Posted by
Chuck Briggs, 4Christ Child Missions on Monday, April 20, 2009 1:46:37 AM
INTRODUCTION
Is there evidence that today's youth are turning away from the "faith of their fathers" and leaving the church? And if so – how
important are youth and campus ministries in addressing this issue? And is it really possible to develop a student ministry that
keeps the interest of today's youth and yet remain true to God's word? This paper will address these questions and will explore
one component of an overall solution. Since there is no doubt that the youth of today will be the leaders of tomorrow, the trends
of youth today will impact greatly the future of Christianity in United States.
DISAPPEARING CHRISTIAN YOUTH
There is an old adage that "facts don't lie;" with that in mind – Yes, there is a disturbing and undeniable trend occurring in
society today: the youth are opting out of the church and turning their backs on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
"According to Campus Crusade for Christ, 97% of all born-again believers accept Jesus Christ before the age of 21 while 85%
accept Christ before the age of 18! Basically, we see that if one is going to enter the Kingdom it will be done in the early years of
one's life. Sadly, according to Youth for Christ... only 4 in 100 teenagers in this nation even claim to have a faith based
relationship with Jesus Christ."[1]
The Facts
Studies demonstrate that just as rapidly as young people turn away from working for the Kingdom they seem to be turning
toward a life of hedonistic self-indulgence.
Sex:
Eighty-four percent of parents of high school teenagers think their children aren't sexually active figures from a Society for Adolescent Medicine survey show - but statistics don't bear out the parents beliefs. In fact, teenagers seem to be engaging in sexual behaviors earlier than ever before.
Dr. Slyvia Rimm has interviewed hundreds of children around the country for a book on the habits of middle schoolers. She says she has discovered that second, third, and fourth-graders are talking about sex. "The oral sex, even a generation ago, wasn't common in high school, and now is common as early as 8th grade and even…taken lightly, " Rimm said. Rimm added that former President Bill Clinton's statement, "I did not have sex with that woman ... Miss Lewinsky," -- has had an impact. She said teens do not think oral sex counts as sex."[2] As evidence that Dr. Rimm's professional hunch is on the mark, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy did a research study on teen sexual habits using data from 2002. They found that not only had "more than half of the teens interviewed had oral sex, but nearly one in four virgins had also."[3] Perhaps surprisingly to some, the rate of participation for oral sex was almost identical for girls and boys at 54 and 55% respectively; and for intercourse – the rate of participation for girls was actually greater than boys at 53 and 49% respectively.
Pornography:
While many parents may be unsure whether they prefer their child learning about sex at home or at school, studies show that a large percentage of them are finding out about sex through another source – the internet. In fact, studies have revealed that most teens have visited a pornographic website at least once and many do so regularly. "According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 70 percent of 15- to 17-year-old boys have visited a pornographic Web site."[4]
Violent Video Games:
Video games are another past-time of teens that have parents, educators, and experts concerned. An entertainment medium that started out with simple games like Pong, then grew into games like Donkey Kong – is now dominated with lusty and extremely violent video games. And the average time spent on computers and game controllers playing these has risen steadily during the same period.
Drugs and Alcohol:
Drug Abuse is yet another problem area of concern. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), "decreases or stability in abuse patterns were noted for most drugs from 2005 to 2006,"[5] the latest year for which statistics are available. Nevertheless, drugs are still very prevalent amongst the student population today. Some drugs that have become prevalent in recent years are anabolic steroids, club drugs like MDMA (ecstasy), and prescription medications such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
The Consequences
In addition to the obvious "eternal" consequences to an individual of a life without a relationship with Jesus Christ, studies
suggest that these trends are impacting society in a number of negative ways.
Sex:
The consequences of sexual activity among youth can be severe and includes consequences for the youth, their parents, society, and a potential child. Approximately 25% of all pregnancies in the U.S. today end in abortion. The consequences to all involved are immense. While teen pregnancies make up a large percentage of those, the number of unwanted pregnancies among adolescents has actually gone down a bit in recent years but the numbers are still staggering.
For those who carried their children to term, the literal cost to society monetarily is also staggering – estimated to be in the hundreds of billions in U.S. dollars. "Single-adult households have now displaced two-parent families with children as the most typical type of U.S. household. The change demonstrates "the growing complexity" of American households according to a new report, "Examining American Household Composition: 1990 and 2000." "It's breathtaking how many people still think that the 'mom, pop, and two kids' is the majority of households," said Peter Francese, the founder of American Demographics magazine.
Nuclear-family households -- two married parents and a child -- were the most common as recently as 1990, when there were 25 million such households. But by 2000, nuclear-family households fell to second place, both because there were almost a half-million fewer of these type of homes and because the number of single-adult households surged past 27 million."[6]
Sexually transmitted disease is an epidemic in the United States and is on the rise among the youth in particular. While pornography, racy chat, virtual and literal sex has never been more available to this group, ironically they seem to be no more informed of the dangers of this behavior than their predecessors. And according to findings published in the January 2006 edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health, adolescent girls, in particular – are increasingly suffering the consequences of their lack of knowledge. "On average, with the exception of HIV/AIDS, the teens did not know many basic facts about STDs," said Julie Downs, lead author of the study. "Our schools have decided to focus on AIDS, and that has come at a cost," she said. "Teens just aren't being taught about these other diseases, and so they may come away with a false sense of confidence." The study's findings are troubling because teenagers who know little about STDs are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and to delay the treatment of STDs, the researchers said. And the consequences can be severe. Genital herpes, for example, cannot be cured. Genital warts can render a woman more susceptible to cervical cancer, and chlamydia can lead to infertility. The group said 54 percent knew nothing about hepatitis B, a disease that can be 100 times more contagious than HIV." [7]
Pornography:
"The National Institute of Health is studying the long-term effects of porn on young adults. "It has the potential for teenagers to really mess up what their attitudes are about sexuality and really mess up relationships," said clinical psychologist Paul Schenck. Counselors say during the impressionable years, teens may learn to view women as sex objects, extreme sex seems normal, and later, porn becomes part of their sexuality. "So that then in their adult life, if they're wanting to get turned on, they know right where to go," said Schenck. "The brain knows exactly what kind of images to pull up, and it can be very, very hard to change that, to alter that." Experts say... the quantity, accessibility and graphic nature of the porn makes it much more likely (that) it can become an addiction for a teen."[8]
Violent Video:
Cognitive studies have begun demonstrating links between exposure to violent media and violent or overtly aggressive behavior. One recent study studied youth from 13 to 17 years old. Those allowed to play violent games showed far "more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal, and less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain associated with control, focus and concentration than teens who played nonviolent games."[9] The study demonstrated that playing violent video games may have different effects on brain function than those of a non-violent nature according to Dr. Vincent Mathews, a professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and the study's author.
Drugs and Alcohol:
The effects of abusing drugs and alcolhol can be devastating and teenagers are perhaps the most vulnerable segment of society. Addiction, vehicle accidents, affects on family, crime, risky behavior, depression, health problems, and suicide, to name a few. A recent study by NIDA showed that the cost to society at large was also substantial – several hundred billion U.S. dollars. "These costs included lost productivity of victims and incarcerated perpetrators of drug- related crime (20.4 percent); lost legitimate production due to drug-related crime careers (19.7 percent); and other costs of drug-related crime, including Federal drug traffic control, property damage, and police, legal, and corrections services (18.4 percent). Most of the remaining costs resulted from premature deaths (14.9 percent), lost productivity due to drug-related illness (14.5 percent), and healthcare expenditures (10.2 percent)."[10]
FAITH MATTERS
Studies have shown that in addition to the most important affect from a Christian standpoint – the individual's 'spiritual alienation from God,' there are a host of broader societal problems that the evidence indicates it may cause or worsen. To name just a sampling, these include: marital instability (couples that attended church frequently were 2.6 times as likely to have intact marriages than couples not attending or seldom attending)[11] (In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000); [12] unhappiness and emotional adjustment problems; [13] alcohol use, delinquency, drug use, trouble in school, poor grades; [14] poorer health and higher mortality rates (Compared with individuals who did not attend church regularly, people who did had a significantly lower incidence of various diseases. Persons who attended church at least weekly had the lowest rates of tuberculosis. Regular church attendees also faced much lower risks of dying from various conditions. Compared to weekly attendees, infrequent attendees were 2.1 times more likely to die from arteriosclerotic heart disease, 2.3 times more likely to die from pulmonary emphysema, 3.9 times more likely to die from cirrhosis of the liver. Infrequent attendees were also 2.1 times more likely to commit suicide. Finally – people who attended church regularly were better able to quit unhealthy habits such as smoking and excessive drinking.); [15]decreased educational attainment; [16] decreased charitable giving and volunteer work on behalf of poor and elderly. [17] From these studies it is obvious that the trend of Christian youth leaving the church has a significant and decidedly negative impact on almost all of society.
CAMPUS MINISTRY – NEW DIRECTIONS
"The youngest generations want to make a difference, and church has failed to challenge them or give them an avenue to express and practice their faith according to Jose Zayas, Director of Teen Evangelism of Focus on the Family. Mark Kellly, on staff with Purpose Driven Ministries, would agree. According to Kelly, the new generation of missionaries wants to go to the "hardest, most dangerous place, a place where nobody's ever been." [18]
New Philosophy
"Today's works on youth ministry have a shelf life of approximately live 5 years. This relevance factor demands that we
examine, research, and share new methods and philosophy for reaching today's young people with the message of hope that is found in Christ (and hopefully will stay in their lives longer than five years)."[19] The philosophy here is simply to fervently pursue the command of Matthew 28:19 by carrying the Good News of Jesus Christ into the educational arena in dynamic ways with a focus on keeping faith relevant to a new generation while remaining steadfast to the never changing principles found in God's word.
If things are going to change fast enough to prevent the United States from going the way of England and much of Western
Europe, Christian leaders must urgently pursue an agenda in which young people are regarded and acted upon to a greater extent
than in the past. "According to research, despite the popularity of church youth programs, older people tend to receive
considerably more emotional support from the church than do youth." [20]
Evidence has already been submitted in this paper suggesting that successful youth programs seem to be those that actually
expect more from students and leaving the limits of their potential between them and God. With that in mind, our new focus
should make it inevitable that we weed out programs that are not strongly pushing students toward active missions. Of course all
batteries need recharging and successful programs involving praise and worship, prayer, Bible study, and holiness should be kept
or incorporated. The five fundamentals of the faith should be stressed forward, backward, and sideways. Again – it must be
emphasized to the students repeatedly that this is not a game for entertainment but rather they are Respected leaders in the church
that is involved in a worldwide struggle for the souls of mankind.
The youth should have a fundamental understanding of the workings of their church including the administration, finances,
decision making, etc. They should be welcomed and actually encouraged to play a part in these areas. A Marine once said, "If you
want someone to act like a man then start treating him like one." And as far as Youth Ministry goes, they should be involved in
every part of the process from budgeting to planning to...
4CHRIST CHILD MISSIONS - Who We Are
4Christ Child Missions is an organization dedicated to helping children around the world by helping fund those who
provide quality Christian care to children in need.
This article was posted as parted of a series leading up to the launch of a new Christian fraternal organization, Chi Rho Nike,
for youth in middle school, high school, and college age adults.
BIBLIOGRAPHY