Monthly youth leaders column

I am writing this on the night before England play South Africa at cricket. It is supposed to be the day that is ‘the final statement on England’s winter — a day that sums up all they have achieved’. The press were never likely to underplay the game but is it really that crucial. England will have other opportunities to perform well.

There was one crucial day which can never be repeated — Good Friday is the day in question when Jesus died to take away sin. There was not another chance — our whole lives are bound up with this day. Our past is dealt with, our present life is full of hope and our future is secure in the hands of the man of Calvary. As a day, Good Friday has got a little lost — it is no more than a ‘day off’ for most people. But it is the day which secures us and gives us the answer to the basic human problem of sin. Now, most of you know all of this, so why bring it up?

Rescue

What are we telling our young people? We may well say that God loves them — and that’s true and it’s reassuring. We may well say that they can ‘connect with God — he’s on our wavelength’ and that’s true as well. He understands us and listens to us when we pray in faith. But, if I am drowning, I do not want to hear that the water is nice and warm and that it is usually quite easy to float. I desperately want to hear about the rescue attempt that is swinging into action in order that I will be saved. I need a big bloke coming down out of a helicopter to pluck me out of the water — a Saviour.

Regularly at the cross

There are places in youth ministry where connecting with God is the only priority — where it is rare to hear about Christ and his saving death and where you are unlikely to hear much about how that historical event can impact the life of a human being. I am not suggesting that we preach the cross every Sunday or at every youth meeting but I am saying that if we do not regularly tell our kids that sin is serious and that Christ has dealt with its effects by his atoning death, we have sold them short and not given them the good news. There are those who find it impossible to talk about a relationship with the living Christ and seem only to be able to talk of an emotional connection to a God who is somewhere.

Wrong picture?

Why should we ever want to take the death of Christ off our youth agendas? It is what young people need to hear if they are to have a future of meaning and purpose. This manifests itself in the kind of talk that tells me over and over again that God is great (he is!) and we can have access to him because he loves us. It’s almost saying we can access God when we choose and he will always be there for us. And we hear some really great funny stories that entertain the kids and remind them that God is just like the nice funny guy up the front. We are in mortal danger of making man the one who is in control and God is just one of our commodities as accessible as anything else we can buy on eBay.

It is giving our young people quite the wrong picture. The great and sovereign God offers us his salvation on the basis of the finished work of Christ and he demands from us repentance and our obedience to his commands. Anything else is not gospel and it’s a bit like telling the drowning man that there are some pretty flowers on the cliffs above the place where he is drowning. Our kids need to hear good news not anecdotes.

Dave Fenton

© Evangelicals Now - May 2007
Please consider supporting this ministry by subscribing.