Category Archives: Adolescents

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URGENT NEED FOR DISCIPLING LEADERSHIP

Loneliness At Record High, Trust in Religious Institutions At Record Low

Recent studies from the Pew Research Centerb and Springtide Research Institute show something significant happening in peoples’ spiritual lives. People are turning from religion. Millennials are raising their children without the church.  People have lost trust in religious institutions. However, even though people are walking away from religion, they aren’t necessarily abandoning spirituality. How are faith leaders going to meet this reality as they evangelize and disciple young people in their relationship with Jesus?

urgent need for discipling leadership

Springtide Research Institute has one of the largest datasets on the state of youth in America. The data undeniably points to the need for discipling leadership from adults. Springtide summarizes their enormous dataset like this:

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5 Ways to Show Up for Non-Christian Young People (Red Zone)

WHERE ARE THESE YOUNG PEOPLE COMING FROM?

Youth group is full of young people. Where do these youth come from? How do they arrive to be under your discipleship?

 

Research conducted by the Pew Research Center (published in September 2020) examined the religious lives of US teens. It showed that most teens attend religious services with at least 1 parent, but the majority attend with both parents. Just 7% percent of the surveyed teens reported that they attend services with other family members or friends; only 1% reported attending services alone. a

It is probably safe to say that students who attend youth groups mostly come from Christian homes or have exposure to the Gospel. This is excellent news when thinking about discipleship, but there is a huge gap of young people who are not being shown an accurate picture of who Jesus is. How are youth leaders going to reach young people who are not Christians if they are not showing up to church?

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10 RESEARCH-BACKED QUESTIONS THAT MIGHT HELP YOUR HIGH SCHOOL SMALL GROUPS OPEN UP

Youthworkers in Copenhagen, Denmark

I really believe that ministry is more “caught” than taught. What I mean by that is that young people learn more about being a disciple of Jesus by being around someone who is intentionally pouring their lives into them. Jesus spent most of his time with Peter, James, and John, and then the bulk of the rest of his time in ministry with the other eight of his 12 Disciples. Jesus was intentional about showing them day by day what it looked like to be in relationship with him. By being around him all of the time they learned by observation what his priorities were, how he spent his day, and what seemed to matter to him. They even observed what he ate, when he slept, how he recreated, how he talked to the Heavenly Father in prayer. For Jesus, it was “quantity” time with his Disciples as much or more than the “quality of time.”