Recently, I was driving from the Sacramento airport to a camp in the mountains of northern California to facilitate a Prayer Summit for some pastors and spiritual leaders of Modesto.
Because chains would likely be required before I reached my destination and rental cars don't supply those, the leaders called and asked me to meet them in a nearby town so I could ride up with them.
While I am pretty good at finding my way to places, in this case I just plugged the town into the Apple Map app on my iPhone and, while engaged in further phone conversations (using a hands-free headset, of course), drove where the app told me.
I discovered why Apple is taking so much heat for replacing the Google Maps app with their own: theirs does not work as well. While their app has some cool bells and whistles, some roads and landmarks that it insisted were there, were not there on my journey. Their app did not, for me, sync very well with reality.
Is Youth Ministry "in Sync"?
In the ebb and flow of youth ministry, many are saying that youth ministry is in an ebb season. There is evidence to support that contention: youth group attendance is down across the nation; the youth pastor is no longer the automatic second pastoral staff hire at churches; the pressures for youth workers to give increased attention to the kids in the church and to build attendance at events have only increased.
As someone who ministers to youth pastors, I deal with the fallout from this all the time. But to take this evidence and come to the conclusion that ministry to teenagers is ebbing does not sync with reality. Here's three examples why:
- On December 27-31, 16,000 late teens and twentysomethings – mostly college students – gathered in St. Louis for "Urbana 2012", a Student Missions Conference held by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship every three years.
- Across the state in Kansas City, 25,000 students showed up on Dec. 28-31 for the International House Of Prayer's "One Thing."
- And on Jan. 1-4, close to 65,000 students showed up at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for "Passion 2013."
Do the math: over 100,000 students gave up close to a week of their Christmas break to attend one of these conferences, which were anything but milquetoast: all boldly called attendees to radically follow Christ and commit their lives to His service. And these three events are just the ones with more national visibility; I imagine there were thousands of students at other conferences around the country over the holidays.
The Back Story
What does this have to do with a supposed ebb in youth ministry? The students who attended these epic events were, just a few years ago, likely involved in high school youth groups. For all the chatter about teenagers bailing on their youth groups and their churches and their faith, something spiritually substantial must be going on to prepare so many young adults to show up at these events.
Because youth workers are my tribe and youth ministry my vocation, I am not ignorant or unaware of the present challenges in youth ministry. I just want to be in sync with reality – spiritual reality. And God is up to something among young people.
Lee Grady, former editor of Charisma Magazine, concurs. In a recent online article, he wrote, "At the end of each year I always seek the Lord for a clear prophetic word for my own life, and sometimes He speaks something to me about the nation. This year the message has been clear.
He told me: "Pray for a great awakening in the younger generation."
Grady then listed three ways he was directed to pray:
- Pray for a great "turning" in the hearts of the young.
- Pray for a great "recall" of backslidden youth.
- Pray for great boldness to arise in the younger generation.
His entire article is worth reading, and can be found online at: http://bit.ly/Wln3Ae.
Read it, and pray it!