(posted : Tuesday Mar 15, 2011)
Every Student Pastor worth his weight in salt wants to have a large youth group. Our goal as a church is to always reach more people. But sometimes I wonder, "At what cost?" Sometimes, we are so interested in the masses, that we miss the people. One of my student ministry heros has burned this thought into my brain in recent years: You can't reach the many until you reach the one.
Every Student Pastor worth his weight in salt wants to have a large youth group. Our goal as a church is to always reach more people. But sometimes I wonder, "At what cost?" Sometimes, we are so interested in the masses, that we miss the people. One of my student ministry heros has burned this thought into my brain in recent years: You can't reach the many until you reach the one.
This past Sunday, my wife and I were able to share the Gospel with two girls who came to our church for the first time. As is my usual approach, we talked about many different things, but I also asked many questions about their church background. Both had said they had spent much time in church, and I knew both churches in our city. As we kept going, and I pressed them about their relationship with God, one of them said, "Well, I've never been baptized, or...what's that other thing.....saved." I asked her what those things meant, and she had no idea. So, beginning with Creation, I explained God's story to them, culminating with Jesus dying on the cross, being buried and rising again. Both girls made professions of faith in Jesus that night.
That is my joy! Seeing young people (or older people) trust Jesus alone for forgiveness of sins and a guaranteed home in heaven.
Here is my frustration: both spent much time in church and, to their recollection, had not heard the Gospel before. This is what I call Student Ministry Fail. Student pastors who are more concerned with large numbers in the building than they are with students one-by-one putting their faith in Jesus alone. How have we become so off base in our thinking that we've missed the entire point of the church? Church (and our student ministry) is not just some place for Jesus followers to hang out in a holy huddle. The church is designed to be a mission for those lost in life; a hospital for those who are ailing; a lighthouse for those who can't see their way. Above all, the church is designed to be God's missionaries to take the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who don't know Him.
So let's go, student pastor. Stop spending more time on how to be the coolest ministry around than on sharing the Gospel with every teenager you encounter. Be about God's work. Be about the Gospel!
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