Discipleship for the Next Generation
Today marks the first day back to school for many of our children and teens! A new school year comes with new activities, new classes, and a return to weekly rhythms. We have a diverse group in our youth ministry coming from public school, private school, homeschooling, and various involvement with all three. Each setting provides its own unique challenges and opportunities.
For our church, the start of the school year also means a return to the regular rhythms of many of our ministries. We have dozens of volunteers who serve multiple hours every week in our children’s and youth ministries. One of the things I love about our church and want to continue to grow in is our zeal to disciple the next generation to love and follow Jesus!
Every new generation comes with its own unique challenges and opportunities when it comes to discipleship. While I don’t want to categorize any group of people into a box, there are some helpful studies that have been released the past couple of years shedding light on the current spiritual state of our teens.
- Post-Christian Generation—Our youth ministry currently has the unique opportunity of serving students that fall under the generational categories of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. In our nation specifically, Gen Z has been commonly referred to as our first truly post-Christian generation, and Gen Alpha has only confirmed this trajectory. The scales have tipped to the point where more children are growing up today in our communities not hearing about Jesus or having any accurate knowledge of the gospel message than those who do.
- Open Generation—If we are entering a more “post-Christian” state in our society, many would accuse the younger generations of being less interested in Christianity, but this is not the case! The Barna Group released a study this past year that showed teens today are far more interested and open to spirituality and different belief systems. As a result, evidence suggests that more teens today are open to learning about Jesus than some of the previous generations.
- An Uncommitted Generation—The news that teens are interested in learning about Jesus is encouraging to hear, but there is a lot more to the story. In their studies, the Barna Group suggested that only about 1 in 10 teens who are regularly involved in a Christian environment have made a true commitment to following Jesus. This means 90% of teens who grow up considering themselves Christian have likely not made an active decision to fully surrender themselves to the Lord. Many are willing to say they want to join “team Jesus”, but fewer have made the active step toward “resilient discipleship”.
Our current observations show that there is a uniquely important need to intentionally disciple the children and teens in our church from the youngest in the nursery to those preparing for college. My desire is that we would adopt the prayer the psalmist wrote in Psalm 71:18, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.”
Jacob Abrahamson
Youth Pastor