PET VI: Youth Ministry

Problems in Ecclesiology Today VI: Youth Ministry and the Problem of Relevancy

When does a church go too far to be relevant?

The New York Times headline said it all: “Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Game at Church.” The article was about the use of games like Halo 3 to bring youth to church. And thus the irony: “First the percussive sounds of sniper fire and the thrill of the kill. Then the gospel of peace.” The question, as the article points out, is just how far churches should go to reach young people, particular young boys.

The problems with Halo abound. The game is rated M, so no one under 17 is allowed to purchase the game. Yet churches host Halo parties for children who are well under age. This, of course, is a huge draw for young kids, but the churches are circumventing the law in doing so. But what price to churches pay when they attempt to meld the proclamation and worship of a man who suffered and died at the hands of violent men with a game in which you are rewarded for being a violent man? Or, as the article puts it, how can you possibly blend a message of peace with a game that openly rejects peace—a game whose motto is, in fact, “thou shalt kill”? The Times article puts this dilemma brilliantly:

But the question arises: What price to appear relevant? Some parents, religious ethicists and pastors say that Halo may succeed at attracting youths, but that it could have a corroding influence. In providing Halo, churches are permitting access to adult-themed material that young people cannot buy on their own.

“If you want to connect with young teenage boys and drag them into church, free alcohol and pornographic movies would do it,” said James Tonkowich, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a nonprofit group that assesses denominational policies. “My own take is you can do better than that.”

Tonkowich hits the proverbial nail right on the head. If a church wants to be relevant to teenage boys, there are plenty of other ways, including handing out pornography and offering beer-on-tap. You could throw in condoms and cigarettes and call it a night. But this raises an important questions: Why Halo 3? Why are exceedingly violent video games par for the course, but bare breasts on a piece of paper completely out of the question? One could easily argue that the video games are the more harmful of the two. All of this leads us back to the same basic problem with American Christianity: we are prudes about sex, but connoisseurs of violence. Americans love their violent blockbusters, but if we see some flesh on screen, parents freak out and churches boycott. (This is the issue raised by the fascinating documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated.)

There are really two issues at stake in this story: (1) how far is too far in the attempt to be “relevant,” and (2) why are churches comfortable with violence but not with sexuality? Both issues are not limited to youth groups, but run throughout American Christianity as a whole. The first question, though, is the one that concerns me the most. The attempt to be “relevant” is, in my opinion, the reason why American churches are dying from the inside-out. Churches struggling with attendance and membership seem to think that accommodating to current cultural norms will increase their popularity (as if this is something Christ called us to worry about). But the opposite is the case. The more churches compromise, the more they lose their witness as “salt and light.”

Of course, this does not mean churches need to be pietistic in their moral values. What it means is that we need to be conscientious about how we engage popular culture. We need to watch and discuss popular films, not simply endorse or condemn them based on what material they contain. We need to listen attentively to contemporary music, not reject it simply because of the language or subject matter or cultural unfamiliarity. We need to understand why Halo is the best-selling video game of all time and talk about it, without simply capitulating to these market trends and then using them for selfish gain.

Finally, we need to radically rethink the nature of evangelism in general. The following statement from the article reflects what I think is a general conviction:

Once they come for the games, Gregg Barbour, the youth minister of the church said, they will stay for his Christian message. “We want to make it hard for teenagers to go to hell,” Mr. Barbour wrote in a letter to parents at the church.

This is a grossly reductionistic mentality which views church simply as a safety net or hospital for people who are otherwise on the slippery slope to hell, rather than as a community of discipleship and mission shaping people into faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Evangelism is not about “fire insurance,” and youth group is not about keeping teens out of hell. The gospel is not about “getting into heaven.” We preach the gospel because we are on a journey of discipleship and sanctification, a process of being conformed into the image of Christ through the power of the Spirit. Evangelism is about mission, not simply conversion. Ministry is about discipleship, not “fire insurance.” Church is about faithfulness to Jesus Christ, not about numbers or gimmicks or relevancy. In order to stop the current bleeding in the church today, we need to learn this anew.