spiritual 13 Dec 2002 07:17 am
Boxed In By Good Intentions
- nathan
I’m hearing a lot about discipleship, teaching, and training. Most of the adults in the area seem to understand the importance of training up young men and women in the things of God. It’s interesting that while they have devoted their life to this one thing, it seems that they’re not quite sure what to do with this new generation of young adults that they’ve successfully brought up in the ways of God.
What is the purpose of bringing up a child to know Christ? Once that child becomes an adult, what do you do with them? It would seem to me that while the previous generation has done an exemplary job of laying the foundation of righteousness in our lives, there’s a block at what to do next. The pastor knows that discipleship is key, though, and so continues to hold the weekly Bible study, teaching apologetics, doctrine, personal application, excouragement, etc. This is wonderful stuff, but it begs the question - when does the next generation get to try things?
I am currently looking at a group of maybe 25 men & women between the ages of 21 & 30. They are all single, and they are all spiritually mature. In fact, they have all been raised in the church, not giving lip service, but rather growing to know the God of their fathers; developing an intimate personal relationship with Him. When asked about this group, the churches all readily accept and acknowledge that this is a wonderful blessing, to have this many young adults so mature in Christ and willing to serve Him. The leadership in the church understands that this is an important group, able to be used mightily in His service. But the disconnect is at how many of those people are going on to become leaders themselves.
I think they are well equipped to serve; they have been trained well by the current leadership. But they have not been given any specific areas of responsibility in which they can exercise their leadership ability. This is a key point in the developing of a leader. There must be a time when the young person can actually lead something. I don’t mean a Bible study here or there, or leading worship occasionally on Wed. nights. I mean they need to be given an area, a ministry, where they are the leader. And they need to be treated as such. The leadership needs to begin to include them in the decision making process of the church body. Allow them to do outreaches. Even empower them to get out into the community and begin to reach their generation.
Having a weekly Bible study led by the pastor of the church or a former youth pastor is wonderful. But I believe the greater blessing lies in these same young men & women holding meetings of their own, starting their own “churches”, for lack of a better term, in their own circles of influence. There is a huge need for non-traditional churches, which can be as informal as a gathering of 3-4 people at a coffeeshop on Tuesday evenings, or a group of 10 going to the oceanfront and holding praise and worship sessions. These can be done concurrently to the weekly Bible study - there should be absolutely no conflict in these two ideas. The weekly Bible study can even turn into a leadership meeting, where creative ministry ideas are shared, testimonies given, and what used to be teaching can turn into mentoring.
The current leadership in the church has the best of intentions, desiring to produce men and women of God. But by not releasing the current group of leaders into their own leadership opportunities, they run the risk of stifling or at least delaying a tremendous work here in these latter days.
on 13 Dec 2002 at 1:12 am 1.ztibugey
said …
i agree with you. but at my church, many of these people are in ministry.
the youth group is run/lead by about 6 of these young adults.
we’ve sent at least 3 or 4 people our age overseas, one leading with the help of his father (who is in the states) a new outreach to the spanish speaking people in the sahara, another is in romania learning about church planting, others are leading “care groups” much like the little coffee shop thing you mentioned.
however, i don’t think its enough. you’re right. someone needs to be putting them in leadership… or perhaps giving them their blessing to go out and plant churches, change the world. i don’t know.
it will be exciting though, when we’re closer to our pastors’ ages. i’ve been thinking about that lately. its going to be different. its exciting.
on 13 Dec 2002 at 1:48 am 2.klaviman
said …
what you have described is leaps & bounds above what is happening in my tiny little realm of awareness. all that is happening around here is bible studies led by the adults. sure, there’s some discussion sometimes, but definitely no leadership mentoring. i would love to see the young adults take a bigger interest in leading the youth groups - in fact, i think that would be a huge blessing for both groups. you know, i’m liking this idea more and more.
if a group of a half-dozen young adults led the youth group, that would lessen the burden of leading the entire group, there would be a great potential for learning to work together while at the same time learning to lead. and then they get the huge blessing of impacting these kids’ lives, being Godly examples for them. wow. erin, you rock. i’m going to talk to… um… i don’t know who about this, but someone.
on 15 Dec 2002 at 6:42 am 3.ztibugey
said …
you should, indeed, talk to someone about that. perhaps a pastor? if not, well, just get your whole group to move down here. it is my church, afterall, that rocks, not me. i just observe. :o)
it is a great, great place to be, though. i do hope you and your friends find something similar. its great when the leadership fulfill their responsibility of leading others into leadership.
have a great weekend!
on 30 Dec 2002 at 12:58 pm 4.anonymous
said …
hmm…interesting. hi nathan, it’s laura. haven’t spoken to you in awhile and here i sit on winter break in relative isolation. perfect time to read the livejournal i believe.
first of all, i am surprised to hear you say that there is, in a sense, a surplus of discipling relationships in your area, heck even discipleship at all. i don’t see much of it. granted i’m fortunate and i have more amazing Christian women around me than the average joe (or should i say jane), but i don’t see this as commonplace. i firmly believe that “life on life” ministry is where the most effective spiritual transfers take place - heck - it’s not just my idea, it’s Christ’s model. sure we can see it with Him and the disciples. it’s all over the place. 2 tim 2:2 shows us 5 generations of discipleship: Jesus to Paul to Timothy to “reliable men” to “others.” read that verse and therein, nathan is the key - the other half of what you’re talking about - the leadership component. i agree that although discipleship is important, there comes a point where an “elder” needs to release his “trainee” and see what happens. granted he will still be a necessary component of the new ministry, but some kind of authority and trust has to be conferred at the right time.
i guess i’m impressed with what you’re saying is taking place at your church. i can point only to examples of leadership vaccuums. in terms of ministry, my experience has been on the opposite extreme - granted my situation is unique. i led YoungLife at a high school, pretty much alone, and while the autonomy was great in some respects (i called the shots (after praying
and really took ownership), i know that i longed for more of a team. we met as a leadership once a week from all different schools and prayed, studied teh Word, worshipped and talked strategy. maybe that’s the plan you’re looking for - or perhaps that’s adaptable to what you’re thinking.
just figured i’d bounce the idea off of you during my sleepy winter break. hope you are well. i dont’ check this very frequently, so maybe reply to my email account if you object strongly…hehe. wouldn’t want to miss that now, would we? by the way, congrats on the new car purchase. i’m shopping now too - so fun!
lauradsussman@yahoo.com