The Future?

What is one of the most overused and under-utilized phrases that we hear in the church today? Care to take a guess? I am almost positive that every adult reading this has at one point in time said it. Have a guess yet? OK, I’ll just tell you, the phrase that I am talking about is “Youth are the future of the church.” Now you are probably saying to yourself, “it’s not overused, it’s the truth” While that is true from a certain point of view, I really think we need to take a look at that phrase a little closer. Now I agree, Youth is the future of the church, it’s natural progression, young things get older, it happens in technology, in the animal kingdom and in the business world. In 1993 AT&T came out with a series of advertisements I’ll call the “You Will” ads. In it they talked about how in the future there will come a day when you will be send an electronic message from the beach (Satellite Link Internet), or drive somewhere you’ve never been without ever stopping to ask for directions (G.P.S.) They listed Video Phones, Video Meetings with people around the world, Pay Per View Movies etc… Many of these items are no longer the future, but the present and others are already in the past. Or like in the Animal Kingdom and corporate America you see all the time of the younger generation taking hold of leadership to keep things moving and keeping things fresh. In all of those situations, what at one point was viewed as the future, has now become the present. So why is the church the only place that keeps talking about the future without every really embracing it? What I mean by that is the same people who 20 years ago were forty year old people saying youth are the future of the church are the same people who are now 60 and older and are still saying youth if the future of the church. When does youth become the present? Too often I hear of people saying that the young people just are not ready to lead the church, but how do they know unless they give them a shot? How do we know if Youth are not ready to lead the church unless we actually give them some responsibility and work with them, be a mentor to them.

Now, before I get people up in arms saying that there time is up, that’s not the point I’m trying to make, far from it actually. The point I am trying to make is, when are we actually going to give our high school and college age students the chance to be relevant in the church? When are we going to give them some responsibility in leadership? If not, we are just going to keep running into the same problem, of our younger members leaving the church during their college years. Why would they want to stay at some place where they are always called “the future” and not taken seriously in “the present?” Maybe some of you are saying right now “we have some younger people leading singing in the church.” That’s great, but is that true leadership? Are we actually making the youth of our church a priority? Not just offering them classes but giving them an opportunity to lead classes. How many deacons do you have in your church under 30? Do you have any? If you do, then great, if you don’t, well why not? Are they not qualified yet? What is the magical age that makes someone qualified? How do we make people qualified?

This situation is really something important that I think all churches need to look at a little more closely. I will put it out there though; the Youth is not the future of the church just like the seniors are not the past of the church. All the church members are the future of the church just like all church members are the past and the present of the church. So let’s stop trying to make the distinction of who is what part of the church and start realizing that we are all the church of today and tomorrow. I don’t think God would want it any other way.