Why Kids Abandon the Church (audio)

In the following audio recording, Cameron Cole offers parents explanations of why students abandon the church and how grace-driven ministry seeks to foster life-long disciples of Jesus.

Link: Why Kids Abandon the Church

Cameron Cole is the chairman of Rooted: Advancing Grace-Driven Ministry and serves as the director of youth ministries at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, AL.

Ministry Around America: New England Edition

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1. Please describe the context in which you minister (geographically, ethnically, socio-economically, etc.)

I am a proud, life-long New Englander.  I attended college and seminary a little over an hour away from home, and now I serve in a church only thirty minutes from where I grew up.  I serve in a church of 250 that's about half an hour south-west of Boston.  New Englanders are generally well-educated, brutally honest, and traditional people. 

The suburban towns Emmanuel Baptist Church pulls from are largely upper-middle class, mostly white communities where many commute daily into Boston to work (most commuters work in the financial world or in one of Boston's many hospitals or universities).  In New England, it is simply assumed that not only will you go to college after high school, much of your teenage life after freshman year revolves around getting high enough grades and excelling in enough extra-curricular activities to get into a good college with a scholarship.

There are two general assumptions most New Englanders make (especially in my area around Boston): You will go to college and you're Roman Catholic.

2. How do teenagers in your region feel about the Church and Christianity as a whole?

My wife teaches eighth grade in our town's public school and frequently gets questions about being married to a priest.  A few weeks back, something about church came up in one of her classes and since she's not Catholic she was asked what religion she was, as if being a Baptist is like being a Buddhist.  She had to explain what "Protestant" and "Baptist" meant, since "Christian" and "Church" simply means "Roman Catholic" to most unchurched teenagers.  It's simply assumed that if you're religious, you're Catholic. Many parents have a difficult time agreeing to let their teen attend anything a Protestant church is doing - in some ways the changes of Vatican II are still being worked out.

Even though many will identify themselves as Catholic, they rarely attend Mass and dread attending CCD. The Roman Catholic Church is viewed with skepticism because of the clergy sex-abuse scandals, and all other Churches are untrustworthy because they aren't Catholic. Religion simply isn't something that should affect real life. In many ways, it wouldn't be unfair to make the observation that the universities (which were ironically founded by the Church to train up the next generations of pastors and missionaries) have taken on the authority the Church used to hold in public life.

3. What perceptions and reactions do teenagers in your area have to Christian morality?

When I was a teenager, I remember classmates getting drunk and partying hard on Friday and then going to confession on Saturday.  Religion is thought of as something peripheral and pretty insignificant.  Disappointingly, "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" is a very accurate description of teen spirituality - God exists but doesn't impose himself on you, he's just there to help you when you need him to and help you do good things for others.  

In a culture so dominated by both secularism and Roman Catholicism, the Gospel of Grace is not easily understood and is often under attack from both groups of people.  The Gospel is either stupid and unnecessary because God, sin, and judgment aren't real anyway, or the Gospel is a New Law declaring what we ought to do without giving us the ability to do it. 

Practically speaking, most teenagers around here don't seem to think too much about moral decisions.  It's not that they're more thoughtless than other teens, but they're simply postmodern and think with their feelings and impulses.  As the Ben and Jerry's Bumper Sticker says, "If it doesn't feel good, why do it?" 

4. What approaches have you found helpful in dealing with the aforementioned stumbling blocks such that you effectively can share the Gospel with students in your area and bring them in to the life of the Church?

One of the most effective things you can do is to invest your time to gain the trust of parents.  Evangelical churches (especially Baptist churches like mine!) are often viewed with suspicion and distrust.  This makes earning the trust of parents both difficult and essential.  I've had a number of students get plugged into the youth ministry who wanted to attend our Sunday morning worship services; but they have been told they aren't allowed to come "because we're Catholic" (even though they rarely attend Mass).  I've had students drop off the map for a season because they had to attend CCD in order to receive their first communion.  It's becoming a bit "trendy" to emphasize parents today, but I'm increasingly convinced that we need to minister to the whole student, and that means we need to reach out to the whole family... parents included. 

I often hear youth pastors from around the country talk about the importance of plugging into the local schools, and I agree that's really important, but in New England it's extremely difficult to do.  I'm not allowed to eat lunch with students, and even if I was, I'm not sure how many students would be willing to put such a huge target on their back by allowing me to sit with them and their friends.  I've been a volunteer coach for one of the local high school's Track & Field teams and that's been a great blessing and a great challenge.  A few years ago one of the students I had already coached for a whole season was surprised to find out I'm a pastor (I have no idea how she didn't know, since it comes up quite a bit) and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the week because she was so weirded out that one of her coaches was a priest. 

5. What encouragement would you give to other youth pastors in your area trying to reach teenagers?

Don't give up, and stay somewhere long enough to make a difference!  We've all heard the statistics about how short most youth pastors stay at a church before moving on... I want to encourage you to try breaking the record as the longest-tenured pastor in your church's history.  I've been serving at my church for seven and a half years, and it wasn't until year four that I felt that I really had gained significant trust from the parents at church (so how much more of a challenge will it be to gain the trust of parents from the unchurched community!). 

You will see mini-revivals break out among families, churches, schools, and communities through your ministry the longer you stay, the more consistently you model the servant-love of Christ, and as you continually proclaim that amazing grace of the Good News.  Don't set out trying to be Jonathan Edwards or George Whitefield or whoever else... set out to be faithful in your calling to serve the students and families God has given you and trust Him to bear the fruit as you scatter the seed.

Besides, we all know New England is the American Church's best-kept-secret... God is doing a mighty work here!  Friends, stay faithful.

Less "god", More Jesus

This is our final post in our series on the cultural trend coined "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism". Check out the rest of the posts in the series here.

You know this feeling. You love teenagers, you hang out with them, you’ve studied and prepped for a talk, worked hard on a program, taught about Jesus and following him, and ... at the end of the day, you find your beloved teens kind of unable to talk much about what they believe. Everybody wants to be “closer to God.” But when pressed, nobody has much in particular to say. You wonder ... what is going on here? Are we that ineffective?

Your teens might be suffering from a case of MTD. According to “Soul Searching,” Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) has become the “de facto dominant religion among teens.” Though it’s without creed or organizers, MTD functions like as a parasite to its host, the church. Its chief tenets are that God wants us to be good (and get along) and go to heaven when we die, God wants us to be happy, and God is there for us if/when we need him.

Why do your teens have it? Turns out, they probably caught it from the adults at your church. In her absolutely devastating and wonderful book "Almost Christian: What the Fatih of our Teenagers is tellin the American Church,” Kenda Creasy Dean takes the argument further into the Christian territory of local church youth ministry. Dean (who was one of the researchers/interviewers on the NSYR that formed the basis of “Soul Searching”) offers both diagnosis and prescription for treatment. (Confession: this book is brilliant. I have read and reread it and have heard her speak; if anything good comes out of what follows, it’s properly her thoughts, not mine). I just want to focus on one tantalizing prescription:

Less “god,” more Jesus.

Dean notes that most of the teenagers in the study seem paralyzed when asked about Jesus himself (yes, of course, some did better than others). But here are a few observations that ought to both comfort and encourage us:

1. MTD banks on a default, ahistoric deistic concept of “G/god;” Jesus is vastly different, particular, personal.
2. MTD has some basic beliefs/practices, but it can’t tell a compelling story or capture your heart; Jesus is the best Story and captures hearts (and thus minds and bodies as well).
3. You can’t love MTD – but you can love a Jesus who has first loved you. (And as Dean says, “you learn best what you love most”).

Since reading the book, here are a few practices I’m learning to adopt in talking with students.

1. Start asking students about their relationship with Jesus - not “God.” In English, God is the default word for a deity, so those three letters become a box in which just park our own conceptions/feelings/thoughts/beliefs on the divine. We could talk about “God” all day and not being talking about the same “god.” As Christians we believe in One God- in the three persons of Father/Son/Spirit, and it’s time for us start using those names and asking students about Jesus. Who is Jesus for you? Do you sense that Jesus is with you? For you? What is one thing Jesus is doing in your life right now? And when you are done, pray with them and for them – to Jesus.
2. Use “Jesus” (and God, and Father/Spirit/Son) as subject, not as object. Talk less “about” God: talk more about what he has done, is doing, and will do. When God is the subject, it’s clear he is doing the action. We all know the red letters in the Bible of what Jesus says – but do you talk about what he does? I haven’t done this, but I want to go through a gospel and list out all the verbs where Jesus is the subject. With God (and particularly Jesus) as the subject of our sentences (past/present/future), we emphasize his ongoing, active presence in our midst.
3. Get personal: talk about your own faith story and what Jesus has done/is doing in your own life.  Let teens see the personal difference that Jesus Christ has made in you. Where possible, be explicit about the links between what you do and why. If you are taking some steps in following Jesus, be clear about his love that motivates you. If you are taking some risks in faith, be clear about your trust in him and his leadership. Model this yourself. Ask your leaders to do this. Ask parents to do this with their own kids (it has a huge impact).

It seems like the more personal God gets, the bigger difference he makes. But wait– isn’t that the whole story revealed to us in the story of Scripture? A Father who graciously sends his only Son and gives his Spirit freely that we might be united to him? Thought so.

Andy Cornett is the Assistant Pastor and Director of Student Ministries at New Hope Presbyterian in Fort Myers, FL. Andy earned a Masters in Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA and has over ten years of experience in youth ministry.

Confronting Deism with the Realities of God

This post is part of our series on the cultural trend coined "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism". Check out the rest of the posts in the series here.

Avoidance.  We’re all pretty good at it, and we’ve got plenty of excuses in our toolbox which allow us to live in our own realities for a while.  But the God of Scripture is merciful; He breaks in and confronts us with realities bigger than ourselves (such as love and death), and the Man/God Himself asks us each, “Who do you say that I am?”

This is one of the most amazing blessings of the Christian faith: God confronts.  He breaks into humanity and ushers in a new reality- the Kingdom of God.  He upturns tables, defeats death, and brings a new way of life- The Way of life, Jesus.   “How offensive,” some may say.  “No one can tell me what’s right and good.  No one can claim that Jesus is the only way- or that Christianity is what’s right.”  

We think we know best.  And this is only magnified in the teen population we work with.  We want to be the ones in control of our lives.  We think that the world revolves around us, and no one else can or should tell us that there is one thing on which everything else hinges.  The cross is offensive.   But praise be to God, Jesus came to interrupt our cycles of self-righteousness and self-trust; He came to rescue us from ourselves.  As much as we really think that we want to be left alone in the mess of our own sin and others’, God breaks in.

The “deism” which has become the sort-of religion of youth culture today hinges on the belief that God remains at a distance.  He doesn’t confront anyone; He’s really nice, He’s really big, and He’s inaccessible.  He might be on-call for when someone needs something, and sometimes He helps us feel better about ourselves, but He certainly isn’t personal.  He’s so grand and powerful, even, that he “can’t fit into any one religion.”

Although many kids have other roadblocks when considering Jesus, the avoiding, wishy-washy, non-committal attitude of the “deism” which has consumed our teens can be more dangerous than the stances of some extremists: kids are left with nothing to stand on, nothing to hope in, and a real misunderstanding (or ignorance) of who God is.  They have painted their own image onto Him, making Him into a pleasant mirage, of sorts, and in the process have lost or missed the fierce love and goodness Jesus interrupts the world with.  

So, how can we help students confront the realities of who God is and uncover the pattern of avoidance? We must dive into those areas they see as ambiguous and those they are unsure/conflicted about and allow them to point to God’s power and sovereignty.  Why is it that fearing God is a good thing?  How can fear be right and helpful?  (It can help us remember that the goodness and love we have presently in Jesus are bigger than the worst, scariest, and most horrible things we face here on Earth, etc.)  How is it that God’s goodness can be seen in both creation and destruction in the Bible?  Let us sit in the mystery and tension with our kids in some of these issues, and let us ask the questions that force us to dig through Scripture and pray for the Holy Spirit to reveal.   He is our Rock; He does not change.  And He is a personal God who confronts each one of us with invitation unto Himself.  

Avoidance.  It’s easy to do.  But how can we avoid the One who offers His hands for Thomas to see and His wounds to touch if we have seen and touched them ourselves?  I pray that He would give us wisdom and courage in entering into the lukewarm atmosphere of deism in youth culture today.

Liz Edrington is a youth minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, VA and will begin pursuing her Master of Arts in Counseling from Reformed Theological Seminary in July, 2012.  She is the author of 'Feast' - a quiet time book/small group devotional for teens.

Evidence of a Therapeutic View of Jesus in the Prayers of Teenagers

If you search through your church’s website, you probably won’t find this kind of language listed under “theological beliefs.” But listen closely to the prayer requests of students and evidence of a therapeutic view of God comes into focus.

In a culture that offers a different form of therapy for “whatever ails you,” can we really be surprised when a teenager’s view of God is primarily therapeutic? If you’re physically injured, you need physical therapy. If you’re emotionally distraught, you get counseling from a therapist. When life gets really hard, it only makes sense to turn to a spiritual therapist – Jesus Christ. Unfortunately this attitude toward God fits into the all-ready-too-compartmentalized lives of most American teens. Jesus falls somewhere between A.P. European History class and soccer practice as the go-to therapist who is available to listen, sympathize, and offer guidance for life’s tough challenges. He’s always there when you need him.

“Lord, please help me find a summer job.”

“God, help me to overcome depression.”

“Jesus, tell me which college I should attend.”

“God, please help my parents stop fighting.”

“Jesus, I need help to do better in school.”

“Please let me get an A!”

Are any of these prayers sacrilegious? Of course not. However, it is troubling when 80-90% of student’s prayers are for personal struggles that, if answered positively from God, would result in increased happiness. This is the litmus test for therapeutic prayers. If God flat out gave the student what he or she wants, what would be the result? If the answer is that he or she would be instantly happier, than the prayer is therapeutic in nature.

The long-term fruit of such a view of God is, ultimately, a disregard for God’s authority. Our culture loves therapists because we come to them on our own terms, they offer suggestions, and then we walk out of their office with the ability to choose to either follow their advice or not. Therapists are not authority figures. We are not compelled to obey them. This explains one of the reasons why students and even most adults are offended at the idea that God is a judge who rules over humanity. We don’t want a judge, we want someone to talk to who will sympathize with us, make us feel better about ourselves, and ultimately give us the freedom to decide what is best for ourselves. 

This is what many church and para-church student ministries implicitly teach teenagers about God through prayer. Often, in our attempt to help students understand prayer in a relevant way, we remove the “reverence” aspect of talking to God (the creator of the universe, Lord of all, judge of everything) and only focus on the humanity and gentleness of Christ (Jesus is my best friend). Could it be that Christian youth workers, parents, pastors, elders, and deacons could play an important role in combating a therapeutic view of God simply by praying in light of our full relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? What if, instead of only focusing on God’s ability to fix our problems, we broadened our prayers to include His holiness, His righteousness, and His justice? Students are listening, watching, and learning from us. May the Lord give us the grace to pray in the fullness that He desires.


Dan Marotta is in his sixth year as the High School Youth Director at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA. He is a candidate for a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary.

MTD: Not Just a Problem with Youth Ministry

Rooted is excited to continue our partnership with The Gospel Coalition blog for a series on the state of youth ministry during the month of April.  Thanks to Brian Cosby for the following article, reprinted with permission below (originally posted here).  Check out the first article in this series here.

That a youth ministry "teaches the Bible" does not necessarily mean it teaches the gospel. Many mistake the gospel with moralism---being a good person, reading your Bible, or opening the door for the elderly in order to earn God's favor. But the gospel is altogether different.

This is a problem across the youth ministry landscape. It's not because teenagers and youth leaders have misunderstood the church's teaching of historical-confessional, gospel-infused Christianity. It's a problem in youth ministry wherever the American church has not preached Christ crucified and has catered to a pragmatic, entertainment-driven, and numbers-oriented model of church growth.

According to sociologists Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, most American teenagers believe in something dubbed "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" (MTD). [1] Within this MTD "religion," God is a cosmic therapist and divine butler, ready to help out when needed. He exists but really isn't a part of our lives. We are supposed to be "good people," but each person must find what's right for him or her. Good people will go to heaven, and we shouldn't be stifled by organized religion where somebody tells us what we should do or what we should believe. [2]

MTD isn't a religion like Islam or Buddhism, but rather a melting-pot belief among American teenagers. Historic distinctions between denominations like Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists are not as important to teens because they see their Christian faith as just one aspect of their lives like anything else---be it sports, friends, school, or family. Its preacher is American entitlement and its sermon is a me-centered message about a distant, therapeutic god who wants teens to be good and happy.

Alternative to Entertainment

I sat in a Waffle House one early morning, talking with a dad who had caught his son looking at pornography. His family had just transferred from a nearby church that spent through the roof creating the most spectacular show in church---complete with fog machines, strobe lights, and professional musicians writing Christian lyrics to Lady Gaga songs. In between the dueling DJs, this family was starved for the Bread of Life. But despite their burnout over endless entertainment, they didn't know an alternative.

"I just think you need more games," the dad told me across a very syrupy waffle. "If you had more games and funny skits, then my son would have been at church, not looking at porn." I was shocked! Here was a man who had left a church over too much entertainment and now wanted it back. I realized that MTD wasn't just a problem in the culture of American teenagers, but in the culture of the American church. The larger influence of a success-over-faithfulness model of American Christianity is having devastating effects on youth ministry.

Kenda Creasy Dean, in Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, argues that American teenagers have bought into MTD, not because they have misunderstood what the church has taught them, but precisely because it is what the church has taught them. She writes,

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has little to do with God or a sense of divine mission in the world. It offers comfort, bolsters self-esteem, helps solve problems, and lubricates interpersonal relationships by encouraging people to do good, feel good, and keep God at arm's length. [3]

When this self-help theology is combined with a sola-boot-strapia sermon from TBN, we start having teens singing, "God Is Watching Us from a Distance" while---at the same time---wondering why Jesus isn't fixing their parents' marriage or their problems with cutting.

MTD isn't just the problem of youth ministry; it's the problem of the church. And American Christianity has become a "generous host" to this low-commitment, entertainment-driven model of youth ministry.

Counter to the Gospel

Think about those three words, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. They run counter to the gospel of Jesus Christ in every way. We are not saved by earning our way up the good-works ladder, nor is God the divine genie dispensing wishes at command. He's not a distant "clock-maker," sitting back to watch it all play out, but the personal Immanuel who became man to seek and save his bride. The gospel says that Jesus has accomplished for you---through his life, death, and resurrection---everything that God has required of you; thereby, securing eternal life for all God's people, and received by faith alone.

This is where the importance of method comes to the forefront, which (unfortunately) is often disassociated with theology. While our theology of the gospel should inform our method, the American church---to a large extent---has practiced just the reverse. The question on many youth leaders' minds is, "How do we get bored teenagers into the church?" The question should be, "How are we to faithfully plant and water the gospel of Jesus Christ for his glory and our joy in him?"

Many youth ministries have engaged in direct competition with the world to woo and attract students by all sorts of gimmicks and giveaways. In fact, a large church in the Atlanta area recently gave away iPods to the first 100 youth at a lock-in! But is that the methodGod has given us to draw young people into a deeper, richer, more meaningful relationship with Christ?

There Is Hope

There is hope, however, because Jesus will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. There is hope because God is in the business of saving and sanctifying teenagers through the ministry of Word, prayer, and sacrament. God has given us means of grace---not just to reap the benefits of their content and application---but as the way in which we plant and water the gospel, looking to God to provide the growth. These means of grace should inform how young men and women are drawn into the church---youth who are disillusioned by the gimmicks and fog of an entertainment-driven world of empty pleasure.

Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias has said, "The loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced the ultimate, and it has let you down." Like a political pendulum, the experienced "high" from self-centered experience and rampant consumerism fails to provide rest for the restless soul. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can call the prodigal out of the trough and satisfy his longing heart.

MTD remains a problem in youth ministry because it remains a problem in the American church. It channels the method of ministry from gospel to gimmick. But the later English Puritan John Flavel points to God's far better plan: "The intent of the Redeemer's undertaking was not to purchase for his people riches, ease, and pleasures on earth; but to mortify their lusts, heal their natures, and spiritualize their affections; and thereby to fit them for the eternal fruition of God." [4]

**********

[1] Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 163.

[2] Ibid., 163-71.

[3] Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers Is Telling the American Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 29.

[4] John Flavel, The Works of John Flavel, 6 vols. (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1968), 6:84.

Brian H. Cosby, the Rooted blog's newest contributor, is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America, Associate Pastor of Youth and Families at Carriage Lane Presbyterian Church in Peachtree City, Georgia, and author of Giving Up Gimmicks: Reclaiming Youth Ministry from an Entertainment Culture (P&R Publishing, 2012).

Jesus the Great Guidance Counselor?

For many students today, Jesus has become a cosmic guidance counselor - in their minds, all He does is give advice, help them think through life, and perform other such tasks. Much of this mentality is a direct result of the ways we as youth ministers have taught who God is. As we think through the idea of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, we need to be aware of teachings which may create the perception that God is simply or only there for our therapy. For me, thinking about the traits of a guidance counselor helps me see where I am pointing students to this false image of god.  

Don't get me wrong, school guidance counselors are great. They have insight into what school a student should look into. They have the inside track on where to get student loans. And they help students think through problems, their future, their grades, and other school related issues/concerns. All of these things are helpful and much needed in students’ lives; but there is an important issue to consider when we start to look at Jesus this way.

When the picture we paint of Jesus looks more like a guidance counselor than the only sovereign ruler He is, we will tend to look unto Him differently than He was intended to be looked upon. Here are some of the ways we will look upon Jesus, when we simply dilute Him to a therapeutic god. 

• We only look to Him when we have need.
• We only seek out advice on the different options we have come up with. 
• We still make the final decision, we only want Him to help us think through our options.
• When someone is struggling, we simply point out that God can help them; we don't unpack the gospel as to how He can help them. 
• We tend to make lists of how God will work.
• Our messages tend to look at what we can get from God, not what we can give unto God.

When this is our teaching, the result is that students begin to believe and live this way. Students may believe in God, but they will have no clue what that means for them in real life. They will not be able to understand how God fits into their dating life, their sports activities, and the fights the experience with parents and teachers. When they are rejected by a boyfriend/girlfriend, or a teacher/parent, they can not even fathom going to God with this, for what would he care? He is simply there to give advice, not to actually help bring them joy or comfort in the midst of suffering. 

It is no wonder students leave the church. With a god preached who seems only like a guidance counselor, I would too. Students do not have a clue as to the real, present, sovereign God they are missing. When we convey only this image of a soft, removed, therapeutic figure-in-the-sky, we miss the point. We miss that He is the Savior, the King and the One who leads and directs us- we do not lead and direct Him. He is the conqueror of death for all of us, not simply a kind face in the chair across from us.

What type of God are you preaching? One who will simply offer good advice, or one who has come and redeemed those who are listening.

Short Term Missions and MTD

This is the second article in our series on what the gospel has to say to the cultural trend among today's teens of viewing Christianity as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism".  Check out the first article here.

I have the opportunity to interact with about 1,600 students from all over the country each summer.  These students are coming to a week of “church camp.”  They’re leaving the luxury of their home, gaming systems, TVs, computers, etc., to spend a week in inner-city Memphis serving economically disadvantaged homeowners.  Unfortunately, the underlying motivation behind many of these students’ decision to come to camp is a set of therapeutic and/or moralistic doctrinal beliefs.  It’s my deep joy to remind them of the truth of the gospel: that they serve not because they have to but because they are set free by the grace of God through Jesus to love and serve others.

Here’s what I mean: when our students’ service fails to flow from a heart that realizes its depravity and takes great joy in the truth of the gospel, their service is moralistic.  At that moment, they’re placing themselves and their good works in the place of the Savior.  They’re attempting to save themselves from spiritual poverty.  They become their own functional savior.

Additionally, when a student places himself and his good works in place of the Savior, whatever “good deed” he is doing is for the honor of his own name.  It’s therapeutic.  His reason for serving is to make himself feel good… To remind himself that he’s okay because of his good works…  To feed the functional savior of self.

However, it’s important that those in youth ministry leadership give their students opportunities to serve others.  Here are a few tips about how to lead service projects with a grace-centered, gospel-saturated mindset (these suggestions are applicable to all areas of youth ministry, not just service-oriented projects):

• Remind students that they’re not the ones in a high position serving those in a low position.  They’re not the more wealthy people serving the more needy people.  Rather, give them gospel lenses.  Help them see that every human being is impoverished and in need of redemptive grace.  Some people’s poverty is manifested materially.  However, those in material poverty may be much more spiritually full than those who are not materially impoverished!
• Train students to maintain a humble and eager-to-learn posture.  Students with this attitude will quickly learn that they’re often more blessed as they’re seeking to bless others!
• Remember the gospel!  Take every opportunity to remind students of their radical depravity and their deep need for Jesus!
• We as ministry leaders must remember the gospel!  Though we know it, we need to be reminded every day: we are not the professionals.  We are not the spiritual elite.  We desperately need Jesus!  May we run to the cross daily, and may our ministry be an overflow of our love for Jesus.
• Read When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor…and Yourself, by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett.  This book presents a much-needed paradigm shift and even indirectly deals with much of the moralistic-therapeutic issues so prevalent in the church today.

Drew Haltom serves as Camp Director at Service Over Self in Memphis, TN.  He is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Religion from Reformed Theological Seminary.  Drew blogs at drewhaltom.wordpress.com.