“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” Thus says Peter in 1 Peter 3:15-16. The reality of our youth ministries in America, is the fact that we hardly prepare our students when it comes to the tough questions that people ask in objection of the Faith. Not only do outsiders ask but even our students ask this. I was speaking with one of my guys in my middle school small group about this subject and he asked me how do you logically and reasonably and rationally state why the belief in God makes more sense then the belief that there is no God at all? That is a good question, now he asked this question because he has been talking to a friend of his at school! how asked how you know that there is a God to begin with. Honestly we can’t know 100% that there is a God. My argument is that it makes more sense to believe that there is a God rather then not, and that is based off of logical reasoning coupled with scientific evidence, the life of Jesus Christ that we see in the historical accounts of the Gospels. I believe that D. A. Carson hits it home when he states: ““The broader problem is that a great deal of popular preaching and teaching uses the bible as a pegboard on which to hang a fair bit of Christianized pop psychology or moralizing encouragement, with very little effort to teach the faithful, from the Bible, the massive doctrines of historic confessional Christianity.” Now I am not saying that all churches do this, but the reality of the picture is that youth ministries may teach good doctrine but they never teach how to defend such Doctrine and the Christian Faith to begin with. It is my belief that teaching good doctrine is not good enough anymore. As one blog website that I follow, (http://marc5solas.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/top-10-reasons-our-kids-leave-church/) states:
It’s not that our students “got smarter” when they left home, rather someone actually treated them as intelligent. Rather than dumbing down the message, the agnostics and atheists treat our youth as intelligent and challenge their intellect with “deep thoughts” of question and doubt. Many of these “doubts” have been answered, in great depth, over the centuries of our faith. However….
Let’s just be honest, most of our churches are sending youth into the world embarrassingly ignorant of our faith. How could we not? We’ve jettisoned catechesis, sold them on “deeds not creeds” and encouraged them to start the quest to find “God’s plan for their life”. Yes, I know your church has a “What we believe” page, but is that actually being taught and reinforced from the pulpit? I’ve met evangelical church leaders (“Pastors”) who didn’t know the difference between justification and sanctification. I’ve met megachurch board members who didn’t understand the atonement. When we chose leaders based upon their ability to draw and lead rather than to accurately teach the faith? Well, we don’t teach the faith. Surprised? And instead of the orthodox, historic faith…..
The writer goes on to say how we have been teaching our young adults, a it’s not a religion its a relationship, but lets be honest we can cross out relationship and replace it with feeling, because right now we aren’t giving them an objective rational faith. We are all talking about how it’s supposed to make you feel better. I believe D. A. Carson has it right when he states: “The broader problem is that a great deal of popular preaching and teaching uses the bible as a pegboard on which to hang a fair bit of Christianized pop psychology or moralizing encouragement, with very little effort to teach the faithful, from the Bible, the massive doctrines of historic confessional Christianity.”
Now not all of Youth Ministries are like this. I am a part of a youth ministry that is just about to work on getting Apologetics being incorporated more into our regular services for next year. Looking forward in being apart of working with the youth pastor of Hillcrest Chapel.
Without a turn to teaching Apologetics in our youth ministries, I fear that Christianity will become extinct. The need for Apologetics are extremely for the next generation! The more anti-Christian our culture and nation becomes the more temptation there will be to abandon the faith, because it would be easier to live in harmony with everyone, and be liked more without our religious believes!
Also to say that America is still a Christian nation is just ignorant! America may have be a Christian nation in the past, however, in our day and age that is just not true! We Christians, need to become missionaries in our own country! Therefore we need to train our students how to use Apologetics effectively and maturely in this post-Christian nation!
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