Posted on Wednesday, May 26, 2010                                                             by Ben H

Many churches are proud to have a group of youth in their church but are not challenging them or teaching them how to live for Christ. Churches cannot be satisfied that their young people simply have said the sinners prayer, or are playing music, singing in the choir, dancing to the praise and worship music. Recognize that they ALL have struggles of some kind. Some may shock you! But they ALL have them.  

Satan hates them. He places them on his top priority list. Why? Because as they are, so will the church of tomorrow be. If he can get them to believe the lies of the culture and swallow its idolatrous values, relativistic ideas, and post-modern philosophies, eventually so will the church. He will have the church exactly where he wants it, looking like, sounding like, smelling like the world.  

Many churches have frantically tried to keep young people inside the four walls of the church, so they have stood on their head and done back flips to entertain the youth or get them involved. But they have failed to teach them how to live, how to walk, how to become more like Jesus. Our music is great and they are jumping, but what about when the youth camp/rally is over. How do I live? I’m being tempted, I’m struggling, I’m falling into sin, I don’t understand, I’m confused. Where does the rubber meet the road as far as our Christianity is concerned. I have real problems when I go to college and high school. I have real friends, real temptations, real feelings, real professors telling me really weird and confusing things. If our faith is not based in reality then it is just another religion.  

See, Jesus became flesh and is well acquainted with out infirmities. Jesus was a mentor of his disciples. He knew they would carry the responsibility of declaring and building the kingdom when he was gone. They were clumsy and confused; they had wrong ideas about many things. So He had to teach them, correct them, warn them, be an example to them, and most importantly interceded for them (John 17). 

Paul, in turn, said follow me as I follow Christ (I Cor. 11: 1). He became a mentor to Timothy. In II Timothy 3, he warned Timothy about the spirit of the last days (men loving pleasure more than they love God) and charged Timothy (14-15): “Continue in those things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith that is in Jesus Christ.”  

Rewind, if you will, to the dark days of Elijah. Elijah was pillar, a radical in His culture. He came at a critical time in Israel’s history. Israel was supposed to be beacon, but it was more of a blasphemy. Baal worship appeared more real than the worship of YAHWEH. What most people do not know is that Israel never stopped worshipping YHWH, they just hooked on the worship of Baal. Baal was a fertility God of the ancient world. He made crops grow. YHWH was the Sunday God, if you will, while Baal was the Monday-through-Friday God. Elijah drew the line in the sand. It was time to prove that YAHWEH was not only real, he had all power. He prayed, he heard, he acted in radical faith, and God answered by fire! God has to be made more real than this world if our youth are going to bear the torch across the floodtides of this dark age. 

Where are they getting their values and cues from? If not from the Word of God than you can bet they are getting them from the secular culture. Who will stand up for what is right if not the church; and when the pillars and fathers of the church are gone, who will be the next leaders and fathers if this generation is not rooted and grounded in the Word of God. When the Billy Graham’s, James Dobson’s, and Ravi Zacharias’s have passed on to glory, who will carry the torch of righteousness. Teach us how to be an Elijah and a Daniel in our generation. When we fall, don’t act shocked, pick us up and teach us how to walk wiser, teach us how to overcome our struggles and fears, teach us how to be disciplined and then how to disciple, teach us how to give an answer in season and out, and teach us how to be the voice of righteousness in an ungodly culture. When you pass us the torch, we don’t want to the flame to die.