The other day

I received through the mail a promotional piece for a youth conference

that was billed as "anti-entertainment." I immediately identified

with its appeal. Youth ministry, for the most part, has gone the way of

Demas. Demas was a fellow worker with the Apostle Paul. Demas, however,

left the work of ministry and went the way of the world. So, in ministry

circles, to go the way of Demas is to go worldly.

The church

is in the business of entertaining our youth. No doubt about it. Now,

some youth ministers of entertainment will read this and have a brick

because they say that the entertainment is simply the bait to get the

kids there to listen to the good stuff.

I know. I have

been there. I bought the t-shirt. I am guilty as the next guy. But the

light is coming on.

Seriously,

we now have youth camps, which would make Cecil B. DeMille salivate. Youth

camps, which use to be driven by prayer and Bible study, are now driven

Just think: miniature blimps with video cameras, laser beams bouncing

off the walls and sound systems that can be heard around the world. Some

youth camps have budgets upward to quarter to half million.

Then, the sensate-bombarded

kids return to their mom and pop churches and ask, "Where's the excitement?

Why can't we have more fun, more activities, more trips, more fun, more

exciting things, and did I mention more fun. Then, average church, with

its 75 to 150 members, confesses it can't come up with the fun of a million-dollar

youth camp, or the fun of Big City Baptist Church. So, know what the kids

do? They either drop out of church when their parents don't make them

go anymore or they go over to Big City Baptist Church where they can have

lots of fun.

Do you really

want to know what the kids need? George Gallop polled American youth in

the mid-'80s and asked them what they wanted. He discovered what American

teens wanted from their churches. They wanted to go deeper into the places

of God through prayer, Bible study, and personal discipline. That doesn't

sound like a laser show or some hip band who looks and sounds like the

world except for the lyrics which my ears never detect.

Question: are

kids in the beginning of the 21st century different from those 15 years

ago? I think not. I think we have had some youth gurus who have sold us

a bill of goods. Kids want to know where they came from, who loves them,

how to make it to Friday, and what do they need to know when they face

life's adversities like drugs, divorce, and death.

But we continue

to bait and switch. We bait them with a party but then want to switch

to some spiritual soup of which no one is really sure what's in it.

Maybe 9/11

will motivate us to move in the needed direction with regard to youth

ministries. Youth people need and want the Word of God, undiluted. They

want deliverance from drugs, alcohol, and sexual peer pressure. They want

adults who will not laugh or accommodate their rebellion and even their

dirty jokes.

Mark this page.

Youth ministry is changing. Not because of something new coming down the

pike. But because what's been here has been pretty much bankrupt.

The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor

of River's Edge

Community Church in Fayetteville.

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