After studying the dropout problem for the past three years (up to 70% of post-high school graduates defect from church/the faith), I decided to put into positive words what the local church should be about in its focus and ministries. These ten points are not exhaustive but are counter-cultural (sometimes even to the local church). I find them very challenging myself and hope and pray that I might give what it takes to accomplish these things--and see my Savior smile. I hope you agree.
1. Stop concerning yourself with looking religious and become totally committed to Jesus Christ in your lifestyle—this means:
a. Developing habits of spiritual disciplines that authentically deepen your love for Jesus Christ;
b. Learning the language of faith and speaking it with a group of faith-growing believers. c. seeking biblical transformation that connects you with God, through Jesus by the Spirit;
c. Being totally converted in heart, mind, body and soul;
d. Doing what it takes to desire Jesus Christ more than anything;
2. Study the Bible to know what you believe and why. Make this a passion of yours. Take people out who have different perspectives than you (e.g., color, religion, faith, and politics) and learn how to converse with them, disagree with them and still love and respect them and make them a friend. Then restudy God’s Word, not for answers or knowledge, but to get to know Him. He will make the Word within you a catalyst for change around you. Your priority is to love God not first but always;
3. Place yourself into situations you need to rely on God and let your faith be tested. Learn how to integrate your faith and life together on a daily basis and make your goal to do this as seamless as possible. Do whatever it takes to deepen your faith;
4. Keep a detailed journal of your spiritual development and share it regularly with small group of people;
5. Worship God in every way possible and learn how to get close to Him in every way possible—intentionally and shamelessly and let your children see you do it;
6. Know that the culture has compromised you and your faith—that’s a fact. It is your job through the power of the Holy Spirit to snoop and to root those ways out humbly with the help of the community of faith. Know that every community of faith has been compromised by the culture. Commit yourself to a faith community to build community, root out all sin, and love one another as counter-cultural and incarnational;
7. Count yourself a missionary to the next generations. Face it, you have no idea how to relate to them; being among them is much like visiting another tribe in another country; you need supernatural help to obey God today to “make disciples of all peoples.” You need to learn the people so you might love the people. Only then can you lead them to Christ. Study, study, study the next generation and seek God to build bridges to them;
8. Know that God moves and that movement brings change. Commit yourself to God’s changes around you—abandon yourself to the mysteries of God in Christ and be open to new wine-skins offered to you by the next generations about how to live faithfully to Jesus Christ in today’s world (aka, reverse mentoring);
9. Develop a ministry, or a join one, that seeks to train parents to parent and make disciples of their own kids;
10. Join the movement to make adolescence a transitioning time to embrace adulthood rather than an elongating time before succumbing to adulthood. We need to attack the Moralist Therapeutic Deism today’s youth are being deceived into believing as real Christianity;
a. We must bring down all banal forms of the Christian faith lacking transforming power; all communicating of a watered-down gospel which asks people to give a ho-hum consent; and all likeness of a church that has morphed according to another the Gospel that transforms people into a community of ‘almost Christians’! We must lead our children into a consequential faith by living one ourselves: We reap what we sow--we get what we are. Christian adults can no longer treat Jesus like an embarrassing relative, someone we introduce with apologies to alleviate other’s (or is it our?) discomfort (Dean 2010, 24);
b. We must pull the mask off of the evangelicalism prominent in our country and stop communicating entrance into the Kingdom of God in a dumbed down format promoted in mere “acceptance” formulas and “simple prayer” tactics. Everything Christ has done for believers is not automatically set into motion at some salvation moment—this is justification without sanctification. Salvation must be seen as Paul states to the Ephesians, with Christian leadership by the placement of God in the body with the goals of “growing up” into Christ and “becoming mature” (4:11-15). We must give up any refusal to this many so called ‘evangelical Christians’ tragically offer up;
c. We must ask our own church leadership, What is our plan for teaching our people to do everything Christ commanded? We must make it a top priority to have an active, well-designed, intently pursued plan to accomplish this in our members. We must beg our pastors and our church leadership to preach and teach the complete biblical vision of what being a Christian is all about. How else will parents obtain a complete picture of conversion to pass on to their own children? Children simply get the kind of conversion their parents have. Somewhere around 60 percent of the learning that affects people’s behavior is based upon watching someone they know and trust doing something significant (Barna 2007, 92). There is a big difference in stating the kind of faith we desire our children to have and actually having a lifestyle of that kind of faith. The lifestyle wins out every time.
*K. C. Dean, "Almost Christian"
**G. Barna, "Revolutionary Parenting"