Northside Church - Sydney
Five x 5 Week 5: Five Things to Say To Help Young People Keep The Faith
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. The research is in, it's clear that young people are less represented in church and in Christianity than ever before in our living memory. I don't know if there's ever been a time in Australia when young people have packed the churches out. I don't think so. I want to go back to my day and some of you can, you know, kind of identify with me to know that, you know, Christian organizations that were geared specifically for youth were thriving, youth for Christ, Christian endeavor, the boys brigade. I was the lead drummer of the Sydney Battalion, Girls Brigade. You know, even in a small church, Sunday School anniversaries were a big deal. Our little church hour at Wiley Park, anniversary days, bringing the platform and, you know, years of kids, most churches had a pretty viable youth group and a pretty strong Sunday school. Most churches. It was part of our culture. But today, apart from the big mega churches like Hillsong that bring thousands of young people together in a concentrated way, but you look at the average church across the suburbs, and youth are very, very poorly represented. We are so blessed here. One third of our congregation is under 35 years of age. Now that's against the general pattern. I think we all realize that. We're in many churches. It's very difficult to find people under 50 or even 70, let alone people under 35. So we're very blessed. But we want to build in our, we want to build in something into the DNA of the church in the way we help and encourage and support those who are part of the Christian journey already. So I've got five things this morning. Look, the first one is this. I would say to young people, don't ever be ashamed about believing in Jesus. The pressure, the pressure not to believe is very strong. Both on the high school campus and the university campus, it is very, very strong. The forces of secularization, secularism, militant atheism, these are very, very, very, very strong at the moment. But so is the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus that's very strong. So is the evidence for the reliability and the authority of the scriptures. We looked at that a number of months ago with the Dead Sea Scrolls from start. So is the viability and the believability of following Jesus or rather of believing in the gospel message. It's a very plausible story, a loving God reaches down to a fallen creation. It makes sense. So I believe we need to help our young people develop a poise and a confidence about being a follower of Jesus. We need to tackle the contemporary issues of life and faith in our preaching and our teaching and our connection groups. And people need to feel equipped to express a Christian perspective on these contemporary issues, not in a pious and judgmental way, but in a way that, in a way that sort of reflects knowledge, understanding and empathy. Here's the second thing we can say to young people today, love the church, love the church, love the people of God, love the body of Christ. Friends look, the church is coming for quite a hammering over the last couple of decades. It really has, both from without and sadly also from within. Various movements, various ideological interpretations of what the church should and shouldn't be doing, this have lead many to question the relevance of the church within society. Many questions have been raised about how the church should gather, if the church should gather. Questions about worship, modes of service, attractional verses, incarnational, missional verses, institutional. You know, many of these conversations have helped to strengthen our sense of purpose and mission. They've been quite valuable. But I'm also aware that many have led to confusion, ambivalence, misunderstanding and even a degree of uncertainty and bewilderment, especially on the part of young people who've been exposed to this sort of thinking, even within our own colleges, training for the ministry. It's been a very tough time. I've observed this over the years. Now when I say love the church, I'm not talking about the buildings. I'm not talking about the traditions of the church. I'm not talking to our idiosyncratic ways of doing certain things. Not at all. I'm talking about the people, the Lord's people and the need for them to meet, to organize themselves, to mobilize resources, to provide opportunities for celebration and worship. The need for the organization to grow so that it can be stronger resource-wise and become an ever-increasing influence for good. Friends, I'm definitely talking about the local church as an entity within the communities and the desperate need for the local church to be present in communities right across our cities and across our whole nation. The last thing the organized church needs is for its very existence to be questioned, especially from within its own ranks. That's the last thing we need. What the church does need is young people, the new generation coming through the ranks, to work out creative ways to increase our effectiveness and our impact in the community. Things that are inclusive of all age groups, ways that discern those elements of our tradition and culture that need to be retained and those that need to be discarded. You've got to have both. Love the church. That's my plea to young people, especially those who have been exposed to the prophet of doom and gloom about its future. Of course, the church has to change and healthy churches are changing and they are adapting all the time. But as a gathering, as an organized gathering, there will always be a place for the church of Jesus Christ because we are a setting in which the great spiritual and eternal themes of love, peace, justice, forgiveness, grace, mercy, this is a setting where we specialize in these things and deep down the human heart is desperate to get in touch with all of those things. People just look in the wrong direction. Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He spoke with great confidence about the future of his church, so should we, especially to our young people. Here's the third thing. Be realistic in your expectations of Christians. How many people, both young and old, have turned their backs on the church and fallen away from discipleship because of something they've seen or experienced within the church, the moral failure of a minister, some deep disappointment, some huge conflict that they were part of. Over the years, I've encountered this partially on many occasions and I try to say to people, "Look, Christians aren't perfect, they don't claim to be." People say, "Oh, I didn't think Christians would act that way. I thought the church would be here for me when I needed it." They say, "Look, I'm really sad, but look, that's the way it is." Christians are fragile, some are petty, not here anything, but unforgiving, vindictive, even though they've experienced the grace of God for themselves, I just haven't quite got it in terms of passing on others. Many are still under construction, but you know, we don't experience anything today that the apostle Paul didn't experience in his day. It was all there. You read Paul's letters. You know, he refers to disputes, he refers to quarrels, he refers to rivalries and this loyalty. Not much has changed. People are people. Do you know what are the key factors in my longevity and ministry? I've been around for a while. It's been my decision, a conscious decision in the power of the Holy Spirit to keep my expectations of Christians at a realistic level. Does that surprise you? I don't mean a pessimistic level, you know, this would be great. No, no, I'm talking at a realistic level. It's been one of my, I think it's been a key to my effectiveness. You know, so if I experienced some negative, some negative behaviour, you know, a huge letdown, some unjustified criticism out of left field, an outrageous, unchristian response to a certain issue and I've seen it all, I'm not all that phased, I'm not all that phased, I've accepted that that's how it is. People are still under construction and I've even acknowledged my inability to reach out and extend forgiveness on some occasions, but in my better moments I've had the spiritual maturity to be able to say, God, I can't love this person in light of what's happened, but I know you can. So I'm extending my hand to them and I am asking you to love them through me, you know. That's where some conflicts and some issues come down to that. I can't do it Lord, but I will extend my hand in the belief that you can love them through me. Here's my hand and that's a conscious decision of the will. Of course, the upside, the upside of keeping your expectations at a realistic level is that when you do see behaviour that represents Christian values and Christian attitudes and in a healthy church you see all the time, it makes life great, wow. These people are exceeding my expectations, it happens to me every day thanks to you guys and the minimum of conflict that we have in this church and have had over the years, fantastic, praise God. Here's the fourth thing, accept the fact bad things happen to good people. Yes, I'm referring to the need, as I so often have from this platform, the need to develop a robust theology of suffering, I think it's so important friends. It enables us to effectively traverse through the wilderness of human tragedy and loss, which we almost journey through that wilderness. It helps to move us from the simplistic understanding we have as little children that God is there to meet every need, solve every problem, it moves us from that to a position of maturity in Christ in which we recognise his love, his grace, his strength, his power are available as we face the tough seasons of life and there's a big difference between an emphasis on deliverance from and preparation for, this I believe represents maturity in Christ. Sadly, many people never reach that point and some churches actually hold to theological positions that don't really help because they reinforce the belief that as a Christian, I can expect God to keep me clear of all pain and suffering and I can expect him to deliver one miracle after another, big and small, to keep my faith strong and to keep me holding on to him. Now look, I'll grant you on the surface of it. This approach to Christianity seems to be where the victory is, I wish I could believe like that. Well, you know what, in my pastoral experience, I've also found it contributes to people leaving the church. And they don't get the outcomes they want from God according to their wishes. Something, let me share something funny happened in Adelaide last weekend, I don't know how this happened or when my little granddaughter heard this, I still don't know, but Ben was driving toward a function for the birthday of our youngest grandchild and she was travelling with cadence who's coming up to seven in September and she said, you know, it's going to be very crowded where we are. Grandma might have to pray for a car park, would you like to join me and pray for a car park? To which cadence is instantly responded, oh, grandpa says God doesn't do car parks, we do those. We have no idea when she heard us talking, you see, Ben and I differ slightly in our theological perspectives on this. Bev prays for car parks, I pray for the patience to wait for the appropriate one when it comes along, see, it's a little different set. We can work through those theological viewpoints later on, but there's a little difference there. It's like a guy recently said to me that he's passed in a church who's very overweight, travels pretty economy because to sort of cope with his size and God sort of led into that conclusion. I said, well, you know, God would probably leave me to lose weight. Just depends on how you see that, you know. So we don't know where cadence got this from or when I said it, but now I'm faced with the dilemma, have I started her on the journey to order mature Christian faith or should I remind her that God isn't interested in every little part of our lives? I had a little chat with her on the weekend, I was down there on yesterday and so I think we sorted it out, among other things, I think so. Look friends, I would have been a church where thinking young people are guided to a point where they believe with all their heart in the God of the miraculous. You got to believe that, where they walk daily in the power of the resurrection, where they serve with a deep conviction about the ability of God to transform lives, transform situations, but I also want them to be ready for thy will be done. I also want them to be ready for even though I walk through the valley. I want them to understand what it means, there is nothing that can separate. You know, I want that built in as well, I'm sure you do. The final thing we can say, remember, the discipleship is about being not so much about doing and I personally think this is important for a generation that won't simply do something because it's always been done that way. You parents find that out, you've got to know why we do it this way. Young people have got to have a reason why, what's the reason behind this? And that's fine. They want to know why. I believe this statement releases young people from the need to maintain tradition merely for the sake of maintaining tradition and we need that. It enables them to focus on the essential nature of Christianity, which is to be renewed in mind and spirit through the power of Christ, to be born again and with everything having been made new. It's not first and foremost merely to do church or to do good, I think that's probably my background, that's what Christianity would do church, do good, that was it, it's deeper than that. It's to be the person God created us to be. And you know, among the most inspiring characteristics of the young people we have in this church, I don't want to embarrass them this morning because quite a few of them represented have been quite a few them up on the stage here, among the young people of this church who are on the journey, who are discovering their identity in Christ, among their most inspiring characteristics I find is their authenticity, like they are the real deal. Their sheer honesty, they'll tell you what they're thinking and they don't mind doing that. My generation, you sort of tell all the people what you hope they wanted you to say and that was a bit different. I love their passion for God. I love their deep desire to make a difference, to be genuine, world changes. This is the quality of young person we have in this church, it's fantastic. It's not, it's far from just youthful idealism, it's much deeper than that. It's born out of a conviction that following Jesus is a matter of being, not just doing, being a person of character, being a person who reflects the love, the grace, the justice of God in all we do. You know, friends, it's an incredible privilege to be in a church where we can say we have a strong representation of young adults, teenagers, young families. It's fantastic. It's a great privilege and we have the opportunity as the older generation, we have the opportunity to play a part in the shaping and in the nurture of these young lives. You see, we have a vital role to play in this. Paul was clearly pleased with the spiritual formation of young Timothy. He was pretty pleased with the way this boy was developing, but then Paul acknowledged that there were some factors that had played a part in that young man's growth. Some of you who know 2 Timothy will know exactly the passage I'm going to read right now. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6, look at this, he says, "I remember the sincere faith you have, the kind of faith your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, also had." A couple of names are you, Paris, just looking for names, Lois, Eunice, beautiful. I'm sure that you have it also. For this reason, I remind you to keep alive the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. Friends, we have a wonderful privilege to nurture the young, and look, I thank God that in this church, we have intergenerational unity. You notice that? Look, I've been in churches where the tension between the youngies and the oldies has been pretty strong and the youth are always pushing the boundaries and the oldies are trying to keep the lid on the whole thing, and there's not an elder under 70 for that very purpose. You know, it's not a healthy scene. I grew up at a church in Perth for a few years where at the height, just as the beetles and the rolling stones were getting off the ground and we were all getting right into it, you know? And somebody passed a resolution at an annual meeting that no instrument that could be plugged in would ever be used in the church, apart from an organ. That was okay. Like, you know, it's sort of horrible, because a lot of my contemporaries, and I meet them years, years later, not in the church, sorry, you know, he wants to wait until you're 60 to get a go at leadership, you know, that kind of thing. So we haven't got it all together here, but at least we're moving in the right direction. We've got elders 30, and how old are you, Tabby? Tabby's gone. 30-30, 32, Michael McQueen, just barely 30, barely, barely. We're trying to, you know, and Joe Fanta, what, 31-32, we're trying to, you know, inject youth into our leadership and certainly with our contemporary worship. And I salute the older generation of this church because you guys have been so adaptable, you know? You could have kicked off a real fuss, you know, where's our hymns? But you're very accommodating, we have hymns, by the way, but, you know, you're very, because you recognize that this is the generation coming through the ranks, and to use an Olympic segue, the baton, we're going too fast for everybody, the baton is being passed to the younger generation. Not just for now, not just for the future, but I mean, but for now. So important, we have their vitality, their passion, their love for God, infused into this church right now. So can we continue on this journey and there's a stack of other things, but we can say things to our young people so that we've got a new generation rising up to take their place as one of our songs often says, "It's so needed." Does the church have a future? Does the future have a church? We, the answer to that question largely is in our hands. Let us bow in prayer, shall we?