New Reformation for Europe
I was only half serious really - but God just happened to overhear and he took me VERY seriously!
Throughout the 1980s I was privileged to be leading, with a team of gifted ministries, one of the most significant youth movements God had ever raised up in our homeland of Australia.
In the midst of this, I casually asked a German friend: "How can I support you in your outreach to the youth of western Europe?" His reply: "Come over and help us."
I sometimes wonder where I'd be right now if he hadn't said that. (Probably NOT sitting knees-to-chin in a tiny plane somewhere over continental Europe, trying to type through the air pockets!)
A few short years, and a series of miracles later, my wife Davina, our three children and I find ourselves living in Copenhagen and reaching out to young people and church leaders across Europe.
I believe God wants to bring a revival to continental Europe the like of which has not been seen since the Reformation. He wants a Reformation mark.
He wants this not only because there are millions here, especially among the young, who have never heard the gospel - not in a way they can understand, or that requires response. He wants this because his honour is at stake.
Everyone knows God can move in South Korea. Everyone knows he can revive South America. Britain too is in the midst of a new thing! But the European continent? Sorry, too hard, it can't be done, too much tradition and ritual...
According to the Lausanne Conference, 90 percent of all decisions for Christ around the world (those from outside Christian homes) are made by youth and children. So a large part of Europe's coming spiritual and social renewing will involve motivated and well-trained young people.
In order for us to see major breakthroughs for Christ among young people in our hi-tech, fast-paced western world, we will need to:
1. Admit that Elvis is Dead
The world young people live in has changed since I was 14. No, the basic human condition hasn't changed, the great questions remain the same: who am I?, where did I come from?, why am I here?
But people today are bombarded with information at a sometimes alarming rate. The rapid increase in information flow creates a crisis of choice for many. There seem to be so many options to choose from, in lifestyle, leisure, communication and so on. Even religion offers a plethora of choices now (will I follow Buddha, Mohammed, or all-of-them-at-once as a New Ager?)
This "choice overload" can be a special problem for the young, especially if they have not been given the godly values framework on which good choices are made.
We need to recognise some of the unique pressures on the young and adjust our methods to connect the gospel to their felt needs. We can't institutionalise methods we used even 5 years ago - yes, the world IS changing that rapidly.
2. Invest Resources (yes, I DO mean money!)
If 90 percent of all conversions involve the young, why do we invest so poorly in events and programs which will evangelise and disciple them?
If over 50 percent of the world is under the age of 25 years, why do more church leaders not become more personally involved in their church youth programs?
Right now I am delighted to be working with key denominational and network church leaders in a number of European countries, to help them set up the kinds of large youth outreach events we have seen God bless in Australasia. I have absolutely no hesitation in asking these respected church leaders to spend relatively serious money on these things. According to Jesus, where you spend your money reflects where your priorities and passions lie (Matt. 6:21).
You don't need to have Coca Cola's capital to get your message across to the young, but you do need to do things with excellence.
3. Raise the Profile of Youth Ministers
The drop-out rate among local church youth leaders in most of the western world - Europe especially - is abysmally high. Why do so many gifted leaders of the young move out before their time?
Just when they know enough to really see some results, they up and move.
It has something to do with the fact that success in youth work is not considered to be much of a success at all! Many church leaders never publicly applaud the work done by their youth leader(s), who quickly become demotivated about their work. And networks of churches do not include ministry aimed at younger leaders in their leadership conferences.
Many pastors, in their desire to bless and grow their churches, see a gifted young man or woman doing a good work as youth leaders and immediately begin to talk with them about "promotion" to supposedly more "senior" areas of ministry in the church. So the youth work in the church has no time to really take root, new leaders are not raised up, and the youth leader is robbed of the chance to establish a credibility for building something successful. That credibility, and the confidence it brings, can often follow them throughout all future ministry.
Our challenge in Europe is to see a few youth pastors who will raise up programs which become significant throughout the nation, and which inspire others to succeed. There is also a dire need of church planters, but it would be a mistake to empty all the ranks of the youth ministry to fill that need.
Youth ministry must be seen for what it is: a calling for which one is gifted by God, not the lowest rung on the ladder of a ministerial career.
Young people respond very positively to a church which openly identifies itself with the needs among their peers and friends.
4. Establish Long-Term Strategies
Often youth programs in the local church fail for one reason: an unwillingness to include strategies for youth in the overall mission strategy of the church. Somehow, youth strategy seems to be pushed over to one side, out of the main focus of the church's mission statement. It becomes just a side issue, someone else's job!
In every church which is growing quickly, the senior leadership and the people in general are aware of the need to reach the young and are actively involved to some degree in shaping the vision for this.
Sometimes we are also held back because we lose patience before real results can be seen. We must learn to celebrate sowing (almost) as much as we do reaping. And we must avoid the "fadism" which undermines many a good program.
You can't succeed simply by copying someone else's strategy. Good programs come out of careful local research and pre-planning. Local needs and your resources and values as a church will determine the best route for you to take.
5. Establish the Family-ness of our Churches
The age diversity of the church can be one of its most attractive aspects to young people.
Think about it. If I'm one of the many young people affected by divorce in the West - or one of the thousands more living in a stressed out, dysfunctional family - surely one of the best things I could find would be "hundreds of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters."(Mark 10:30).
According to Jesus, that's what the church ought to be about. It's family. It's accepting the differences of style and taste across generations and agreeing to love unconditionally no matter what. It's not about fussing over who wears earrings and why, or who prefers hymns to choruses with a beat. It's not about changing in each other things that don't really matter.
It's about making room for every generation to express itself, while learning to respect the other's feelings. That's never easy, but it IS attractive to lonely people.
6. Model Heroic Christianity
"Dream no small dreams," said a wise man. "They have no magic to stir the blood of men." That's spot on when it comes to reaching the young.
Teenagers and young adults are built for heroism (just look at the movies they watch, or the rides they go on at the fare).
We need to present the young with the real gospel, not the one preached by the Jesus of the movies (you know, the Abba-singer-in-a-kaftan-look-alike). Not a sentimental, syruppy message, but one filled with the call to rebel against the ways of the world and get down to some serious prophetic living. That means challenging the status quo, and pointing the way to something better, the Kingdom of God.
God IS raising up a prophetic generation in Europe today (Joel 2:28), one which can help bring a new reformation to this Western culture.
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