By Connie Davis Bushey
News Editor, Baptist and Reflector
Jason Salyer, left, associate pastor of students, East Maryville Baptist Church, Maryville, speaks to Jerry Pullum, pastor, Bear Cove Baptist Church, Sparta, following the breakout session Salyer led during the Summit.
SEVIERVILLE — Do students just make up the church of tomorrow or are they also part of the church today? asked Jason Salyer in a breakout session of Summit.
Do the programming and structures of your congregation “support or deny” that view? asked Salyer, who is associate pastor of students, East Maryville Baptist Church, Maryville. He led the breakout session, “Connecting the Next Generation With the Work of the Church,” held during the Nov. 13-17 Summit of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
Actually, many churches don’t consider students as the church of tomorrow or today, suggested Salyer. Instead students are disconnected from the church.
The disconnect can be traced back to children becoming disconnected from their families, said Salyer.
He noted the period of adolescence known as the teenage years came about after the industrial revolution as parents started working outside the home and secondary education drew children away from their families. Then those kids who became parents in the 1950s-60s wanted their children to have better lives so children began to have disposable income and time on their hands. Thus, children became disconnected from their families and church, he reported.
The church has responded to the disconnect by developing programming especially for youth and other age groups to attract them.
Yet students, and even adults, today are struggling with their identity and belonging stemming from the decades of disconnection which included disconnection between the generations.
Faith, of course, is the solution to these issues and that is confirmed by the fact that faith in the past often has been formed in community or through relationships with other people in a club at school, sports team, friend group, or family, he continued.
Ironically, the Generation Y, Generation X, and Millennials are disengaged, according to USA Today, despite the fact that they are the most connected technologically. They are connected to information which they can access without the need for adults and connected to people all across the world yet they are often disconnected relationally and delayed in important ways, he added.
Adolescence has morphed into “adultescence” which allows young adults to delay maturation until their 30s, said Salyer.
Several studies of youth and their beliefs found in the books, Soul Searching and Souls in Transition, revealed that students and adults, even adults in churches, believe such things as good people go to heaven when they die and God primarily wants people to pursue happiness.
The answer to these problems can be found in the fact that God commanded the Israelites to teach their children about Him, stated Salyer. In particular, parents were instructed to train their children “in the context of a community of faith.”
All Christians need to find a common, gospel-centered identity. Young people are not just “trainees” or “potential believers” or “people who could make a difference for the kingdom someday” but “actual or potential brothers and sisters in Christ.”
If Christians don’t invest in the younger generations to help them “find their identity within the context of faith and community, … you can trust the culture and the world around them will have identities prepared and … ready to hand to them. …
“The Great Commission does not start at age 18 or 21,” stated Salyer. “But if you look at the structures and programming in a lot of our Southern Baptist churches you would think that was the case.” Despite the fact that most people become Christians before age 18, students in many churches are known only for helping out with Vacation Bible School and leading on Youth Sunday annually.
Instead, churches should be sending young Christians as missionaries to their schools, declared Salyer. “Our outreach to a local campus is critical and who better to reach those students” than students who are Christians? If the students wait to start sharing their faith until they are older, they likely won’t ever start.
He cited a study by LifeWay Research found in Why They Stray/Stay which showed that teens who had five or more adults in the church who invested in them were less likely to leave the church after high school.
Many churches call ministers to lead age groups spiritually but they were “never meant to be the spiritual leader” of those teenagers or children, Salyer suggested. He noted that most parents want to train their children spiritually but need equipping by the church.
“Instead of having a pizza holding tank to keep them (teens) entertained until they are ready to be a part of the church,” we should follow the direction of Psalm 78 which says that Christians “owe a living testimony of God’s faithfulness to the next generation.”
Christians need to give the next generation “a greater story, a greater family, and a greater future,” he continued.
Our culture is selfish and narcissistic, so students need a greater story, said Salyer. People don’t invite Jesus into their lives, Jesus invites people into His, he declared. Youth and adults shouldn’t follow their dreams; they should follow Jesus. “Jesus is so much bigger than your dreams. … Give Jesus your future. …
“When a church family becomes a family of faith for young people, that will not only change their present, that will not only redeem them and rescue them out of hardship now, but that will forever change their future.” He referred people to Disciple6.com which is a free resource to help adults mentor teens.
Churches should consider, “Are we willing to give them (younger generations) our future?” Should the legacy of current church members be in buildings and budgets or “the lives that are invested in … that they would invest in the next generation.”
