Student Ministry Must Change or Die! (PART 1)

As I begin this blog entry, let me first lay out some disclaimers to all who will read this.

I was raised in ministry as a preacher’s kid & I’ve seen the good, bad, and ugly from within the church; therefore, I’m somewhat jaded.
I love the church, Christ’s body...but I have zero tolerance for religion.
I speak from 20 years of student ministry experience as a student pastor, worship leader, and missionary.
I was a part of the problem for a long time by repeating what I saw others doing.
Spending time on several continents among the church has convinced me that American Christianity doesn’t work in the rest of the world.
I refuse to remain silent any longer about this issue. I believe we need a 2nd Reformation within the church in the western world....and quick.
I have an intense sense of urgency to sound the call to change, so we can engage the Kingdom Dream of Christ’s agenda to redeem the lost from every nation, tribe, & language.

So....with these precursors, I begin my rant.

There are roughly 30 million teenagers in the US. All evangelical churches, youth groups, Christian concerts, retreats, events, Disciple Nows, crusades, conferences, camps, etc. reach only 12% of them (3.6 million). According to Barna Research Group, out of the 12% that we do reach, 88% of those who spend 6 years in our student ministry never come back to church after graduating high school. That means that of the 30 million teens in America, we are reaching & discipling only 432,000 students nationwide. That’s a mere .014% (not even half of 1%). Pretty pitiful. Ironically, we have larger churches, larger budgets, greater technology, highly trained & paid staff, multi-million dollar buildings to house all our programs, and free give-aways to entice them to show up....Yet, less and less are showing up. We are actually reaching less students per capita than ever before. I say it’s way past time for Student Ministry in America to change! Enough is enough! Students, by a vote of their lack of presence, have declared student ministry a waste of their time.

With these kind of numbers, I’m declaring that we put a death nail in the coffin of our current models of student ministry. It’s simply NOT WORKING!!!! We wouldn’t stand for this type of return on our investment in any other area of our lives. We must move from a a worldly, non-bibilical “ATTRACTIONAL” model, to a biblical “MISSIONAL” model of ministry. Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men.” (Mt. 4:19). He DID NOT say, “come with me to my church and I’ll give you free pizza and an Xbox 360 for coming.”

The “Do whatever it takes to fill the room, so we can share Jesus with the lost” mentality is a worldly, non-biblical model adopted by an affluent, entertainment-driven culture. And it doesn’t work anywhere else in the entire world except America. I believe our current model is really a reversal of the Great Commission from “Go Tell” to “Come and Hear” and therefore, costly & ineffective in producing disciples that make disciples.

On top of this, many student pastors are killing themselves to get all the church programs done to perfection, while their own families are struggling for time together, their own children go neglected, and the busyness can open doors to isolation, private addictions & ultimately burn-out. I can’t tell you the number of student pastors that pull me aside when I’m leading worship for their events, to tell me they are dying inside, but they don’t know how to get out off the merry-go-round.

There is a better way, which is less expensive, takes less effort, and produces exponential growth & global impact. I will explain how we can make this change in my next blog. I’ll leave you to brew until then, but know this...STUDENT MINISTRY MUST CHANGE OR DIE!

Thank you so much for all your help and prayers as we move forward to Launch the Next Generation Missionary.

Until Every Nation Knows! (Hab. 1:5)

Chris White
President/Founder
Mobilizing Students
WWW.MOBILIZINGSTUDENTS.COM


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MISSION TRIPS:  7 LOCATIONS ON 5 CONTINENTS
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