5 Essentials For Taking Your Students Beyond Just Being “Good”

I have taught theology and apologetics at the high school level for over a decade, and in that time I have seen what appears to be some of the best and brightest, Jesus loving Christian teens. I am sure you know the type. The ones who lead worship at youth group. The ones who serve on Sunday mornings in the children’s ministry. The ones who have the greatest, most thought-provoking and compelling questions about their faith. But for some, there was something missing. Over time I discovered a disturbing trend. Some of my best students had a shallow faith. I learned that there is no real commitment, no surrender, and no discipleship. Don't get me wrong. Many of our students go on to make a significant difference for the kingdom, but far too many others fall well short of the Christian life Jesus calls us to. Instead, they have their own self-constructed version of a Christian worldview.

They profess to love God. But they have no reason, need, or desire to follow Jesus. They might even put their hands up during worship, get caught up in the emotional tide of the moment, but are not willing to make the sacrificial demands of Jesus. They will even memorize Bible verses, label themselves as Christian, but lack the fruit that bears the mark of a disciple of the risen Jesus. These are good kids. Kids would make good moral decisions. The kids who follow most of the rules, generally stay out of any serious trouble, but when confronted with the exclusivity of Jesus, they take up the mantle of tolerance and religious inclusiveness and pluralism.

For these students absolute and objective truth has no place in their worldview. Instead, loving God is more about a reflection of being a good person, rather than living a life radically different from a story much bigger than theirs. It is about God entering their story, instead of God’s invitation to join his.

So enough of such terrible news. Let me offer some solutions or suggestions. Specifically, five essentials that I have seen first hand stem the tide of what has been called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

1. The Truth. 

There is a war for the Christian mind in the academic square and on the front lines of the war is the battle for truth. We must teach our students the dangers and absurdity of relativism, and the undeniable existence of objective truth. Students have been brainwashed to believe that religion is something you keep to yourself because to “impose” one's beliefs on another is seen as intolerant, rather than a free exchange of ideas in the public square. We can know the truth. Jesus claimed to be the Truth. To assert that either there is no truth or truth is somehow elusive or unknowable is not only self-defeating but ridiculous.

2. The Scriptures.

If asked, most Christian students would agree that the Bible is the infallible, inspired Word of God. But what they mean by that, and what I mean theologically by that are often miles apart. Youth culture is increasingly devaluing the Bible, its inspiration, and its authority. Either the Bible is viewed as a beautiful story book with heaping portions of moral guidelines in desperate need of decontextualization and modernizing—providing for us some scaffolding in which we build our own towers of morality. Or, the Bible is used as life’s little instruction book. Grabbing snippets of verses, naming and claiming ancient truth as our own. Thereby becoming over-focused on devotional reading pursuant on self-help and feel-good theology.

Students need to be taught how to study the Bible…properly. They need to understand context, intent, authorship, literary genres, and the science of hermeneutics. We have to continually remind students that the Bible is a collection of tough ancient texts. It must be thoughtfully read, studied, prayed over, and appropriately applied. The Bible can be a dangerous book. It makes outrageous claims and demands Christians live a life counter-cultural, intolerant of sin, and focused on the mission of God and his purpose for our lives.

3. The Trinity.

Far too often Christians forget that one of the most important distinguishing doctrines that separate Christianity from the rest of the pack is the doctrine of the Trinity. Yup, it is hard to wrap your head around, and nope, there is no direct, easy Bible verse we can point to, to show or explain the Trinity. Somehow the earliest theologians needed a way to deal with the Father, Son, and Spirit co-existing in the confines of monotheism. We cannot allow students to miss the importance of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity stands as a critical and necessary piece for what it means to be Christian. It impacts everything from how we worship to how we become more Christ-like.

4. A New Creation.

A familiar narrative that floats throughout youth culture is the repeating mantra that Jesus loves you just the way you are. And this is, of course, true. The problem is that this is where the mantra stops. Just the way you are. Don’t change. God made you perfect as you are. But Jesus is not in the business of what is, but in what is going to be. Jesus is in the regeneration business.

Scripture is pretty clear on this. Paul says to be renewed in mind (Romans 12:2), to put off the old self, and put on the new, no longer are we to live in our former ways, but to be transformed (Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:5-11). Jesus told us to be “perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Meaning that we should no longer be the person we are, but work to be the person he has called to be. We are called to bear fruit, to add to our faith, to grow in our knowledge of Christ, and to move from the spiritual milk meant for infants into deeper, more meaningful discipleship with greater commitment and greater sacrifice (John 15:4; 2 Peter 1:5-9; Hebrews 6:1). Jesus absolutely takes us as we are, but he doesn’t intend we stay that way. Ask yourself. Do your students understand what it means to be a new creation in Christ?

5. The Resurrection.

Along with the Trinity, the resurrection of Jesus is another significantly unique piece of what it means to be Christian. The resurrection of Jesus serves as the prototype for the world that is yet to come. The world free of the persecution of sin and renewed and reunited with God and Christ reigning on the throne. The resurrection creates an essential framework for what it means to view the world through the eyes of Christ. It is the foundation and culmination of God’s promises. Without it, the Christian worldview would cease to exist.

Whether in the classroom, youth group, or family dining room, it starts here, and it must be intentional. This year is an opportunity to dive into the Word deeper and more thoroughly. AwanaYM is here to help. Check out Journey Disciples and coming soon is our newest release, Advocates with Sean McDowell.