All who love our denomination are distressed by the nominal number of baptisms being registered year after year. In spite of our best intentions and high-profile promotions, the numbers remain dismal, about the same as fifty years ago. A closer look at the statistics reveals a glaring missing link in our baptisms, and it is that of teenagers.

More than 55 percent of our churches – nearly 60 percent – failed to baptize one teenager last year. Yet, it has been well-documented that 75 to 85 percent of all conversions occur prior to the age of eighteen. In other words, beyond the teenage years, only 15 to 25 percent of all people go to heaven.

If, indeed, that is true then our ministry budgets ought to reflect the importance in reaching this age group. A casual glance of most church budgets sends the message that this age group is far down the list of ministry priorities. We have no right to moan about how our youth are going to hell in a hand basket when we do so little to reach them.

Historically, God has always rested His Hand upon teenagers in initiating massive spiritual awakenings. Given these historical precedents, it seems that the national climate is ripe and the ground is fertile for another such awakening. Now in my thirtieth year of vocational evangelism, I continue to see a hunger and responsiveness to the gospel from this Millennial Generation comprised of 72 million youth. With 1 million of them becoming 20 years old each year, and only four to twelve percent embracing the notion of absolute truth, we are slowly but surely losing the battle in reaching these students. Consequently we are losing the future of America.

Many of us bemoaned the trillion dollar stimulus pack realizing that our children and grandchildren will be footing the bill. However, a failure to reach this Millennial Generation with the gospel also brings a price that impacts the future of our children and grandchildren. Listening to some Christians gives the idea that we are more passionate about the monetary impact rather than the spiritual impact of our actions for future generations.

One of the untapped venues in connecting with our youth is that of the local schools. For far too long we have falsely assumed that school administrators are closed to the Christian community. To be sure, due to “over the top” political correctness, many are. However, thousands are quite open to working with the youth pastors of our churches.

Reaching out through feeding the sports teams, providing proctors for national testing at the schools, offering free tutoring, chaplaincy for athletics, and other acts of kindness help create a healthy, cooperative relationship between our churches and schools.

Furthermore, connecting school assemblies with local church revivals tends to conserve more lasting results than large conferences that occur in venues hundreds of miles from the church. Large youth gatherings with big name musicians and speakers are great exposure for youth, but when kids receive Christ in the church, there tends to be more hands-on follow-up and great likelihood of them staying connected to that particular church.

By the time they make their profession of faith at that altar, they have already been greeted by many of the church members and already feel acclimated to the church environment, which can be a serious obstacle to overcome when kids make professions of faith in other youth venues. It is not unusual to see up to 100 professions of faith in local churches where school assemblies have been arranged.

On March 4 a revival crusade at First Baptist in Butler concluded with at least 48 professions of faith, 30 of them being teenagers. The key was the church’s relationship with the local schools. Pastor Eddie Wren says, “I was amazed at the response of students. I was very interested to see how the students would respond to Steve’s presentation about making right choices.

“More than one school administrator told me that they usually had to enforce discipline for the students to be quiet, but not that day.”

The pastor concluded by saying, “I was then intrigued to see how many students would show up at the revival service. I was amazed as 130 students showed up and 30 made decisions for Christ. Getting into the schools was huge for us. I recommend this approach to all pastors.”

 

Steve Hale, a member of the Conference of Georgia Baptist Evangelists, is a vocational evangelist and the staff evangelist for First Baptist Church of Woodstock. He can be reached at shea@fbcw.net or at (770) 591-0320. For more information visit www.stevehaleministries.com.