Stop Teaching Start Training

J. Warner Wallace makes a solid point about youth ministry on his Cold-Case Christianity blog. He says it’s time for us to stop simply teaching our students about their faith. 

There’s a difference between teaching and training. Training is teaching in preparation for a battle. Boxers train for upcoming fights. In fact, boxers are sometimes known to get fat and lazy until the next fight is scheduled. Once the date has been signed, fighters begin to train in earnest. Why? Because they know that they are going to eventually get in the ring and face an aggressive opponent. 

Imagine for a moment that you are enrolled in an algebra class. If the teacher assured you that you would never, ever be required to take a test, and that you would pass the class regardless of your level of understanding, how hard do you think you would study? How deeply do you think you would come to understand the material?

The problem we have in the Church today is not that we lack good teachers. There are many excellent teachers in the Church. The problem is that none of these teachers are scheduling battles. Make no mistake about it, there are battles looming for each and every young Christian in the Church today, but church leaders are not involved in the scheduling of these battles.

Mr. Wallace has confronted this need for battles by scheduling evangelism trips for his students to dialog with Mormons in Salt Lake City and atheists in Berkeley, California. That might not be appropriate for all students (or all churches), but his point is worth considering: What can we do to bring some urgency to our students? What can we do to better convey to them that all this study and activity is about preparation, not just achievement? 

One advantage of the Awana program is that students are tested on what they know and given opportunities to serve the church, but can we do more to give them real-world tests on what to do with the Scripture they’ve memorized, to help them catch a glimpse of the real-world stakes for those who act (or don’t) on their faith in Christ?