29 March, 2024

Evangelize Unreached Teenagers? (It Can Be Dangerous)

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by | 27 June, 2010 | 4 comments

By Rick Bundschuh

Call me naive, call me ignorant, call me idealistic””but I honestly believed the church”s search committee members when they said one of the goals they had for the new middle school youth ministry position they were creating was to have evangelism take place among young people. Perhaps we were talking past each other and agreeing to very different things when they hired me for my first youth ministry job outside my home church. Perhaps they were envisioning a small trickle of smartly dressed honor students entering the kingdom of God and finding its way to the front row of the church through the efforts of this new youth ministry.

What they got was something completely different.

They got swearing, brawling, profane, self-centered kids from broken homes in the shady part of town. They got little toughs who threatened some of the kids and flipped the bird at the women who tried to scold them for speeding past them on their skateboards. In short, they got the youth world”s version of the barbarian hordes.

I thought the people on the church board would be happy. If anyone needed to hear the good news of Jesus, it was these kids. Most of them had never held a Bible in their hands until they showed up at youth group. Few had used the name of Jesus in any way other than as part of a curse. Hardly any had ever been to Sunday school or heard any of the Old Testament Bible stories. They were, in spiritual terms, blank slates.

I thought the church parents would be excited to see so many new faces. Some of them were, but a number were less than enthusiastic. As the count of newbies outstripped the old-timers, the parents became even less enamored with what was going on.

“They”ll be a bad influence on my child,” one said.

“These are the kinds of kids I send my son to church to get away from,” said another.

Surely the pastor and other staff members will have my back, I thought. The pastor invited me into his office and encouraged me to expose the kids to classical music and other cultural things while we were sharing the gospel. (I considered it a victory just to add some Christian rock tunes to the collection of X-rated tunes they were already listening to.) He was older, nearly ready to retire, and out of touch with what was happening in the middle school ministry of the church.

The janitor was upset because of the toilet paper ceiling decorations that were appearing in the bathrooms. The financial guys started to grouse about the amount of money being spent on sodas, toys, props, gas, and other items typical of a youth ministry that is growing in big ways, and with regularity. A number of people groused under their breath that these kids were coming just to be entertained and that the gospel was obviously not being preached.

WHAT THEY WANTED?

Meanwhile, more and more kids were showing up””terrorizing the neighbors, smoking cigarettes behind the Dumpster, and a few were even sporting apparel that made hookers look tame. Their clothes created some interesting contrasting statements. (My memory of the kid sitting and reading the Bible while wearing a T-shirt with a huge pot leaf on it is still vivid. I should have photographed it.)

Teens were coming to Christ right and left. Their young lives were slowly coming under the influence of the Word. But I had them for only a couple of hours a week and the world had them the rest of the time, so it was slow going with a lot of two-steps-forward/three-steps-back dances going on. There were moments of glory and moments of youth work horror””like the time I had a big bully of a kid who wanted to start a brawl with me right in the middle of youth group because I asked him to please quiet down and participate.

The church got what the members said they wanted. They had unsaved teens coming out their ears and new entries into the kingdom of Heaven every week.

But they did not like what they got.

Some board members called for my termination. I was thunderstruck, confused, hurt. How could this be? I had beaten the bushes to find these little unbelievers and invested huge amounts of time in them! How could anyone think this was anything but glorious?

Ah, but I was so wrong.

Before long the church board was battling over my job with a slim margin winning the “keep the lad” vote at each monthly meeting. I was on pins and needles while the church divided into “reach out” and “protect our own” camps.

I was learning the lesson that even though people say they want something, they may not like it if they actually get it.

I ended up leaving the church on my own. The reason? Church members could say they wanted evangelism, but when it came right down to it, they could not do it or tolerate it being done.

WHATEVER IT TAKES

Evangelize unreached teens? Actually, that”s an idea with potential for danger. Successfully attract a bunch of rogues and you may find out how much your church really wants wholehearted evangelism. You may find your youth group rebelling at the change in pecking order, your parents up in arms about the invasion of the nasty kids, and your coworkers alarmed at the ill-mannered behavior of those wild teens.

You may find unexpected conflict flaring up. You may find the way you teach changing. You may find your expectations altering. You may find your heart breaking. And you may find the joy of seeing and being part of the greatest miracle of all: a changed life both now and for eternity.

Which, of course, is why we do this.

We roll up our sleeves and plunge into the dingy youth culture that rages outside the walls of the church not just because we are told by our Master that we must, but because of the joy that comes from seeing a lost sheep found, a crumpled soul unfolded, and a broken heart healed.

For me, all these ideas are quite personal. I was once one of those unwashed outsiders for whom Christian jargon was a mystery, and for whom the idea of going to church was equal to signing up for a torture session with a water board. But an innovative youth worker with strong backing from his church pulled me off the beach for an activity that at the time seemed like anything but outreach””a surfing trip to Mexico. That trip cemented my friendship with the youth worker, gave me my first understandable taste of the gospel, and ultimately led me to put my faith in Christ a year and a half later.

When I decided to do for others what had been done for me by becoming a full-time youth worker, I simply modeled the effective methods of connecting with unreached kids that had worked so well with me.

Many years have passed since I was the curious, lanky, suntanned kid being wooed by the message of Christ. But through the decades I have continued to look for ways to connect with and become friends with unbelievers and, if God allows, to tell of the hope that is within me.

THE NEED

Theologians are fond of saying we live in a post-Christian culture. What they mean is a growing number of North Americans (and Europeans, who reached this point years before us) no longer consider themselves as distinctly Christian or think and process morals and ethics through a Christian or biblical filter.

In past decades, claiming allegiance to a faith and putting in an occasional appearance at the neighborhood house of worship were politically correct, even if for all practical purposes you weren”t truly a believer. At least in that kind of society you had a thin icing of religiosity, with most claiming “Christian” as their favorite flavor.

Today we have a huge swath of parents that no longer has a Christian impulse nor feels the need to subscribe to biblical ethics, standards, and values. They make up their own value system or adopt a smorgasbord approach that allows them to pick and choose from the Christian-based values that they are OK with and ignore the ones they find distasteful.

Few of these parents feel the need to imprint spirituality on their children by sending them off to Sunday school. In fact, many are ambivalent about the whole issue of a spiritual heritage for their children, declaring that the kids “can decide for themselves if they want to believe in God or choose a religion when they are older.” The offspring of those parents are spiritually adrift children who have no anchors to give them boundaries and no solid context to make proper choices in life.

And these parents are alongside the many, many parents who do want the best for their children spiritually, but don”t know how, or lack the confidence, to effectively lead them.

It is this world that we are called to speak into.

THE IDEAL TIME AND AGE GROUP FOR EVANGELISM

The teen years””and the early teen years in particular””are pivotal for introducing an unbeliever to Jesus Christ. Finding listening ears and open hearts is far easier during this time of life than any other, yet Christian communities often miss or ignore the opportunity.

Suppose you are into fishing, with the goal of coming home with as many fish as you can hook. Suppose you had a few fishing spots to choose from. In some locations your odds of catching a fish are quite low, but in one particular fishing pond, your odds are quite high. Where do you go fishing? The answer for a hard-core fisherman is obvious. You go to the time-tested spots where, over and over, you find yourself catching more fish.

For years, survey after survey has shown that the majority of people who become Christians make that decision sometime before they leave their teens (estimates are as high as 85 percent), with a large percentage of commitments made before ninth grade. The same studies show that as a person ages, the statistical probabilities of him or her coming to Christ decline. So the teen years represent a prime fishing hole, one in which many who are called to be fishers of men should be working, especially if they”re serious about catching fish, and are not merely recreational fishermen.

Using simple logic, any church that is truly concerned about seeing souls come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ should be spending a great deal of its time, energy, and resources toward this age group, where there is such a high potential for response. Although many in church leadership are aware of these facts, very little energy is spent making the most of this opportunity. Little skilled manpower, thought, money, or resources are focused toward the middle school (approximately 11 to 14) age levels.

In the community of faith where I serve as teaching pastor, coming to grips with this reality altered the rhythm of how we do ministry. Our key evangelistic point man is our middle school youth pastor. Our church spends a great deal of its resources making sure the tools and personnel are in place for the evangelism of this age group. Should there be a financial crisis where staff cuts are necessary, the middle school youth worker has as much job security or more than anyone on staff””he would be the last man standing and the last ministry to feel the ax. So vital is this fishing pond that it takes priority over most every other evangelical effort given importance by the church.

Youth workers, we may need to sharpen our focus and energy toward the teens and preteens who roam the neighborhoods, skate parks, and malls. It”s quite clear an introduction to Christ at this point in maturity often, and obviously, gets results.



Excerpted from Reaching Unchurched Teens, part of Standard Publishing”s Youth Ministry in the Trenches series.



Rick Bundschuh has spent several decades in youth ministry He now serves as teaching pastor with Kauai Christian Fellowship, Kaloa, Hawaii.

4 Comments

  1. Selah

    I admire you and all you were doing with the teens. There are two teen girls in my class that have no interest in being there, they don’t want to learn anything to do with God. One is bi-sexual, a cutter, and struggles with alcohol. The other is just very rebellious and comes from a family of siblings with drug and alcohol problems – one which is in jail. Their parents force them to come. I am struggling with how to even get them interested in anything to make them want to be a Christian. How do you evangelize rebellious church kids?

  2. Joe Bigliogo

    Please stop stereotyping teens who don’t buy into your particular religious beliefs as self destructive wild deviants interested only in range of the moment gratification. The sizeable majority of young atheists are level headed, moral, upstanding, goal oriented and healthy. They just happen to find your beliefs irrational, untenable absurd and unbelievable.

  3. E L

    Thanks for the insightful article. Be blessed!

  4. Jim L

    I recently started talking with some teens at my local park. After going down day after day and mostly just listening to them. They are quickly opening up and sharing the hurts of their broken homes and lives. I take snacks and water to them and try to be a listening ear. It’s amazing if we just reach out with a little love and understanding, how far it will take us. I’m not judgmental, I think most of these young adults know right from wrong but are just trying to fit in and escape the pain of everyday life. I’ve briefly talked with a few about Christ and prayed with a few of them. I know they talk to each other and now call me “pastor” although I’m just a lay person that cares. I’ve started sharing what I see and hear with several at my church and continue to encourage them to be open to what’s going on around them and take that step of faith to engage these kids. Please pray for these teens and remember the next time you see some kids at the park smoking and cussing, it’s just their way of putting up walls to try and keep from further hurts.

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