Why I Speak to Students

A few years ago while preaching at the Michigan Baptist State Evangelism Conference a pastor asked me a question. “You are a professor with a PhD?” He asked.

“Yes sir,” I replied.

“But you speak a lot to teenagers?” He continued, a little perplexed.

“I do,” I said.

“Do you have to dumb down your messages to speak to teenagers?” He queried.

I have a habit sometimes of answering before thinking, and this was one of those times.

“No sir,” I said, “I have to dumb down my messages when I speak in churches on Sunday mornings!”

Why did I answer that way? Because I have learned young people can handle truth. In fact, they want it. More, not less. Deeper, not sugar coated. There are so many churches with so many members who show up on Sunday morning wanting to be affirmed more than enlightened. But I meet a lot of hungry young adults who are weary of saccharine-laced messages.

And that is why in large part I speak to students. I do preach every year in many churches, at conferences, and other events, about 60-70 in a typical year. But my preference, all things being equal, is to speak to students, both in secondary schools and in college.

This year I have already spoken at student events in Seattle, the St Louis area, Charlotte, in Wake Forest, and on our campus, to name only a few. Later this week I will speak at Campus Crusade at NC State, and later on several other campuses from East Carolina to Florida State. I have DNows scheduled in several states and am doing six youth camps this summer (3 state led camps in Florida anthe tips of washing duvet coversd Missouri, and 3 church camps: First Baptist Jacksonville, Florida, Sarasota Baptist in Florida, and a church in Illinois). Throw in a pile of youth rallies and another stack of events speaking to youth pastors, and yes, I spend more time speaking to students and student leaders than anyone else.

I love speaking to students. Why? I could fill my calendar with events for the whole church, and I certainly preach in a lot of churches each year. It would be better financially to speak at church-wide events (if that were why I did this). Why students? Here are a few reasons.

1. Students long for straight, real truth. Oh, they want you to help them see how it applies to life, but when you do that they are hungry for more. That is why across America there are many newer churches filled with young adults whose pastors preach for an hour or more, verse by verse, through Bible books.

<the original of hair extensionsp>2. Students long to be challenged. The church has treated them like little kids instead of like young men and women for far too long. I tell parents of youth not to let their children finish high school without going to another country on a mission trip. The students always seem to be a little more hungry about that than the parents! That is in part why I wrote a book called Raising the Bar on youth ministry.

3. I love real, biblical, passionate worship. So do so many students. Students do not hate hymns by the way, but they hate the way a lot of people sing them. I take a band with me of young men from our college who love Jesus, are great musicians, and love hanging out with students. My son Josh is the drummer. I once was the bassist but I fired myself (I am not too good). This weekend they are opening for Mercy Me at a large conference in Georgia, and the next they are with me leading at a DNow in Florida. The greatest worship services I have been in have not been in a church building on a Sunday morning but at a youthair extensionsh camp on Thursday nights.

4. The church in the West is in trouble and we need God to move. Often God has moved through youth. Jonathan Edwards said the Great Awakening was mostly a youth movement. I wrote a book called Join the Movement for students, which takes a look at many examples of students used by God in spiritual movements from the Haystack Revival to the Jesus Movement.

I guess the main reason I speak to students is because I have such a hunger to see God at work. And I see Him working in those younger than me. More brokenness. More hunger. And as I am about to hit fifty, I realize I have to fight to maintain the passion of my youth. Students encourage me, challenge me, and make me want to see God move afresh not only in them, but also in me.