Our students want to change the world. They want to be part of something and find meaning in their lives. Yet the faith of many of today’s teens is lacking depth and often disintegrates after high school.
In her recent book, Almost Christian, Kenda Creasy Dean finds that teenage faith is often a “reflection of their parents’ religious devotion…and, by extension, that of their congregations.”
So why does the soul-changing message of Jesus Christ seem to be falling on deaf teenage ears? Perhaps it’s because a relationship with Jesus is mostly partnered with the expectation of church involvement, and many young people have been given negative ideas about what church really is from their parents and other adults around them.
Questioning Church
During the past year, our youth ministry has delved into the ideas and purposes behind church. We wanted to teach our students a healthy, biblical view of what church should look like; but we also wanted to evaluate our ministry through that same lens.
We started by asking the following six questions that are crucial for understanding ecclesiology (the study of church) and then shaped our ministry around the answers we found.
What Is Church?
Ask your students to define church. What do they think it is? Why do they think we have it? Most of the answers given will fall into one of three categories:
A) A building or location.
B) A meeting, event or service.
C) A group of people.
How our students define church will set a foundation for how they feel and act about church, as well as how they answer any subsequent questions.
In the New Testament, the word ekklesia, which means “church,” is comprised of the proposition ek meaning “out” and the verb kalein that means “to call.” We can gather that church has something to do with someone or something being called out.
Originally ekklesia was used to describe a regular town meeting or an assembly of citizens. The Greeks’ ekklesia was a democratic meeting where people came together to have a voice in town decisions. The Jews used the word to describe a theocratic meeting (people taking direction from a leader). Early Christians merged these two meanings together. Their ekklesia was a regular gathering of citizens, who had individual responsibility and ownership, but all focused on God.
Why the Church?
The why of church is often overlooked, but is important to consider. God could work in the world any way He desired, yet He consistently has chosen to work through His church, Christians, a group of people who don’t always get things right! Why does He use sinful, messy humans to accomplish His will?
In Genesis, we read that humans are unique among all God’s creation. We are created in the image of God and have the unique opportunity of revealing God to the rest of creation. While all of creation points toward God, we can see His loving and relational nature most clearly in human relationships. This is what makes church so important. By loving each other and living our lives in accordance with the Bible, we clearly reveal God to others.
What Is the Message of the Church?
We can discover the message of the church by reading through the gospels and the Book of Acts. John the Baptist proclaimed this message. Jesus started His ministry with it. The disciples were sent out to spread it. Peter’s first two public sermons were about it. What was this message? “Repent, for the kingdom of God is near.”
The word repent means to “change one’s mind” or “to turn around.” Jesus charged the early church and disciples to help others see what life with God is like. Our message is one of change for the better, of transformation by the love of Christ. A relationship with God changes how we view the world, and it changes how we live our lives. As God’s ekklesia, our message is vital and life-altering.
What Is the Mission of the Church?
The church is a group of people living out their individual missions together. In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others.
If the message of the church is to repent, the mission of the church speaks to how we as Christ followers should share that message. The way we love God together should show people a different way to live and why it’s enticing. The way we love one another should make people want to change their minds and be part of God’s kingdom on Earth.
How Should the Church Look and Feel?
It’s very easy to get too specific when dealing with this question. The look and feel of a church actually has nothing to do with the décor, style of music or use of technology. Instead, it has everything to do with living out the mission to which Christ has called His church. Are people coming into our churches and seeing love toward God and others? Are they being loved themselves?
Acts gives us an idea of what a loving church looked like in biblical times. This early church shared life together. Members ate together, helped one another and spent copious amounts of time living life side by side. Second, they prayed for one another. Third, they studied the Bible in a group to understand God and the way He wanted them to live. Fourth, they worshiped together.
How this is enacted will vary from church to church, but part of loving one another and God is finding unity in the message of Christ and making allowances for the different preferences of each other.
Does the Church Need Me?
The last question we need to answer about our ecclesiology is how it plays out in our individual lives. This also has huge implications for our ministries. If we truly believe church is a gathering of people who each have individual responsibility, we need to make sure they feel needed and included.
This is why Peter, in his first letter to believers, calls all Christ followers priests. Churches have a responsibility to communicate worth to all kinds of people with all kinds of gifts and plug them into the life of the church. We are all vital parts of the body.
Missing the Point?
The way we answer these six questions will shape our ecclesiology, which will dramatically impact our students and youth ministries. The way we define church and why we attend dictates our priorities regardless of our awareness. The way we understand the church’s mission and message will impact what we teach, the goal of events and what we do with our students.
All of these things will affect how our gatherings look and feel, as well as how we include teens in ministry.
In a day and age when students so desperately want to belong and be a part of something, we must more seriously evaluate how we do church. Ensuring our students have a healthy and biblical ecclesiology not only will help them sustain their faith in Christ and involvement in the church during their teenage years, but also into adulthood.
