Monthly youth leaders column

It was only recently that two young people sponsored by the Lawn Tennis Association were effectively cut off from LTA finance because they had posted pictures on their blogs which showed them involved in nocturnal antics.

I listened to a radio phone-in the following day (while driving) where the majority verdict was that these two young people had been very harshly treated. After all, that was how all teenagers lived — it’s all part of growing up. It was expected that teenagers would indulge and be seen in party mode, preferably drunk.

‘You must have fun’

Our young people are growing up in a world which insists that fun must be had. Against this backdrop it is hard to convince them that they should ‘Flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness’ (1 Timothy 6.11).

Paul was writing to young Timothy to convince him that this way was the best. There had to be something in Paul’s day to ‘flee from’ or Paul would never have written it.

Nothing new

Our history books tell us that first-century culture was equally as hedonistic as ours. So we must believe what God’s word says to us and not bottle out of telling our young people that there is a distinctive way of living if we are Christians. It is to ‘pursue righteousness’ — that is, to try to keep faith with the covenant promise that God has given us through his Son, and that demands that we do all we can to obey his commandments. If we are his children, we obey his word and live in ways that honour our relationship with God. And it is such a joy to ‘delight’ in obeying God’s precepts (study Psalm 119 — all of it!!!!).

Hard to teach

Now that is hard to teach and, maybe, some young people will turn away from it. The lure of their peers convinces many young people that pursuing righteousness is just too hard, or they split their lives between their Sunday best and the way they live in the week. Clearly we need to teach this in our youth groups, but this idea is very hard for many young people to work out in practice. Two worldviews are competing for their following and we must be sure that we teach godly ways of living.

Our example

But we are mistaken if we think the odd talk about the pleasures of the world is all we need to do. There has to be a forum for our group members to find out what it means to live righteous lives. We must convince them that this is God’s command by our teaching, but we must strongly reinforce the message by the way we live.

We must also give the group members time to talk about the ways in which they battle with cultural norms. Whether you do that in small groups or in Q & A sessions, there must be space for them to talk through their pressures because they are many.

And, finally, we must be convinced that this is right. It is very easy to tumble into the popularity trap and tell them it doesn’t really matter how we live as long as we turn up to Pathfinders every Sunday. It does matter. We are to pursue righteousness — go after it on a daily basis. This needs teaching and our young people need support in order to survive their exposure to a secular world.

Teacher and listener

We must be both teacher and listener. We must teach that righteousness is exciting because it is about obeying God’s commands and walking in his ways. But we must talk with our young people — let them express their pressures and fears.

And let us be leaders who pray daily for our group members as they pick their way through a spectrum of behaviour so difficult to understand.

Dave Fenton

© Evangelicals Now - November 2007
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