This past weekend I heard an alarming statistic, one that really hit home with me. I heard that 9 out of 10 teenagers in America right now don’t attend church on a regular basis. In this it means that only 1 in 10 teens have an association with a local church and attend that church on a regular basis. The criteria I believe for a regular basis would be at least 3 times a month.
Wow! I’m blown away! 90% of our young people right now are not being fed the Word of God! Flurries of questions come to mind! Where are these young people? If the church isn’t reaching these young people and filling them with the Word what are they being filled with? Why isn’t the church reaching them? What can be done? The questions in my mind go on and on but here is what I see.
First, I see this as a sad commentary on the Church in the United States. For way to many decades the Church in this country has sat on it’s hands and really not doing much outreach and it has also failed horribly in equipping it’s members, the church body, in reaching out to our fellow neighbors and drawing them in. Let me put it this way, when was the last time your church had a teaching on equipping the members of it’s body to witness one on one? If your church is like most you don’t have an answer to this question.
Secondly, it’s pretty simple to answer as to what these kids are being filled with and it’s sure not Jesus! We are now raising the third generation of MTV kids! In addition this generation more then any other generation before are becoming Internet Junkies! These kids are being bombarded from every side now with electronic garbage. Whether it’s TV, Radio, MP3 (Podcasts), Internet, Cellphone & Text Messaging or Video Games, the mainstream, secular garbage being fed to our kids today can be summed up this way. It doesn’t glorify God and a huge part of it is nothing but garbage!
Here’s the big questions: Why isn’t the church reaching them and what can be done? The reason the church isn’t reaching them is that the church remains ambivalent. Who is the church? It’s the people, it’s you and it’s I. When the church decides as a whole to reach the lost not of this world but to the lost right here at home, our neighbor’s our friends, then things will change and they will change fast! For decades and decades the church has relied on evangelists and preachers to do the work that you and I should have been doing all along. Churched have long sponsored evangelists and others to come in to try to reach the lost for us. It’s been easier to cough up a few bucks to pay someone else to do it then to do it ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to cancel these evangelist and rallies and traditionally they work incredibly well. We just need to start reaching out on our own. There’s a couple of methods/teachings out there that I’ve found work amazingly well to reach the lost. The one I’ve been using for quite some time with huge success is Bill Faye’s “Share Jesus Without Fear.” The other is Kirk Cameron’s/Ray Comfort’s “Way of the Master” series. I’ll get the links up here on both of these here on my blog in the next few days.
It’s up to you & it’s up to me to reach the lost and turn this country around. Talk with your pastor about this and ask him if he would be open to a series on equipping his people to reach the lost. I’ve got a pile of resources available for this. If you, your pastor, or anyone else you know would like to know more please contact me. I’m putting a teaching together to take to churches to empower them to reach the lost in their community. As I prepare to set out on this mission God has called me to please keep me & my family in your prayers as I know we’ll need them!
The lost won’t come in on their own, we have to go out and get them. We are the ones to complete the great commission. Jesus told us in Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere.”
Be Blessed!!!
BIG SCOTT
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