Young Message
Statistics show that most people come to know Christ at around the age of 15. This has caused numerous churches to focus their evangelistic efforts on young people. The other statistic is that something like 85% of youth leave the church during their college years. What it makes me wonder about is our message.
When Jesus wrote in the sand and suggested the sinless ones cast the first stones, the oldest ones left first. It seems to me, an appropriately presented Gospel would have its greatest affect on 40 year olds.
Are we presenting the gospel effectively?
posted by Brian @ 8:36 AM
5 Comments:
Of course you're assumption is that the older people were wiser and immediately understood the implications of what Jesus was saying, while younger persons were not. Could it have been that the older people were embarrassed and their pride was struck so they got away from the situation while the younger ones understood and then stayed in hopes that Jesus would say more? So they could learn more? Maybe they wanted to get close to this person that had different views than them? Just a thought...
My assumption is just the opposite. Not that the older ones were wiser, but they are in fact more aware of just how selfish they are.
Not sure I'm following--how so? (what makes you think they are more aware of their selfishness?--I think is the question I'm trying to ask)
Personal experience. I'm not sure it is universal by any means. But
I am much more aware of how self-centered I am than when I was
younger. I am certainly still self-centered, though not as much I
don't think. In seminary, I was confronted with my ...
self-importance/obnoxiousness. At the time, I really couldn't see it.
Now I see it and feel like I could have been more humble about the
way I questioned people in authority (even though I justified by just
wanting to learn and maybe even to correct them with my own insights
and intelligence).
We have to be careful not just to see Scripture through our own eyes
(which may have been what I did). I saw the "cast the first stone"
story with me in a planning meeting, seeing someone making what I
would consider a mistake, and crawling onto them in the name of "doing
our best," ripping apart their mistakes and hacking them down to the
very core of their planning philosophy. Today, I still have those
impulses (and had a regrettable failure a few years ago that has
caused some damage), but I've made my own share of poor decisions and
would certainly set my stone down faster than I would have had 20
years ago.
I was mostly speaking for myself. But here was my original point, The
average conversion occurs before the 15th birthday and almost all
conversions (statistically) occur before 18. That didn't appear to be
the early church experience.
It could very well simply be my argumentative nature that simply wants
to disagree with stats. Or it could be that our message has an
immaturity to it. Think about how much Brittany Spears is adored by
12 year old girls, but 40 year old women just can't see it.
I'm not making a grand point, just asking some questions that I think
might need asked. Thanks for engaging.
Ok, I see where you are coming from. I guess my thought is that young people tend to come to Christ because of their "simplicity" or "immaturity". They are more willing to give their lives over to something they believe in, no matter the cost because possibly they have so little to lose..it's just them. Whereas older people usually have families/jobs/mortgages and to give up everything to follow someone is a big deal.
When the early church began, lives were vastly different from now. My guess that the salvation rate of older people in third world countries is tremendously higher than that of an American. It's a culture thing instead of an age thing--I think.
I'm not trying to bash older Mattoon people, but a lot of them I've met (and not just in Mattoon)--are very self-absorbed. I get that quite frequently when they point out how "crazy" it is that we drive 30-45 minutes to attend church. "Aren't there churches in Casey?" or "have you ever thought of moving?" Sure, but that's not what God has called me to do. But doing what God has called them is usually secondary to what is convenient or "logical" to them.
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