Without a doubt, the youth of this world are in great need. They face pressures and temptations that are unprecedented. They are not only bombarded by their peers, but by adults that are in places of authority over them. God has been pushed out of their world view and replaced with secular humanism, atheism, and counter culture. This has lead to teens turning to alcohol, drugs, sex, depression, cutting and suicide. And for this reason they are in fact in need of rescue. It is this need that has lead to such an emphasis on "youth ministry". We invest time, energy and resources on rescuing teens. However, our focus on rescuing teens is perpetuating the crisis.
In crisis, decisions must be made that will benefit the greatest number. On September 11th, 2001 such a system was used. As rescuers made their way through the rubble they found people who were near death, their injuries and condition statistically pointed towards poor chances of survival. The rescuers had to make the decision to leave that person, and attempt to find those who had greater chances of survival. Failure to make that decision would have lead to even more casualties, as time and effort and resources were used to rescue the one, while others who may have made it were not reached in time, grew worse and eventually died as well. We are in the midst of a mass casualty crisis, and triage must be implemented. We must start investing in an area that will save the most people.
All the research shows that the greatest impact in a person's life occurs before they are 13. A person learns more in the first five years of life than they will the rest of their life. Personalities are developed in childhood. Social skills are developed in childhood. Moral foundations are set during childhood. 87% of first time conversions occur in those under 13. Of those in ministry, the majority say they knew they were called as children. Statistically children have a better chance of spiritual survival than teens or even adults, yet we spend all of our efforts, energy and resources on trying to rescue those with grim chances, and while we do the children of today are growing worse and dying spiritually. The church has developed tunnel vision on rescuing teens, and while I don't diminish the need, we must broaden our vision, to not only rescue them, but prevent the next generation of teens from also needing rescued.
We can't stand around the pit focusing our efforts on pulling people out, at some point we must turn our attention on keeping them from falling in the pit.
The children of today are the teens of tomorrow, and we need to focus on them just as much if not more, than the teens of today. We must invest just as much of our time, energy and resources to developing them into mature believers with a firm foundation of faith, before they become teens.
This means that we have to take our efforts off of rescue, and put them into prevention. We have to take of our resources away from getting them out, and put them towards keeping them from falling in. What if the money invested in teens was placed into children? What if churches looked for children’s pastors the same way they did youth pastors? What if ministers spoke with the same passion to children as they did teens? What if instead of reading Bible stories, children learned that they had purpose and a calling? What if instead of entertaining them, we challenged them? What if children were placed front and center rather than in the back corner? What if nurseries were more than just places for babysitting?
This does not mean that we forget about the teens in crisis, we will still rescue them, if we can. However we must deal with this crisis in a way that does the most good for the most people. Most churches have more children than teens within their congregations. If we would invest more in the children, then we would find less people in the pit; the crisis would be averted. As the old saying goes, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” If we will invest in raising up the children of today we will save the teens of tomorrow, and end the perpetual need to rescuse a generation.
