How Our Churches Do Not Give Christ to the Young People

The ultimate reason why our young people do not remain in our churches, why they leave these churches, to as high a rate as 70%, is because their needs are not met. And the deepest and most enduring of these needs is their need for Christ. The churches are not giving Christ to these young people, and to the old as well. Their need for genuine spiritual development is not met.

This article describes the ways in which our churches do not give Christ to our young people.

Through Our Preaching

The first way is through the preaching of the churches. Our preaching generally, either in Catholic or non-Catholic churches, do not give Christ to our young people. According to A. W. Tozer we do not have to do research to prove that this is so. You just enter any church today during a Sunday or Saturday and listen to the sermons by the priest or pastor. And you can easily notice that what the priest or pastor is preaching is not Christ, but what he or she thinks of Christ or of a Bible passage and how this applies to one’s life. This kind of preaching does not satisfy the need of the listeners to spiritual development but it satisfies the need of the priest or preacher to say something to the people so that the church organization can go on with its activities.

Through Our Teaching

The second way is through the teaching of the churches. In Catholic churches we have catechism classes and bible study classes for this. In Protestant churches we have the Sunday or Sabbath school and the bible study groups. What is the emphasis in these classes? It is memorization of certain formulas or bible verses and understanding these formulas or verses. Nowhere is Christ given to the young people. The teachers of course boast that they convey the teaching of Christ in their classes. But our young people are not so much interested in teachings, even those of Christ, whether these are in formulas or in scripture verses or famous quotations of great men and women of God. They are interested in meeting the person of Christ, in having a genuine, growing, loving relationship with him. And the churches do not give this kind of real Christ to them. So their spiritual development is not progressing as it should.

Through Our Fellowships

The third way that the churches do not give Christ to the young people, as well as to the old, is through the relationship of the members among themselves. Christ is not the motive of their relationship among themselves. They may be led to have games and to have fellowship around games, whether indoor or outdoors. Camps are conducted almost yearly, but you can easily notice that during camps there are small groups milling around certain issues. This group is good in mission to the prisoners. Another group congregates around the issue of mission to the elementary pupils. Christ is the not the issue that unites all the activities. He is mentioned in prayer last, “we pray in the name of Christ”, perhaps because he is last in our thoughts and desires. In many instances he is the savior of last recourse, after we have done everything at our disposal and failed. Then we turn to him.

What We Plant Is What We Harvest

We now use logic to make our point clear. If Christ, the real Christ and not our idea about Christ, were the one given to our young people and our old people, they would have been real Christians by now and we would not be in such a mess, combatants of two world wars and preparing for a third one. What you sow is what you harvest. If you plant rice, you will harvest rice, never corn or barley. If we plant Christ, the real Christ, in the hearts of our young people and old people, we would harvest Christ, the real Christ: the one who is genuinely interested in our spiritual development.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How To Keep Young People in Church

A word concerning the meaning of the title of this article is necessary. I do not like to change the title of this article but I want to state some clarification. This is still part of our discussion on spiritual development.

The Young Does Not Exclude the Old

I certainly focus on young people because they are in the prime of their youth, and because of this they are so much more useful to the Church. But I do not exclude the older people. Certainly older people are also leaving the Church. It was the older people who left the church in mass in Europe, emptying their beautiful churches, now tourist spots. After all it is not only young people who need spiritual development, old people need it too, perhaps more so.

The Church Refers to Two Realities

Secondly the word "Church" is ambiguous because it is here taken in two meanings. When this word "church" is used here and is not capitalized it refers to the church as an organization, as a denomination, as a group of people who call themselves Christians. The pronoun used to refer to this kind of church is "it".

On the other hand, this word "Church", which is capitalized, is taken to mean the bride of Jesus, that reality transcending space and time, composed of all those who believe in him as God's Son, and represented by 2 or 3 or more who gather in one place to worship God and to listen to him. The pronoun used to refer to this kind of Church is "She".

Our Concern Is With the Church as Bride of Christ

And the meaning of the title is not how to keep the young people in their churches, in their organizations or denominations, but in the Church, the Bride of Christ, the universal all time Church expressed in a local community of 2 or more people.

So, to restate the question we ask: How do we keep young people together with old people in the Church of Christ, that universal fellowship of those who believe in Christ?

The reason for taking this as the meaning of the question is because in a study by George Barna, it was found out that many of those who left the organizational churches did so because they wanted to be Church. In other words it was not their intention to leave the Church of Christ, the fellowship of all Christians, but only their denominational or organizational churches.

So, how do we keep these young and old people in the universal Church of Christ? The answer may appear to be obvious, but in all the many studies on the solution to this problem of young people leaving their churches, it is not stated with clarity and emphasis.

The Answer Is by Giving Them Christ

If according to Giovanni Battista Montini in his address last February 3, 1965, Christ is the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings, then why not give him to our young people? Without being aware of this our young people are yearning for Christ. And our churches do not give him to them.

Give Christ to these young people and also to the old, and they will remain in the Church of Christ, his bride, unless they reject him outright. If they have Christ and live as Christ they will develop spiritually wherever they are. Their spiritual development will be assured.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.