The Lectionary text for Sunday gives us the only snapshot of Jesus as a young person. There Jesus joined his family and others on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. As the family returned home, mom and dad assumed young Jesus was following along with the other young people, and did’t really miss him until evening. They were horrified when they couldn’t find him and rushed back to Jerusalem for a frantic three-day search.
When Joseph finally caught up with young Jesus he was in the temple, holding his own in serious debate with doctors of the law. All were amazed that this 12-year-old demonstrated such knowledge and spiritual depth. “Why did you do this to us?” Dad asked in a voice filled with both fright and anger. The precocious youngster quipped back, “Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?”
It is apparent Jesus did not go to one of those fun and games youth ministries I described in August. He didn’t demand a gym or softball field and wi-fi internet connection at church. He didn’t have repetitive motion injuries in his thumbs. He didn’t have body piercings and tatoos. He did not allow the culture to influence how he lived his life, even as a young person.
Modern youth ministry, as we like to do it, is terribly flawed. We are doing our kids a disservice when we have it, even if they enjoy it at the time. We are not training disciples we are creating consumers who need entertainment to stay with it. We are teaching them to let the culture drive the way they live.
Modern youth ministry rests squarely on the humanistic assumption, inherited from Darwin’s theory of evolution, that young people are under-developed, sub-humans. As such they don’t have the ability to be mature and responsible, and have to have an “age-appropriate” education delivery system. It is assumed they will be irresponsible, act like children, and not be interested in significant and meaningful study and application. I happen to believe that children and teenagers are not under-developed animals and would rather not treat them that way.
My experience as a home school father, now validated by empirical research, indicates that for proper spiritual development and maturity young people do not need to be isolated into groups their own age but they need regular interaction with mature adults, and they need to be included into the ongoing life of the church. They actually want this! Young people who attend public or private school already spend their entire week shunted away from the real world and isolated into artificial same-age peer groups. They don’t need more of it when they come to church! They need an intentional family life and they need interaction with responsible adults so they can learn to be adult. They need to be adequately socialized to live in a multi-generational world. They need to be challenged to do hard things.
Young Jesus could have tagged with the kids on the way home to Nazareth that day. It was expected that he would, and that is why he wasn’t missed until evening. But Jesus did not want to hang with the youth, playing games. He was fascinated with the things of God, and wanted to talk with the best biblical scholars of his time. More than a good time with friends, young Jesus wanted to be about the Father’s business.
Since we have them at church only a short time each week, shouldn’t we be more serious about ministry to young people. Shouldn’t we encourage them to be about the Father’s business?
When Joseph finally caught up with young Jesus he was in the temple, holding his own in serious debate with doctors of the law. All were amazed that this 12-year-old demonstrated such knowledge and spiritual depth. “Why did you do this to us?” Dad asked in a voice filled with both fright and anger. The precocious youngster quipped back, “Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?”
It is apparent Jesus did not go to one of those fun and games youth ministries I described in August. He didn’t demand a gym or softball field and wi-fi internet connection at church. He didn’t have repetitive motion injuries in his thumbs. He didn’t have body piercings and tatoos. He did not allow the culture to influence how he lived his life, even as a young person.
Modern youth ministry, as we like to do it, is terribly flawed. We are doing our kids a disservice when we have it, even if they enjoy it at the time. We are not training disciples we are creating consumers who need entertainment to stay with it. We are teaching them to let the culture drive the way they live.
Modern youth ministry rests squarely on the humanistic assumption, inherited from Darwin’s theory of evolution, that young people are under-developed, sub-humans. As such they don’t have the ability to be mature and responsible, and have to have an “age-appropriate” education delivery system. It is assumed they will be irresponsible, act like children, and not be interested in significant and meaningful study and application. I happen to believe that children and teenagers are not under-developed animals and would rather not treat them that way.
My experience as a home school father, now validated by empirical research, indicates that for proper spiritual development and maturity young people do not need to be isolated into groups their own age but they need regular interaction with mature adults, and they need to be included into the ongoing life of the church. They actually want this! Young people who attend public or private school already spend their entire week shunted away from the real world and isolated into artificial same-age peer groups. They don’t need more of it when they come to church! They need an intentional family life and they need interaction with responsible adults so they can learn to be adult. They need to be adequately socialized to live in a multi-generational world. They need to be challenged to do hard things.
Young Jesus could have tagged with the kids on the way home to Nazareth that day. It was expected that he would, and that is why he wasn’t missed until evening. But Jesus did not want to hang with the youth, playing games. He was fascinated with the things of God, and wanted to talk with the best biblical scholars of his time. More than a good time with friends, young Jesus wanted to be about the Father’s business.
Since we have them at church only a short time each week, shouldn’t we be more serious about ministry to young people. Shouldn’t we encourage them to be about the Father’s business?
Amen!
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