, sing, and lift up our hands. During the worship time several “staff” members were walking around telling people to get up on their feet. One member’s job was to be the hand-clapping police. She went around to make sure that everyone was clapping. If not, she stood in front of them clapping until that person joined in. Then we had the raised-hands police. This guy went around constantly lifting his hands to encourage participation. Then we had the models. There were several staff member who basically walked around holding their hands up. I guess they were trying to set an example for us to follow.

The speaker was pretty entertaining. However, I didn’t really agree with his theology. A few times he made statements like, “This could be your last chance on earth to accept Jesus.  What if you die tomorrow? There is a hell and real people go there” (paraphrased) After his sermon, while the musicians were playing a ’soft’ song, about 75 teenagers went up front to ‘accept Christ’. This really made the “staff” excited as they started jumping up and down, clapping, and singing again. Then it was over.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the adult’s desire to have a positive influence on teenagers. I’m one of the few mainline youth pastors who doesn’t have a problem working with Southern Baptist’s. There is also a chance that someone’s life may have been changed because of the rally.

However, I believe that lives are changed through relationships and not youth rallies. When someone gets excited and wants to do something for the youth in the community, they put together a youth rally. In other words, they organize an event and put it into the hands of the speaker and the band to relate to the teenagers and lead them to Christ. They ask teachers and coaches from school who are normally mean to the students to come and “show the love of Christ”. Then they hope and pray that the students will respond to the songs and guest speaker.

Two thoughts.

1.Teenagers aren’t as stupid as we think. They can see through inauthenticity very easily. They have a gift for it. If you treat them like they don’t matter outside of the church, don’t think that you can treat them differently in church and they believe you.

2. Teenagers respond to emotion. If you have a Christian gathering or for that matter a muslim, hindu, or JW gathering and the music is just right and the speaker is funny and convincing, some will respond. Sometimes it’s the drawing of the Holy Spirit and a teenager responding to that, but many times it’s a response to emotion. “This feels good. My friends went up front and I will too. I like this song. My youth pastor will be proud.”

This is not ‘witness’. This is manipulation. Jesus preached a kingdom of love and freedom. Whenever we try to manipulate teenagers to accept him, we go completely against what Christ taught.

Teenagers need Christ. I’m grateful for all of the adults who believe that and are willing to do something about it. Here’s something that can be done: Love them. Care for them. Listen to them. Show the love of Christ to them by being a caring adult.