Wrap It

The last thing you want is for the lifeblood of your student ministry to be pop culture commentary.

Though it is essential to understand youth culture in order to communicate to youth culture, making youth culture the preeminent focus of your student ministry is tantamount to building your ministry on shifting sand.

A biblical youth ministry exalts Christ though His Word as the Supreme Head over all creation, and utilizes culture as the wrapping paper in which to package gospel truth.

The metaphors found in youth culture today function much the same way agricultural metaphors functioned in Jesus’ culture. It is no more or no less biblical to cast biblical truth in terms of movies, music, and internet concepts than it is to cast it through vine, branches, fields, harvests, threshing, and sowing so long as…

THE CHOSEN MODERN CONCEPTS ACCURATELY COMMUNICATE THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF JESUS’ ORIGINAL AGRICULTURAL METAPHORS.

This principle applies to the rest of biblical truth as well. Make it relevant by packaging it in accurate, meaningful cultural images and icons to which modern culture can relate.

All things considered, there are still moments when certain events provide a perfect opportunity to waver from the prescribed curriculum in order to speak cutting-edge biblical truth into student culture.

It is to the detriment of your student ministry to ignore such God-given opportunities.

What makes the the birth of Maddie Spears, newborn daughter of 17-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, who is the younger sister of Britney Spears, so relevant to student ministry is the fact that Jamie Lynn and her boyfriend, the father of the baby, met at CHURCH in their YOUTH GROUP.

Read that again. They met AT CHURCH in their YOUTH GROUP.

Passing up the opportunity to provide a loving, truthful biblical critique of this situation at a time when interest from teenage America is at an all time is like winning a million dollars and squandering it on a lifetime supply of Hubba Bubba. Missed opportunities only come around once.

To make this lesson a reality, visit the Center for Parent and Youth Understanding at cpyu.org. Click on the blog called “Understanding My Lines” by Walt Mueller and read the blog entitled “1,000,000 words.” You will easily figure out what to do from there.

This is a discussion you will not want to miss.

Far In

Like the stone David slung toward Goliath, the below truth hit me right between the eyes this week, and I am still seeking to recover.

There is no modern worship, and there is no ancient worship. There are no worship styles, and there are no worship preferences. There are only worship postures and worship practices, both of which are universally applicable to every generation.

Now there may be varying styles of music, but music in and of itself is not worship. There may be varying styles of singing, but singing in and of itself is not worship. There may be varying kinds of instruments, but instruments in and of themselves are not worship.

Worship, in Scripture, is wholly and finally a matter of the heart.

Cain brought God some of the crops he had harvested, keeping the firstfruits for himself.

Abel brought God the firstborn of his flock (an undefiled offering), and its fat portions (a valuable offering), giving God the very best of what he had.

Scripture comments on Cain and Abel saying that Cain was “of the wicked one” and Abel was “righteous” before God, thus introducing the concept of good and evil worship.

Abel chose good worship, giving God the very best. Cain chose evil worship, giving God what he could scrape together from the leftovers.

Time-money-resources-whatever: when you eat the steak for yourself and give last Thanksgiving’s leftovers to God, you are guilty of evil worship. But when you choke down last Thanksgiving’s leftovers so you can give God the best, your worship is fully and completely pleasing to God.

When our heart is right, we can worship right. “If you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”