Is a Youth Program Really Important?

Over a nine-year period, I have kept up with the number of young people who have not actively participated in the Youth Program of the local church and then noted the degree of faithfulness to God they demonstrated after graduation. Please note the following: When young people are not involved in youth activities, 38% of them grow up to be unfaithful to God, 44% end up spasmodic in attendance, and only 19% grow to be faithful. On the other hand, when young people are actively involved in youth activities while growing up, 93% of them end up as faithful adults.

Before anyone starts to raise objections, let me make clear what I am not saying: I am not saying participation in youth activities makes it impossible to fall from grace. I am not saying that only young people who worship at congregations that have a youth ministry will grow to be faithful. I am not necessarily saying these statistics prove anything. Statistics can be presented in a variety of ways to prove a variety of often conflicting things.

What I am saying is that too often people look at youth activities as "fun ’n’ games" that are really not important to the development of our youth. What these people fail to realize is that these activities are designed to help our youth grow as Jesus grew—socially, mentally, physically and spiritually. Too many times parents do not take an active interest in the youth work and do not encourage their children to take part. This is an unfortunate attitude. We encourage our kids to participate in sports, band, school functions, or scouts, but we frequently treat the youth activities of the church as unimportant, and/or optional. Somewhere along the line our priorities have gone haywire.

One more thought. I will be the first to admit that it is quite possible that those 93% who were active and grew up to be faithful Christians might have been faithful even if they had not participated in the youth activities. There is only one way to find out. Keep your children from participating and check the results, if you want to take that risk.

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From Silsbee’s The Light, Via Moody Messenger