Author: Wick

Ed Stetzer serves as President of Lifeway (Baptist publisher) Research.  He admitted that because of this, he’s very into statistics and information.  Although I disagreed with how many of his results were gathered, and what conclusions he came to….he presented some still valid encouragement toward faith in the home.

He quoted (but didn’t give credit to) the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism“.  The fact that many people (not just teens) are pursuing a god that doesn’t exist.  One that desires us to just generally be “good people”.  That wants to make us feel better all the time, and put band-aids on our wounds.  That such a god must exist “somewhere out there, somehow”, but not quite giving it a name, or open to what god may mean in our reality today.

If that’s the god we serve, that’s the god our teens will pretend to serve while church services are entertaining enough, and then opt out when they realize the hypocrisy of declaring one thing, and living something quite different.

Stetzer reminded us the value of “owning your Faith” – as a parent AND as a family.  In lieu of Deuteronomy 6:4-9, that these things would be a part of every area of our being, and that would be obvious to our children and visitors to our home and life.  He gave 3 tips here:
1. Sharing Your Faith – Repeat them, vs. tell them.  We connect what is, with what has been.
2. Living a Life – Daily walking from, and drenched in the life described in these verses.
3. Marking Your Home – not just decorating, but it being evident to anyone who “peeked in” on your life this past week…..was it evident who/what you were about?

Yes.  I desire this….for myself….for my children…and for the homes in my church.  Not because it’ll help “retain members” now and in the future.  But because God’s Kingdom desires to be fully realized not only in our churches, but in our homes as well.  May His Glory be known, and realized in our homes this week…

This session had a lot of factual information you can find by checking out the Full Executive Summary of the Innovation Alliance.  It was a conversation between many churches over the course of 2 years, seeking something new in partnering with what God desired in the homes of His people.  Really some good stuff…you should check it out for yourself.

Then they talked quite a bit about the resources they use at their church here in Texas, and the benefits of how their stuff is set up, etc.

By this point, we’ve heard the staggering statistic that the Alliance discovered in their research several times.  That less than 10% of Church-going Families experience ANY sort of Spiritual Conversation or activity during their week.  That’s a statistic that definitely compell something to be changed about the way we’re encouraging faith to be developed in the homes/apartments of our local church body.

It also compels us to be honest about how often we find ourselves part of that 10%, and challenges us to break from that pattern.  To hold each other accountable, not just as pastors, but as friends, parents, children, siblings, etc.  God tells us in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 that we parents are the PRIMARY source of discipleship, and growing our children toward the body of Christ, and Kingdom-living transformed by His Spirit.

May we live that out, and as those in ministry may we be inviting/encouraging/keeping our adults accountable for it!!! 🙂

Mark Devries is a pretty sweet guy, I won’t lie.  Hanging out before the session started, and his teaching throughout….there was evidence of a fruit-filled life, and a man who has been/is involved in Kingdom building deeply.  He was talking about a working model for family based youth ministry.

First, he talked about the danger of “terminal vagueness” when we don’t set goals/pay attention to facts in our ministries.  He listed some “norms” from national studies of youth groups.  Not recommendations, models, or problems…just simply what the averages were across the board. Here are a few:

1. Most churches spend around $1,000 per teen, including salary package for youth pastor.
2. Churches generally have 1 staff member for every 50 members.
3. Youth Groups usually run around 10% of the worshipping congregation attendance.
4. Often there is a ceiling around 20% of the worshipping congregation that youth groups cannot easily crack.  Some that do are often the only youth group in town, or one of a few.
5. Usually 1 volunteer for every 5 kids.
6. 30 Teens are averaged when a youth group combines JR and SR highs.  When divided, each of those groups will usually average 30 a piece.

He had a very well developed diagram, that described how youth ministry often removes teenagers from the natural flow from childhood to mature Christian adulthood…in order to meet them in today’s culture, which is pushing them the opposite direction.  God calls us to minister within the context of that flow.  He talked about Kara Powell and “Sticky Faith“.

Very important to remember from his session, was the fact that the #1 predictor of whether a teen continues with Christianity post high school to becoming a mature Christian adult = How many close relationships they have with Godly adults.  Parents, grandparents, influential people at church, family friends, relatives, elders, etc.

A youth pastor, in regards to the above, must become a “relationship architect” of sorts.  “Youth Ministry is always a veiled excuse to connect teens with Godly adults.”, Devries says.  Our jobs as youth pastors and as parents, is to call out the coming victory before any visible evidence appears.  We need to connect the young with other older people who will relate to them in such a way, toward and with Jesus Christ.