Inoculated Against the Gospel

According to The Barna Group (Ventura, California) in their report "Most Twentysomethings Put Christianity on the Shelf Following Spiritually Active Teen Years":

• 81% of Teens are engaged in Church to some significant degree during their teen years
• Only 5% of Teens are Bible Believing Christians (Evangelicals)

The church is able to bring large numbers of kids in but they are not effectively ministering to them. Only 5% are actually "Getting it."

Furthermore, while we are engaging 81% of teens only 20% remain engaged during their 20's. We are losing the opportunity to impact the remaining 80%. They have tied Christianity and found it lacking.

Inoculated

When my kids were small, the Doctor gave them inoculations against all kinds of diseases. The way inoculations work is that the body receives a small weakened dose of the disease - not enough for the patient to actually get the disease, but just enough to develop a resistance to it.

This is exactly what youth ministry today is doing. We are giving them a sample of the gospel but they aren't really "getting it." Instead, after a period of time they move on saying "I tried Jesus, now I'll check out something else."

Hypocrisy

"You may be the only Gospel some people ever read" - Source Unknown

Sometime the greatest obstacle to the new kid in the youth group is the existing kids in the group.

When a new kid comes into the youth group, he looks around at the other kids there. He knows he doesn't have any answers and he is checking the other kids out to see if they do. In the end, he finds that most of the kids there (about 95% of the kids) are just like him. Of course that is what he finds since only 5% of the kids there are actually Bible Believing Christians. (note: actual percentages may vary, but you get the point)

Could it be that our youth has become ministry excessively inclusive, and too visitor friendly? Have our youth groups become disproportionately filled with unbelievers to the extent that visitors mistake them for the Christians? A visitor rightly judges that the youth group is full of hypocrites and discounts the gospel message. "Hey, they've been here for years and it hasn't done anything for them. Why should I waste my time?"

A High Standard

(Acts 5:12-13 NASB)  "And at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon's portico. {13} But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem."

The apostles and disciples in Acts were held in high esteem to the extent that some, whose lives were not right, were afraid to associate with them.

Even Jesus had to deal with followers who were not totally committed. His teaching at time was rather hard. In essence, He ran off those who were not really a part of his flock.

(John 6:60, 66 NIV)  "On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"...  "From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him."

On one hand, many churches have been culturally exclusive (i.e. have to dress and look a certain way to be accepted) and the trend toward "visitor friendly" churches is a welcome improvement. We should be accepting of different cultures, musical styles, clothing styles, etc. but not at the expense of the gospel. Unfortunately, it seems that some have watered down the gospel in order to attract more visitors. While they may have been successful at bringing in the visitors, we are missing the whole point if we do not challenge and confront them with the truth. There should be a point at which a person becomes so convicted and uncomfortable about his sin that he must either repent or leave the group. 

Twentysomethings

• We are engaging 81% of teens
• 80% of those in their 20's are either no longer engaged in Church or never were to start with
• only 20% remain engaged during their 20's.
• Only 6% of those in their 20's are Bible believing Christians

So even after they leave the youth group, 3/4 of the people in church in their twenties are NOT Bible believing Christians.

80% have possibly been lost forever.

There are over 4 million 19 year olds in America (2000 US Census) and

• 80%= 3.25 Million we are losing each year
• 5%  = 202,000 that we are keeping (Evangelicals)

Conclusion

These figures are terribly alarming to me. They represent a systemic failure on the part of the church.

One or two ministries that are doing well here and there are fine and good but not enough.

We must change the way we do Church in America.