Connecting Students to the Gospel

For years there has been a problem in student ministry that has been so daunting that at times it seems almost impossible to overcome, and youth pastors have been coming up with idea after idea to try and solve this problem.  Youth groups work on having the coolest games, the best speakers, and the best lights.  They will do anything they can to try and resolve this problem, and I am not naive enough to think that I have resolved this problem by any means.  All I am trying to do is share what we at the Christ Community Church Youth Group are striving to do.  So please don't read the rest of this post as arrogance or as if I am trying to say other churches are not doing this very thing.  I simply am sharing our personal goals in order to combat this overwhelming problem.

The problem that youth groups have been facing for far too long is that students get connected and plugged into youth group, and they even become actively involved in youth groups.  Then as soon as they graduate and move off to college, they begin to abandon their faith.  This scenario always makes me think of Jesus teaching in Matthew 7:24-27 about having a solid foundation, and that is why our first step here is connecting students to the life changing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  When seniors graduate from our youth group, our greatest desire is that they understand the fullness of who Jesus is and how the Gospel gets lived out in everyday life.  My prayer is that every student in our youth group develops an ever growing/ meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.

It is my belief that in the 2000 years since Christ death and resurrection, He has been the one changing peoples lives.  That is why our focus here is going to be constantly pointing students back to Jesus, and this does two things.  First, it takes the responsibility out of our hands to change students' lives.  It is up to God and the student hearing the message.  The other thing is that when God begins to move and change students' hearts, He gets all the glory.  God becomes the one who gets the praise, and it cannot be accredited to anything that we have done in youth ministry.

It is my prayer that no one takes away what is said in this blog as harsh.  I just want to share our core vision here the Christ Community Youth group.  We desire for students' lives to be transformed forever, and we believe that only happens through the life changing message of Jesus Christ.