Over the past few years I’ve been conducting an informal survey among youth workers (staff and volunteer) on this question:
In your humble opinion, what are the top three obstacles to the Bible’s effectiveness in youth ministry?
Here are the responses participants can choose from:
- youth workers are unsettled on the authority of Scripture.
- lack of parental support of Bible study in youth ministry.
- lack of parental support of the Christian faith at home.
- other priorities in youth ministry.
- lack of Bible competence and confidence in youth workers.
- busyness of teens.
- busyness of youth workers.
- declining attention spans in teens (the “Twitter” impact).
- increasing media options for teens.
- Other:
It’s not surprising that the number one response has been:
-busyness of teens.
What is surprising is that that response barely beats what comes in at two and three:
-lack of parental support of the Christian faith at home.
-lack of parental support of Bible study in youth ministry.
These responses give insight into a dynamic that gets little attention in youth ministry: many teens get very little faith support at home. It’s possible we need to consider this differentiation in our ministry planning as much as we consider age differences and gender differences.
Think about the last time you challenged teens in a Bible study with a follow up activity such as, increasing their acts of kindness, ramping up quiet times, or memorizing Scripture. Now picture the difference in the spiritual atmosphere between a home that is supportive of the Christian faith and a home that is not. The teen coming from a home that is not supportive of the Christian faith is going to have a far different experience with the follow up challenge than the teen whose home is supportive.
Teens need their support engines firing on all cylinders, and not all teens have the same number of cylinders. This past weekend I ducked in and out of pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl (Super Bowl LIII, which the Patriots won over the Rams, 13-3). Curiously, after a few duck-ins I noticed that each time I ducked in that I caught some kind of reference to the support system that’s represented by each player on that Super Bowl field. Just a couple examples:
- CBS did a segment on a player’s family during the week prior to the Super Bowl, featuring all that the family had to navigate that week and how they were doing whatever it took to support their dad.
- In another segment, a commentator asked a player about all the extra detail players need to tend to in order to accommodate family ticket needs and logistics. The player answered that the accommodating was simply a thank you for all the sacrifices made to get to this point.
- In an interview, Joe Namath recalled how all the coaches of his career, including pee-wee football, flashed across his mind when he was ready to take the field in Super Bowl 3.
As youth workers we need to see ourselves as part of the faith support network for our students, especially those who don’t have faith support at home. In fact, it would be a good exercise to think through how you might offer an extra measure of support to students who lack spiritual backing of family. Here are some ideas to get the thoughts flowing:
- Make sure students are connected at school with other students in your ministry.
- Make sure students are connected to other students in their school who are involved in a para-church ministry such as Young Life, Campus Life, FCA, etc.
- Provide an extra layer of follow up and support if you offer a challenge or invitation to be done at home through the week.
- Consider connecting students with a spiritual mentor in your church.
One final thought: As youth workers have taken the above survey, the most common comment is: Can I check all of them? This comment supports the reason for the survey: many obstacles exist to inhibit effective Bible engagement. It makes sense that our enemy would throw everything at us to keep teens from experiencing one thing guaranteed to deepen their faith: God’s Word. It helps to know we have many things working against us so that we can stay even more diligent to the task of helping teens access Scripture in deep and meaningful ways.
For a Teen Devo on this subject, CLICK HERE.
Check out the accompanying Vlog below.