Last night driving home from the airport I was talking to one of my staff guys about a worship event they had done this last Sunday. This fall we have been working hard to engage our students in a variety of different types of worship. I'll be the first to admit that Presbyterians aren't generally known as a whole to have much fervor when it comes to worshiping God. The joke about Presbyterians is that when we get really excited about something we stay prim and proper and use deep feeling words like "indeed."
So this last weekend we have talked a lot about Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and how it is impacting the church world and specifically Youth Ministry. For more on that topic check out my friend Jeff Keuss's blog here.
In the conversation last night we were talking about a specific group of students who didn't seem to be engaged much in the Sunday morning experience. I asked about all the elements of the service and we had scripture reading, videos made by students explaining worship, reading of creeds, teachings and times of musical worship. My staff guy said that almost none of that resonated with that group.
In the next sentence I think I coined a new phrase. I said that so many students now days are just dealing with Overall Christian Disengagement or "OCD". What I meant by that term was that there are just some students and families who you could try anything with and nothing would work to engage them in living out the Christian Life. Here's maybe a better way to think about it. You probably have kids in your youth ministry that are "regular" you know without a doubt that if you switched youth group to any night of the week or weekend those students would come. They are the ones who regularly come to events, missions trips and retreats. They attend Bible Studies, Life Groups and service projects. They are the ones who are "engaged" in their faith and what is happening at the church.
But there is this other group of students and families that just don't engage in much at all. They might show up on Sunday mornings and even occasionally to other events but they don't really appear to be "engaged" in their faith. Many of them are great kids but the God thing is just another thing in their life. They tend to have the most excuses about why they can't come to something or what nights of the week won't work for them. I always laugh on the inside when parents tell me their kids can't come to youth group because they have "too much" homework but then other students from the same classes are there. Or when a student can't come to an event but then posts a facebook status update about the movie they just saw the same night.
I know it sounds like I'm bashing a group of people and not coming across pastoral and showing enough love. My intent here is to call something what it is but at the same time encourage some new engagement in faith. I want you to know that my motivation for this is that I'm just so frustrated to see students go away to college having not really engaged in their faith and then knowing/hearing about the struggles they go through and the difficult choices they make. I want to raise the bar a little bit higher and encourage students/families to a greater commitment.
So here's a challenge. Ask yourself. How engaged are you in your faith. It's obviously not about going to youth group or church because you can do those things without really being committed to Jesus. Be honest with yourself and ask the question how "engaged" am I in my faith. Maybe even think about what it means to be engaged. More often than not we think of that as the period of time before you get married and it involves a lot of preparation. Are you ready to be married to your faith for the rest of your life?
I pray for that group of kids a lot. I also spend a lot of time asking God to show us if we are at fault and if we are doing anything wrong that we need to be held accountable for. I know that I've made changes over the years that have pushed students away. It's our goal to provide opportunities and to encourage them to a deeper faith and walk with Jesus.
