The Pew study that came out this week revealed that in just the last seven years the median age of Mainline Protestants went from 50 to 52. Looking at stats like that, you have to wonder if we’ve reached a tipping point.
Last month, at the 2015 Catalyst Conference (West), Andy Stanley said:
If your church is designed by 50 year-olds for 50 year-olds to the neglect of teenagers, shame on you.
That’s a hard pill to swallow. I don’t know of a better communicator in the church than Andy Stanley. He didn’t use the word “shame” lightly.
But consider what the 17th Century Puritan John Flavel said:
If you neglect to instruct them in the way of holiness, will the devil neglect to instruct them in the way of wickedness. No. If you will not teach them to pray, he will to curse, swear, and lie. If ground be uncultivated, weeds will spring.—The Mystery of Providence
Of course, the devil doesn’t do that by whispering in young people’s ears. It happens, mostly, because the world is a fallen, broken place full of fallen, broken people who prey on the weak and vulnerable.
Jesus changed that. He said that that young people have angels in heaven who see the face of God in heaven and woe to those who harm his little ones.
His followers changed the world. Eric Metaxas wrote about how the church challenged the thinking of the ancient world about children:
Into this world came Christianity, with its condemnation of abortion, infanticide and child abuse, its glorification of faithful marriage. … This ethic, which the Western world takes for granted today, is a direct heritage of Christianity.
There was a time when the church thought about how much God loved young people. The church improved the status of children so much we are incapable of imagining how bad it used to be. What does the future hold for children if the church puts the needs and desires of 50 year olds ahead of teenagers?
Cross-posted from my new JLP Pastor blog.