One of the [many] reasons I believe in this generation of students
I was recently given a God-sized reminder of why I believe in this generation of students. I believe with all my heart that Christianity in America will be shaped by this group of people. I’ve been working with students for the better part of ten years now, and I’m constantly reminded that this generation is hungry for the deep things of God. I’ve been told more times than I can count that the attention span of a teenager is just over 15 minutes – and as a result my communication to them should somehow fit that. I would always think, “but, they can sit through an hour long biology class or an hour long algebra class… surely they can handle the deep things of God’s Word”
From the moment I first heard the still small voice of God calling me into full-time vocational ministry, I knew that I would be different. One of my strongest convictions in student ministry is that I will refuse to build a ministry that is predicated by fun and games. Having traveled and spoken now in several states, and having worked with several summer camps, I’ve seen so many student pastors and thought to myself “how in the world did that church hire them??” Now please hear me, I’m in no way judging anyone, I’m just telling you what I see. And I’m not against fun and games. Believe, I love having fun more than anyone, but if I’m charged with helping disciple these high school students and connecting them with Jesus – then when we do get together, we have to be so strategic and intentional with the time we’ve been given.
From the moment I started traveling and speaking, and then working in the local church, I’ve been passionate about connecting students with the living Word of God. Everywhere I go I hear a few statements repeated over and over. “Bryan, just wanted to say thanks for not watering it down tonight; thanks for getting in our face, thanks for being real with us.” I can’t tell you how many different places I’ve been where I’ve students say that. I’m not your typical preacher/communicator; I’m not a joke teller; I’m not a baby-sitter; I’m not a party planner; I’m not a tour guide… I’m a student pastor. Part of being a student pastor makes me concerned for the spiritual well-being of teenagers today. But I’m continually seeing things that give me tremendous hope.
Over the last few months, I’ve been under such conviction that as a whole, most student ministries don’t do much with prayer. I’ve been personally convicted at how little I pray. I think about all the things that I want to see God do in our student ministry, and in this nation; but I’m constantly reminded that without prayer – authentic, passionate prayer – we will keep seeing what we’ve always seen, and we’ll keep going to all the various conferences looking for that “next great thing” and try to come home and copy it where we serve.
A few weeks ago, I shared with my students my heart about all of this, and wasn’t really sure how they would respond. To my surprise, the vast majority of my group raised their hand and said “absolutely this is something we need to focus on.” So last Wednesday we planned a creative prayer experience for our students. I was sharing with a few other student pastors what I was working on and I heard things like “dude, you mean to tell me you’re not going to do anything but pray?? for a whole hour? you’re crazy bro! you’ll lose em within a few minutes.”
When the students arrived, we handed each one a packet that explained everything they needed to do for the night. It explained what to do in each room, all of the scripture was on the paper they were holding (and we did this partly because you always have students that forget to bring their Bible and because we wanted them to be able to take it all home with them later that night). We had several different rooms, each with its own focus, music, lighting, etc. Each room had a time limit and the students were told when to switch and go to the next room. I was really interested in how the students would respond. I opened the night by explaining that in no way was I trying to make anyone uncomfortable, but I wanted to provide an opportunity for my HS students to connect with God. We are all so busy these days, and I have a pretty strong feeling that very few of us these days carve out consistent time to sit before God and listen for His voice.
As I walked around that night, I would stick my head in each one of the various rooms, just to see how they were following directions, etc. But one room caught my attention. One of the rooms was a room we called “silence//kneel” and in this room, the students were instructed to find a chair in the room and kneel by it and do nothing but listen. We had the lights in the room turned off, and in the center of the room we had a massive pile of tiny Christmas lights along with some music playing. I was floored to watch as the students walked in the room and got on their knees – some were even laying flat on their faces. There was something about that sight that God used to remind me that these students were hungry for the deep things of God.
I know that it has taken quite a bit of time to bring our students to this point, I don’t think I could have done that when I first arrived here at the church. But I wished you could have seen those HS students. At the end of the prayer experience, the students finished by ending up in our big room where myself and another student ministry leader served the students communion. We did communion different than what most of them were used to. We held a big loaf of bread where each student would tear a piece of it and then proceed to dip it in a large cup of juice. There was something powerful about looking a HS student in the eyes and telling each one of them “This bread represents the body of Christ – broken for you” and “This cup represents the blood of Christ – which was shed for you.” Powerful stuff that night. But what was even crazier was when students found me at lunch the next day and said “Hey Bryan, can we make that a monthly thing??” Wait a minute: High School students are asking that we have more nights solely dedicated to prayer?? I thought they only had a 15 minute attention span?? I’m telling you… there is an awakening coming in our land, and its coming through this generation of students.
I’m reminded of a passage in Matthew 17 where those first disciples were presented with a very difficult situation:
14When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15“Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
19Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
20He replied, “Because you have so little faith…
The disciples were going through all the motions, doing the right things, saying the right stuff – but their faith was in their own strength, and not in Jesus Himself. I pray that a generation of Student Pastors would rise up and passionately seek to connect students with the heart of God – and not just religion. The answer to the darkness in our nation isn’t more religion; it’s not more church services; it’s not more programs – it’s Jesus. We need to be in the business of helping our people connect with God, and sometimes we have to be willing to get out of the way… One of my mentors and heroes, Dr. Roy Fish – Distinguished Prof. of Evangelism at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, would say often in talking about revivals; “It’s always darkest before the sun comes up.” Amen…
So until the sun comes up….
If you would like a copy of our interactive prayer experience, leave me a comment with your email address and I will send that to you.
Bro, great stuff! Send it my way!