Play Less And Teach More: Reaching The Next Generation With Authentic Christianity

In 2013 Larry Taunton of the Fixed Point Foundation set out to find out why so many young Christians lose their faith in college. The general answer from these students was that their youth groups should have played less and taught more. 

In his commentary about the study, Eric Metaxas said that the problem is that the typical church ingratiates itself to kids instead of challenging them.  Most churches are driven by a fear of boring kids to death, or by attracting families with more fun and entertainment than the church down the road.  The reality is that kids respond to conviction, not entertainment.  Conviction leads to conviction; entertainment leads to being entertained. 

Parents must decide if their goal is to entertain their kids, or disciple them.  Do you want church to be fun or meaningful?  If you want your kids to be lifelong followers of Jesus, it must be the latter.

Don't get me wrong, our aim is not to make church boring.  But when church is done right, it is anything but boring.

This is the focus of the family-integrated church.  Our goal is not to attract kids to church with fun and games, but to expose them to authentic Christianity.  We do this by incorporating students into the church-at-large.  They study the Bible with the adults.  They sing and worship with the adults.  They pray with the adults.  They sit with the adults.  They serve with the adults.  They fellowship and discuss the Bible with the adults.  We want to teach them authentic Christianity from the very beginning, not a watered-down kid's version, or a fun-and-games youth version.

When the church focuses on real discipleship, kids will discover that church is fun.  Not because of games and entertainment, but because Bible study, worship, fellowship, prayer, and service are fun.  They will find that church is the most meaningful and significant time of the week.

The best way to reach the next generation is not with entertainment, but with authentic Christianity.