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Giving Young People a Story
by Sean Marston, Champion for Youth and Young Adults
18 March 2008 I have been working with young people and students for many years. I am concerned about the ease in which they seem to opt out of their faith around the age of 18 plus. It is like they have all this knowledge about the Christian faith and they have personal experience but it isn’t enough. This Christian faith they believe in isn’t enough to keep them connected. One of the reasons I believe this is happening is because we haven’t given them a story to hang on to. We have made the Christian faith about light theology and then we give them watered down versions of Christmas and Easter. We have given them fluff instead of giving them a story, a history, and an identity as a Christian. Why is it that for many Jewish young people, before they are anything else, they are a Jew? So when you meet them, they say they are a Jew, an engineering student, a soccer player, an online gamer, and have a girlfriend. However, often when I meet a Christian young person, they say that they are an engineering student, a soccer player, and an online gamer, have a girlfriend, and they are a Christian. I know this is generalizing, but I do believe we need to give young people a story and an identity. That is why I am very big on following the Christian calendar. In the church I am involved with, we work hard at celebrating the key parts of the Christian calendar, year after year, so that the story of the Christian faith and why we believe what we do becomes part of our lives. At the moment, we are in the middle of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter. During Lent we encourage everyone—adults, young people and children—to give up something as a way of reminding ourselves that Easter is coming up and we need to reflect about it. Often Christians arrive at Easter without any real reflection on this amazing time. Observing Lent says to the young people and children that this time of year, and this event, is so important to our Christian faith. Without giving young people a story to experience and live over and over, they can so easily forget what is so important to them. It is about reliving the stories so they become the glue for us and the young people with which we work. I am passionate about helping to get young people to a point that before they are anything else, they are firstly a Christian. When we get young people to this point, I think there will be a better chance helping them to hold on to their faith when they get to that 18-plus age group. Comment on this post: Email sean.marston@sim.org 
 
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Youth and Young Adults
Champion: Sean Marston Sean Marston’s 22 years in youth ministry (part of that time as Short-Term Mission Coordinator for SIM New Zealand) have informed his passion for reaching those growing up in a “post-mission and post-church environment.” View all blog entries filed under Youth and Young Adults |
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