Recently I had the privilege of ministering at a summer camp for junior high students in Detroit. It was such a joy to see 10-13 year olds dance, laugh, worship, and pray together. There is nothing quite like seeing precious young people make a proclamation of faith and encounter the Holy Spirit for the first time. Although our ministry at Pursuit NYC is geared towards young adults, God is no respecter of age and shows up just the same. And God showed up in Michigan! You would have been moved to see lifted hands and tears streaming down the faces of these teens. It’s in settings like that when the presence of God shows up that people start to get a passion for God.
My spiritual father has always said that passion for God can’t be taught, it must be caught. Events and programs can’t impart passion. They can help, but can’t replace the need for a personal experience with God. When leaders lay down their lives to create a culture and atmosphere for encounter, young people catch that love for the Lord. I believe with all my heart that God wants to set a generation on fire with passion for Jesus! Why? Because it’s passionate disciples that follow the Lord beyond their youth group days. It’s passionate disciples that go to the nations and serve. It’s passionate disciples that impart that passion to others. So the question then is how do we help young people catch that passion?
HOPE NOT HYPE
To be honest I like hype. When it comes to sneakers and even events. But if we are going to really help young people catch a passion for God, we need to take them beyond hype, to hope. Hype might gather a crowd, but hope is what sustains a believer long after an experience. Thanks to social media you can make anything look greater than it actually is. Yet people’s faith isn’t developed on a platform, but behind the scenes. Hype is about programs and events. Hope is about discipleship rooted in Christ. Hope happens as you keep pouring into your teens.
BUILD PEOPLE NOT BUILD A MINISTRY
Pouring into people should be our number one priority in ministry. Too often I’ve seen leaders and pastors use people rather than empower them. Using people to build a ministry might accomplish great feats, but only when you build people can you sustain a move of God. If you want young people to be passionate, build them up as leaders, as praise team members, as prayer ministers, etc. Allow them to grow and even fail forward. I remember going on short-term missions trips to Latin American countries when my pastor told me to preach at schools and in the streets. I was so shocked. Me? My pastor had way more experience in preaching, in evangelism, and was even fluent in Spanish, but he asked me to do it. Why? Because the goal wasn’t to just get a great job done, but to build people in the process. Building people gives them ownership, which translates into passion!
ON FIRE NOT FIERY
I’ve been to events where the leader will tell the students what to do at certain moments of a service. And naturally the students will do as their pastor instructs. What ends up happening is that he models what it looks like to be fiery and passionate for God, yet it just ends up becoming a spiritual “Simon says”. We do a disservice when we make passion for God into certain motions. Too many leaders tell people to be fiery without actually allowing the Holy Spirit to set them on fire. We need to go beyond the motions of a quick response to tarry in God’s presence long enough where they can catch that passion. Leaders need to do the hard work of breaking the ground so that God can move. The ministries where I see young people actually on fire is because they waited on God to touch them and let Him move them to action and not the leader himself.
CONSUMING NOT CONTROLLING
Nothing kills passion for God like control. The opposite of passion for God isn’t being lukewarm, but it’s actually being religious. When we replace a genuine devotion for God with rules, we end up with death. Now this doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for discipline, but discipline without devotion never lasts. Passion is what gives purpose to obedience in seasons when our feelings aren’t there. In Hebrews it says that our God is a consuming fire. That’s the nature of fire. It consumes. It’s wild. It’s powerful. It simply can’t be contained. So when we control people, it kills the fire instantly. For youth pastors, your job isn’t to shepherd people’s decisions, but their hearts. The moment we micromanage people, we have allowed a spirit of control to reign. Soon enough that control kills passion.
Let’s keep pressing forward so that we can see young people get a genuine passion for God into their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and beyond. Long after their youth ministry days are over, I am wanting to see young people do faith well to the end of their lives. Let’s instill in them hope over hype. Let’s build them up rather than just our ministry. Let’s allow God to set them on fire. And when He does, let’s give up control and let God do what He wants in them. That way together we will see a generation on fire for God! Amen.