For The Skeptics

I was once a skeptic. Not the kind of skeptic you are thinking though. I was a skeptic that the youth in our ministries can never live up to the message of Jesus. We have seen it forever. The students come through the doors and talk the talk, but leave and don't walk the walk. Are they incapable? Do they have to have "life experiences" before they can live for Jesus? In my early days as a youth pastor I thought it was my job to fix the sin in the lives of my students. I would preach sermons that catered to what they deal with sexual sin, swearing, reading their bibles, and drugs. I started noticing that it wasn't me that could change them. So, I began to experiment. I took all of last year and taught them one thing. Jesus. I know that it sounds like a no brainer, but that's what I did. My goal was to get them to understand that Jesus was not a 6'2" Sweedish man with blue eyes, blow dried blond hair, and a bathrobe on, but that he came with a message so revolutionary people couldn't help but be transformed. The results were staggering. I found that I had a group of 100+ students engaged into who Jesus was. I had kids that had grown up in the church telling me that they had never heard this, but that they were ready to make a change. The youth of this world are ready to take the message of Jesus to the margins, to their parents, and to their schools. Our job is to give them the opportunity to love Jesus. My new mantra is "Be The Message" This generation is ready to do exactly that.