Teens Left My Church

By Anderson Henry Ruffin

As I reviewed the problems of conflicts in the African-American Church, I found signs of life in a wilderness, compared to the interactions between the younger generation and the older generation. What is the Church going to do?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543953022

Book preview

Copyright © 2019 Dr. Anderson Henry Ruffin

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission from the author.

Dr. Anderson Henry Ruffin/Book Baby Publishing

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Pennsauken, NJ 08110

www.bookbaby.com

Author’s Notes: The book will focus on teens and share a view of traditional and contemporary churches services. It will focus on African-American churches in the United States of America, through survey, case studies, lifetime standards, and devotional practices. This book will offer an assortment of writing, questioning, and critical thinking about the essence of teens leaving my church.

Teens Left My Church/Dr. Anderson Henry Ruffin

ISBN: 978-1-54395-301-5 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-54395-302-2 (ebook)

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE - Changes In Youth Ministry

CHAPTER TWO - Youth Ministry Today

CHAPTER THREE - Convincing the Youth To Return

CHAPTER FOUR - Worship In Spirit and Truth

CHAPTER FIVE - A Struggling Church

CHAPTER SIX - Defining The Problem

CHAPTER SEVEN - A State of Blindness

CHAPTER EIGHT - The Contemporary Church

CHAPTER NINE - What Is The Church Doing?

CHAPTER TEN - Youth In African-American Churches

CHAPTER ELEVEN - A Pursuit of Excellence

CHAPTER TWELVE - Some Things Got To Change

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - The Church Change of Attitude

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - The Twenty-first Century Youth in my Church

APPENDIX

NOTES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to my family for giving the place that enabled the origination of this book, and their understanding during the time of research and writing. I thank those who shared their time, emotions, and knowledge with me because they believed doing so would make a difference in encouraging young people. Their input, support, and interest kept me going. I appreciate and acknowledge their contributions and support.

Special thanks to an incredible team of professionals who have inspired me along the journey. Leading the team is Dr. Charles Lett, Dr. Liz Cotton, Dr. Allam Baaheth, Dr. Aaron Dobynes, and Pastor Greg Voss. They willingly sacrificed their time, contributed faithfulness, intelligence, patience, encouragement, and motivation during the challenging times of engagement in the writing of this book. All these beautiful people shared my desire to pass knowledge and wisdom to the next generation.

The sacrifices and offering of prayers enabled me to complete this book to the glory of God and for the advancement of his kingdom. My intention in drafting this book is to pass on the blessings of my generation to the next generation. All praises and glory be to God for giving me the strength and patience to complete this book.

INTRODUCTION

The Church has been a central figure in the lives of Americans as a place of worship. When segregation was being enforced, the Afro-American church became a beacon of light for freedom. The Church was a place where mass meetings were planned to fight against the oppression of African-Americans during the 60s and ‘70s.

The Church was the glue that held communities together. It has been a central figure in the lives of the younger generation as a place of worship. When the family unit began to break down, many families turned to the Church for help and guidance. The Church would step in as a source of aid to mothers in need, care for its elderly, and engaging the community in programs that would keep teens involved in the Church.

The Church has gone off into the sunset. Talk about the youth obtaining an everlasting life with Jesus Christ has disappeared from traditional institutions. The Church needs to reestablish its claim on a robust scriptural approach to going after the young generation to instigate a return to the Church. The arena of life continues to introduce a challenge of trials and tribulations for them. Victory is difficult.

The younger generation needs some practical and spiritual knowledge so there is a balance towards living a faithful life. We are living in times when the world is attacking the absolute, that in the latter days to come, the evil spirits of the world are contending to destroy the traditional doctrines of faith that were delivered to our ancestors.

In recent years, the Church has been under extensive scrutiny. Many of its leaders have come under fire for being duplicitous in the care of the flock to gain personal status while its members struggle to make ends meet. Another problem of conflicts in the African-American Baptist Church is the interactions between the younger generation and the older generation, because they feel the Church is a place that opposes their contemporary views.

The Church no longer keep up with a fast-paced, fast-moving, ever-changing world. Many young people feel the Church offer no answers towards their problems, and they share the belief that it is not a safe place to express doubts.

The modern generation is exposed to technology, casual sex, violence, drugs, and alcohol more than their predecessors. The Church has failed to respond. The Church proved its value during my teen years in meeting stiff opposition from outside forces, like freedom of choice, technology, and the media. The Church looks not to give logical, analytical, and investigative reasons for these challenges, but continues to face stiff opposition from outside forces.

When young minds are being destroyed in this present generation, society is in trouble. The argument or excuse used against society tries to say that government guarantees individual inalienable rights, but in its fullest essence has caused decay. The loss of young lives has become, a perplexing problem.

Many teens or youth have walked, crawled, and run away from the Church. Across the United States, these young people have disengaged by not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or attending Bible study. They offer little financial support and are ceasing to volunteer for church activities. Young people between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one are leaving the Church and have created a deficit of talent, energy, and leadership in many congregations. If the Church continues this pattern, teens and youth will disappear from the Church within the next decade.

As I reviewed the problems of conflicts in the African-American Church, I found signs of life in a wilderness, compared to the interactions between the younger generation and the older generation.

The typical reaction to faith was once a high trust in Christ because the youth believe that they would be led to greener pastures. Researchers have shown that the Christian faith is fading rapidly among teens or youth. Teens whose faith became integrated into their lives are now leaving the Church in alarming numbers.

The modern generation shares the belief that the Church is not a safe place to express contemporary ideas. Teens believe their religious experiences are different from their mom’s and dad’s. Many feels the Church offer no answers towards their daily problems.

Religious leaders must look to give logical, analytical, and investigative reasons for the dropout problem. The paramount concern is to help teens or youth continue to serve Christ throughout their lifetime. They believe the Church no longer represents what Jesus had in mind. Fewer than one in ten teens mentions faith as a top priority, even though many attended church at an early age.

God gave us these hours to do gentle work that will frame young minds forever. It is time to realize that those moments are here. Whether we are noble or dishonorable, Satan is taking up arms against our youth and has formed a sea of troubles. Do not sit and relax, glazing at the stars, but become a star before that eternal sleep. Do not let the destiny of our young people come before their mortal coils are cut loose. To die is the end of life without Christ. Through heartache, backaches, and despair, let us not let Satan consume our youth. We must bear the whips and scorns of time to be successful and get them ready to face eternity.

Why are teens leaving my church? We live in the land of the free, where knowing the past makes it our best choice to construct the future. It is my goal, to voice sentiments about merging tradition and with a contemporary approach to get the youth to return to the Church. We can do this one soul at a time. This book will focus on teens leaving my church, will investigate the problem through surveys, case studies, lifetime standards, and devotional practices and offers a delicious assortment of writing, questioning, and thinking critically to the essence of restoration.

Today many young people have their moments of imperfection as the season’s change. The leaves fall and turn yellow, and the snowfall forms on mountain caps and shows the glory of God. The doors of success breathe and are sealed with a kiss, encouraging us to live in the wisdom and beauty of the Lord. There is a need to teach sound doctrine, fashioning godly minds in young people. The author’s intent is to provide a collective work of facts, along with tasty morsels of proof.

CHAPTER ONE

Changes In Youth Ministry

The traditional model of worship in the Baptist Church is quickly fading. Within a decade, the Church will lose youth participation. The area of concern is youth ministry. The Church needs research in what’s relevant to teens, and restoration in contemporary times. The practical strategies of youth ministry will not enable the Church to evade the predicament.

Throughout the Church’s history, conformity to traditional practices of worship have remained the primary stumbling block to spiritual growth, and evangelistic progress for teens. When teens come to church, they conform to the traditions of our forefathers. The same schema of worship service has not changed over the past one hundred years. The order of service originated from the Southern Baptist Convention which had a singular purpose of eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the Baptist denomination of Christian, for the propagation of the Gospel.

Many teens experience attending Church as tedious, and there is a clash between the ideologies of the contemporary and traditional Church. Significant numbers of teens have disengaged from actively attending Church, participation in the choir, attend Bible study, little financial support, and ceasing to volunteer for church activities.

I have noticed in my church that young adult’s involvement in church activities has become less attractive and more annoying. Most churches tend to focus on traditional worship, which excludes the participation of teens. The leaders are deficient in the understanding of the emerging trends.

Youth or teens are groups in progress. It may be helpful to note the different words the Church or Christian circles use to describe age groups. The terms, "Teens, youth, or young people may refer to younger adolescents (13-16) and to those who have graduated from high school (17-19)."

Mary C. Lewis, author of Her Story: Black Female Rites of Passage, consistently uses the terminology. Young Black females are characterized into three stages of adolescence, which includes early adolescence, 10-14; mid-adolescence, 14-17 and late adolescence ranging from years 17-20.

Jawanza Kunjufu tells us the age for youth are divided into three patterns: children (9), youth (9-13), teens 13-19), and young people (20-30).

When young adults enter moral training, they conform to the mindset of modern practices, rather than to traditional methods. The Church must embrace its traditional heritage and recognize it has moved into a new epoch.

We live in a highly commercialized culture. Youth programs in some churches no longer exist, and there is nothing to offer the youth. If the Church, the school, and the community had done their jobs, many young people would know how to be the best they can be. Pride, disobedience, rebellion, and compromise lead to losing supernatural power.

An example of this reality is founded in J. Childers, J. D. Foster, and J. Reese recent book The crux of the matter: Crisis, tradition and the future of Churches of Christ:

When the Churches of Christ developed this traditional mindset, they become victims of repeating history. Far from ending tradition, this attitude force tradition underground, where it runs freely, become an oppressive traditionalism. Traditions that grew out of specific circumstances are presumed to be significant, making it difficult to practices the will of God’s purpose for a Christ-centered church. Such attitudes have led to sectarian divisions, displaying an arrogant rejection of any who different. Traditionalism has overshadowed and caused us to cling tightly to traditions without recognizing them to be dangerous for a progressive Church. The Church becomes traditionalists in times of cultural change, retreating instead to a memory of the good old days making worship as stale and inexpressive.

Ken Ham and Britt Beemer’s book, Already Gone critiques the trends that many churches are facing the future with the possibility of closing the doors. A typical scene in American churches on Sunday morning is when the faithful walk through the front doors of the sanctuary sharing in the timeless rituals of worship, prayer, and proclamation. The large wooden door shuts with a loud, heavy thud. Outside, the incessant river of life jams the sidewalks and rushes toward unexpected destinations. Inside, the sanctuary carries the aroma of ancient stones and old books. Rows of ornate pews seating more than three