For a variety of reasons I’ve been thinking about a topic that hasn’t been on my radar in a while: student ministries, and their place in the church. For the record, I don’t like any ministries that break the church up into categories. So, my bias against isolating teenagers from their families several times a week… well, my bias is there. Be warned. That being said, I’ve been deeply involved in student ministry: as a student in such a ministry, as a college intern employed by such a ministry, as well as a camp counselor, and DiscipleNow leader.  Currently, I spend a lot of time with urban youth in both a high school setting and a local homeless shelter. The hypothetical youth group scenarios I discuss in this article pertain to the middle class, Bible belt, rural/suburban youth groups with which I’ve spent the most time.

Substance and Depth: Issues of the Heart, Issues of Appeal
There is enormous pressure on students ministries to bring in the numbers. This raises the question: what attracts teens? Entertainment does. This is a fact. Maybe you will have a select few who want “serious” Bible studies and such, but if you cater to their tastes (which tend to involve serious discussions, long, slow “worship” songs, low lighting and general solemnity) then your numbers will plummet. I’ve seen this happen. So, youth ministers are faced with awful dilemmas: keep the maximum number of kids in a church setting and hope for a general good outcome, or spend your time pouring into the smaller group who say they want more depth. This is the conversation I found myself having both as a student in a youth group, and later as an employee for a church student ministry. I think the dilemma is wrong.

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Ben Bricker sent me the url to this video in an e-mail. I’ll repeat him here: “If you have 8 minutes 8 seconds. I encourage you to watch this.”

He first viewed it on Kevin DeYoung‘s blog.

God’s grace is amazing. We pray you have had similar thoughts as you have been reading through this Sentinel.  We hope your understanding of grace has deepened.

Perhaps a picture has been painted for you of the astounding brightness of God’s righteousness and holiness in contrast to the utter darkness of our wretched sinfulness.  Yet, into this perilous portrait, God acts in love towards us to save us in Jesus.  That is amazing grace.

Or perhaps you have been reminded of the incredible mercy of Christ in atoning for our sins by the substitution of Himself in our place – laying down His life of His own accord – a free act of love and a stunning display of grace.

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Why is this something we need to understand and how do these truths help us to be better Christians?  We must think rightly about God and man because  our salvation depends upon our belief in the one true God, creator of all things, His provision of redemption through Christ and the truth about man’s unrighteous state.  It is imperative that we have a correct understanding of God and of ourselves i.e. God’s righteousness and our unrighteousness.  Many professing Christians would say that we don’t need this kind/type of knowledge, that it is unimportant.  This type of thinking is wrong and dangerous.  How can you believe in and place your faith in something you don’t understand?

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” (A.W. Tozer; The Knowledge of the Holy).  It is of extreme importance that each of us understands that it’s not the God of our imagination or emotion that is the true God. The one true God is the God of Scripture.  God has revealed himself to us through creation, but He has graciously and specifically revealed himself to us through His living revelation, Jesus Christ and His Word (The Holy Bible).   God reveals himself in Scripture as the one true God.  That’s the God we must believe in and place our faith in.  Even our worship of God is affected by our pure and true knowledge of who He is and who we are.  “Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous.  The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.  The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worthy of Him and of Her.” (Tozer; ibid).

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On the topic of Grace, I thought this was quite appropriate. If you’d like to purchase the book, you can do so Right Here.

You can find more from Tullian Tchividjian on The Gospel Coalition