Good Doctrine

Today I read an article by John Piper, entitle "Good Doctrine Makes Better (Teenage) Saints." I challenge you to read the entire thing. Here is a small teaser: "even though growing a church by serious teaching of biblical truth may be harder and slower, it does bear more radical fruit than less doctrinally serious strategies of growth. "

My husband and I were involved in Youth Ministry for many years and are saddened by what we saw and still see among many youth 'ministries.' There is such a push to 'entertain, entertain, entertain.' The prevailing attitude is that the Bible seems boring so we need to step it up; the Gospel doesn't seem relevant so we'll just share the good part (Jesus died for you); we have to make it fun for the youth to want to be here... and the list goes on.

Don't get me wrong, it's not the games are wrong, or that food is off-limits, or that the Body shouldn't have fun, but what should be the focus? Doctrine is what usually gets pushed aside when ministries focus on 'bringing them in' by various measures... and at what cost? Well, it could be the cost of their soul.

So what do we do? According to Piper, we should "work our heinies off teaching and preaching and modeling the Truth. And resist an entertainment model for youth ministry. And cultivate a joyfully blood-earnest atmosphere for worship. And call for our youth and our retirees to go risk their lives somewhere for the risen King Jesus. This is where serious truth-driven ministry takes us."

Enough said!