Quotes taken from Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture by Walt Mueller One of my sisters in church let me hold this book by Walt Mueller. WOW! The revelation that this Man of God has about this generation is mind jarring!
Are you really listening to this generation? The youth of this generation is speaking loud and clear. Turn on MTV, VH1, BET, or now even your local channels. As a parent when was the last time you checked your children's “My Space” or “Face Book” account”? As youth leaders who are we chatting with online? Have we opened doors for sin and compromise for the youth we are leading because of our own compromise. To everyone in the Body of Christ, when was the last time we came out of our little box, out of the four walls and explored what is grabbing the hearts and minds of the youth from God?
Walt states, “All human beings need to be heard and understood. Those needs are amplified during the critical change-filled years where teenagers are moving from the dependence of childhood to the independence of adulthood” (pg 21, Walt Mueller)
I hear this said many times and now I say it to you. This is not a lost generation but a product of a lost generation. These young people are a product of a generation that stop standing up for prayer in the school. These young people are a product of uncensored TV and Radio. These young people are a product of seeing pastors run through the women in the church but yet preach about salvation. These young people are a product of broken homes and abuse.
I am included in that generation that society calls “Generation X”. My question is who X'ed us out?
In the book Walt Mueller asked his readers "who will be there for the youth?" He refers back to Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 when God spoke through Moses to the people of Israel about their responsibility to the young among them.
In Deuteronomy 6 Moses tell the people,
Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and your gates.
God’s heart is to use families and body of Christ to point young people to their divine purpose.
Let’s go back to the original question. Are you listening to this generation? As a youth leader and included in that generation that has been X'ed out, I think about the life that I am living, the places I go, the things I prefer to wear, the things I say and the way I react to sin period. I have been examining myself according to Duet 6: 4-9.
Based on the last time I checked the families in church are looking like & acting like the families in in the world. The families in the body of Christ are falling apart. As a result, the youth are growing up and turning away from God.
To be honest parents are clueless to what is going on with their children. Parents have lost their ears and the youth have lost their voice. Parents, mentors, pastors, & youth worker we must listen clearly to this generation. You may be saying I sit down and I follow up on what my children are doing. You may be even saying I know my child would never do this or that. My mother use to always tell us not the think that we have arrived or that we better because we have to pull down our pants to use the bathroom just like everyone else. That means you are not so perfect that you can not make a mistake & your children are so perfect that they can not sin.
You may have stood up in church or in the pulpit are testified about how wonderful your children are and how perfect you see them. I challenge you to listen clearly to your child. Read emails, read “my space”, read “face book”, read journals and poems and letters, sit and listen to their conversation with their friends. LISTEN to what they are really saying.
Now I know we are in time were the children run the house! (HA HA) You feel like that is their “business”. You feel like you will push them away and they won't trust you. OKAY BOO! Keep letting the devil and the world tell you how to raise your children. Remember God did not give the world your children to raise. He gave them to you and He is trusting to train them in the way they should go. Don't forgot to listen to what they are listening to on their iPods and MP3 players too.
It’s time we take a stand for the youth. We have to remove all sin out of our own lives and show our children the way to the FATHER!
It's time to break covenant with the enemy and make covenant with the Father. WE must come before God first and repent for every door that we have in our lives to sin. Close the door and seal the door with the blood of Jesus. Then we must take a stand in our homes, in our church and in our community.
As we move into one the most important time in these last days I challenge you to take a stand for something and stop falling for what looks good and sounds good. Pray FOR REAL about who needs to be elected as the next president. It's not about the color of the skin. It's about what do they stand for. I remind you we have the power as believers to overturn the laws through prayer and fasting. But what happens when we vote in a president that stands for everything against the word of God. It will effect your children. We have to stand for something! Our children are in a society where anything goes! We are helping to make the matters worst.
LISTEN to our youth and hear what they need from use! Will the REAL PARENTS, MENTORS, & PASTORS please stand up!
