By Rob McIntyre

I RECENTLY spent some time reflecting upon strategic issues related to the church.

As I have done a personal and strategic review, I’ve pondered some very important material. Some is information I’ve had for years, and some is new.

God’s call

In the early 1990s, I received the simple numeric results from a survey conducted by the Assemblies of God. They asked their ministers and missionaries two simple questions: “At what age did you receive Christ as Saviour?” and “At what age were you aware of God’s call to full-time ministry?”

The results are beyond instructive. Just shy of 80 percent of the respondents received Christ before their 20th birthday. By the time they turned 25, the statistical results for individual age groups within the over-25 group were close to none.

When it came to calling to ministry, the results were similar: 63 percent of those in ministry with the Assemblies of God at the time said they knew God called them to full-time ministry before they were 25 – with the vast majority saying it happened before they were 19.

Now a new and broader survey by the Barna Group tells us 77 percent of Christians made a decision to follow Jesus before the age of 21, with the vast majority making their decision before age 18.  This means three out of every four Christians made their decision for Christ before their 21st birthday.

The conclusion from both these surveys is very straightforward – and is, in fact, the title of Barna’s published survey results: ‘Evangelism is Most Effective Among Kids.’

Some general conclusions reached from this research:

• Between the ages of five and 12, lifelong habits, values, beliefs and attitudes are formed.  

• Whatever beliefs a person embraces when he or she is young are unlikely to change as the individual ages.

• If a person does not embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour before they reach their teenage years, they most likely never will.

So: what happens later, which makes human beings harder to reach with the gospel?

Life happens

The truth is that it is mostly the business of life. By the time a person reaches 25, finishing school and the transition into career and marriage take centre stage. The older a person becomes, the harder it is to make big changes in life.

The die is cast, so to speak: win them or lose them. This is the urgent reality for the church of Jesus Christ. Spend the money and use the manpower necessary to educate, win and disciple children and youth – or by default, watch them turn their back on the church as young adults.

It is important to understand that we are referring to the children and youth from outside of our church community.

While we should disciple the young people from our church families and provide a welcoming environment for them, it is absolutely vital that we address the reality beyond our church walls.

The relative cost and effort to win a child or youth to Christ is quite low compared to winning an adult. This speaks strongly to the allocation of church finances and resources. If the greatest and most lasting response is from children and youth, shouldn’t that area receive the greatest focus?

The simple truth is that money and effort expended in reaching children and youth with the gospel is money extremely well spent, yielding huge long-term dividends for the church. It’s a very good investment.

At one time, our churches were known for our education programs – Sunday schools, VBS, youth, Crusaders, summer camps. They reached well beyond the walls of our church and constituted some of our most effective evangelistic efforts.

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Certainly the trend continues with many of our churches. Unfortunately, the day when it was the expected standard for a thriving church has apparently passed.

At what cost? If we give up on the endeavours which yield the highest return because they are inconvenient, they cost us too much of our free time, or we don’t want to fund them, what does that say about us?

Strategic vision

Perhaps it says we have lost our strategic vision.  Unfortunately, children and youth ministry are often treated in a dismissive manner. I find it a tragedy that those who enter ministry as children’s pastors and youth pastors are soon taught they are on the bottom of the prestige and pay ladder.

They often discover these positions are considered ‘stepping stones,’ rather than long term or even life ministry prospects.

The positions which are in fact the most important to the church become hard to fill – because those who might fill them and provide the needed ability and talent are turned aside by our unspoken, but clearly articulated, values.

Our district superintendent recently wrote that “we are not a franchise anymore.” I consider that a good thing. The fact that creative and innovative approaches to worship and church life are the norm for our churches is a good thing. It’s not a healthy thing always to long for things to be as they once were.

Certainly, attempting to turn the clock back and do things exactly as they were done decades ago is not a productive option.

There must be new and innovative ways to accomplish the goal of reaching large numbers of children and youth in our communities. However, it is probably not a wise thing to eagerly dismiss the tried and true. Somehow, both have their place.

I confess I’m spoiled. A few months ago, I said goodbye to possibly my best friend in the world (next to my wife): Sunday Line producer Velma Chapman. She was my teacher, and a key mentor for my ministry. She taught me the biblical reality of how God sees and values children.  

She demonstrated a concern for kids that I have rarely seen in others. Most of all, she showed me – through her personal ministry efforts to young people – that children and youth are capable of having the most profound God experiences imaginable – and that their faith lasts.  

Too many voices

The church which sits and waits – hoping the world will notice it  – is destined to disappear. There are simply too many voices, choices and options in our society. No doubt many people in your church’s neighbourhood probably don’t even know it exists – even if they drive past it every day.

Velma’s rallying cry was straight from Jesus: “Go out in the highways and the byways, and compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23). Hard to do, with today’s busy, preoccupied adults. But a well-run youth program is very compelling.

As well, where the children and youth gather, eventually the adults come too. It is, at the very least, the point of contact your church needs with neighbours you would never have a chance to talk to otherwise.

Over the years, I have personally witnessed this reality in my own ministry. It is a delight to see young people from every kind of background – non-Christian homes, trouble-prone communities, both privileged and economically depressed areas, different ethnic and language backgrounds – all powerfully touched by the Saviour, in a lasting way.  

I have the occasional pleasure of running into young adults who know me, whom I don’t recognize. They had God experiences early in life, which lasted.

I propose that it is time for us to take a new, critical view of the church’s role in broader society. We often hear that we live in a post-Christian age. We rarely hear about methodology or strategy which might actually move us back to a society where a large segment of society has a basic understanding of Christian beliefs and morals.

We are a lot like the nation of Israel. When the word of God was widely taught, it resulted in a nation which drew close to God. When this focus waned and ignorance of God’s word became the norm, the results were disastrous.

We know that changing laws does not bring the nation back to God. How about a concerted effort to change the hearts of a generation?

Rob McIntyre is distance education director at Summit Pacific College in Abbotsford. 

January 2008