Prioritizing Our Children and Youth With The Gospel

At the Southern Baptist Convention last month, the Executive Committee (EC) presented to the messengers Vision 2025 for adoption. This vision statement articulated five critical steps which Southern Baptist congregations must focus on over the next four years if we want to reverse the present decline in baptisms and membership in our churches.

The fourth step listed read, to "turn around our ongoing decline in reaching, baptizing, and discipling 12 to 17-year-olds in the prime of their teenage years."  The reason why the EC listed this item is that our churches have seen a decades-long slide in youth baptisms. In recent years, we are not seeing as many students saved and discipled. Specifically, baptisms in this age group have decreased 38% since 2000. If someone were looking for a major reason why Southern Baptist total membership has dropped from over 16 million to just over 14 million in just 10 years, the best reason to suggest is that we are not winning our children to the Lord or teaching them to follow Him on their own.

Why this decline? The answer to this is complex, but few would disagree that in an age of social media and internet devices, the worldly influences which pull our children away have gained unprecedented access. If this influence is not countered with a regular, authentic, personal, and loving gospel witness from parents and church members, the likelihood of students remaining unreached or falling away is high. 

So what needs to happen to reverse this trend? One pastor, David Roach, explains that churches will need to focus on three things to be successful in reaching students:

1. Create evangelistic opportunity where lost teenagers hear the Gospel proclaimed and are given an opportunity to respond. The message of the cross and resurrection must be clearly, regularly, and unashamedly communicated. Romans 1:16-17 tells us there is power in the gospel to save. So, we must always lead with this. We should never shy away from asking for a response. 

2.Teach theology that leads to a biblical worldview and Jesus-centered living. While we have the opportunity, we need to help students to be able to understand the Bible on their own and to trust it as the source of authority in their lives. We also need to model for them what it means to walk with the living Christ.

3. Envision a 17 year-old fully devoted follower of Christ, and shape every element of student ministry to that end. It's been said, "begin with the end in mind." As a church, we should be able to articulate the Christian qualities we want our students to demonstrate and align our teachings and activities to produce these qualities. 

Bonus point- The old adage is true, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Students need to know they are loved deeply by their church. This gives credibility to everything we do in student ministry.