We have not yet begun to fight

In just over a month, our sixth graders will graduate up to the junior high ministry, and our current 3rd graders will join us in Room 100. I will miss this 6th grade class. They have brought an infectious energy to our room and in a ministry where atmosphere counts for a lot, that's priceless.

Youth and children's ministry is always a limited engagement - it's a matter of time until the kids you work with "age out" of what you're doing and are ready for the next level. Sadly, I know what the statistics say - that many who make childhood commitments to Christ don't keep them once they're teenagers, or they backslide, or they rebel; and that once in college, 75% of those who wore the name "Christian" in high school walk away from the faith, some to return later, others not.

But I'm also stubborn enough to believe that ministry matters. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't do it. I'm not ready to throw up my hands when it comes to children & youth and say, "Well, the world's going to have its way with them" or "It's inevitable that they'll walk away from the Lord" or the fatalistic "We can't control it anyhow - it's all in God's hands." No, I believe that we have not yet begun to fight.

Exciting things are happening in youth ministry in America. Leaders are better trained then ever before. Youth and family ministers are choosing that for their lifelong ministry rather than treating it as a stepping stone to adult ministry. We are coming to a consensus that youth ministry is family ministry. We are catching the vision that students can accomplish great things in expressing their faith and in acts of service if we believe in them and give them our time and resources. Publishers are getting better at producing age-appropriate, relevant materials for various age groups. The understanding is growing that life application is more valuable than rote learning. And on and on.

We will never reach the point where we have youth ministry down to a science (regardless of what these marketing materials for Sunday School products claim), because working with kids and teenagers is truly an art, but it's a practiced art, and we're getting smarter about how to be effective at discipleship, not just fun production.

I know a handful of students at Virginia Tech. I was in immediate contact with three of them the day of the shootings. One, whom I ministered to in high school, has a great grasp of the vision of impacting a campus. At the end of his freshman year, he joined a fraternity - and immediately started a Bible study within it. He has been candid about the campus ministries' inabilities to reach the non-Christian student population as a whole. He told me that in the wake of April 16, some Scientologists set up a tent on campus and offered counseling. He and his two roommates' response? To invite them over to dinner in order to engage with them. The contributing factors to this kid's walk weren't unusual - active, supportive parents; a solid Christian foundation; a strong youth group; a handful of accountable relationships - but they were present over the long haul (birth-18 years). As a result, he is oriented for a lifetime of discipleship and disciplemaking.

So in spite of the bad news, I'm incredibly hopeful. We know what works with students. We know that they don't have to walk backwards through their high school and college years, always on the defensive. We can have great hope that if we are faithful in building into kids, our efforts will not be in vain.

The "formula", if there was such a thing, would look like this:
The positive contributors (love, discipline, support, etc.), consistently applied, minus negative or destructive influences = a person ready to be touched and used by God.

And so, a kid's church involvement, over the long haul, really does matter. Consistency matters. I'd love to deliver 100 6th graders every year to the junior high and look down the road 6 years to see those same 100 faces heading off to college still secure in their faith.

Wouldn't you like to see the same?