Before you start posting critical comments on social media, the Bible is technically the only book you need to truly minister to young people well. You are probably reading all sorts of books on ministry – when you have two spare moments. The problem is there are too many people out there who either claim to be Christians or who were Christians who have taken it on as their mission in life to do everything in their power to destroy Christianity. It’s not enough to reject God and the Bible as the standard for their lives. They want to take as many people with them as possible. It’s a movement that is destroying the faith of young people and you need to be well informed and prepared.
It would be bad enough if just former “Christians” were aggressively recruiting young people to leave Christianity, but there are theologians, preachers, ministers, “Christian” authors and musicians and others who still attend church and even lead and teach in churches, but with a message that is meant to destroy the faith of those who hear them. It’s the false teaching warned about in scripture on steroids.
The problem strong Christians and those in ministry have always faced is because they are so focused on studying the Bible, serving others, sharing their faith, etc., they don’t always have a lot of free time to keep up with what is swirling around on the perimeters of Christianity until it has taken hold of their ministry and their congregation through some back channel on social media or some book or post that leads them down a spiritual rabbit hole that rarely ends well.
As someone concerned about the faith of children, teens and young adults you need help staying at least close to the curve of how young people are being influenced spiritually. What are they being told? What faulty logic are they hearing that seems to make sense, but is really a lie? What makes them more vulnerable to these false teachings and how can you keep their faith strong? And as frightening as it may be – who on your staff or which volunteers have also believed these false teachings and are passing them on to those to whom you minister?
Normally, I finish a book before I suggest you purchase and read it. I will be honest, I am about ¾ of the way through The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childres and Tim Barnett and I am suggesting you run and read this book ASAP. It’s that good. If you have kept up with everything, it’s not that all of the information will be new to you, but it’s organized in a fashion that will help you work with young people and their parents struggling with the current issues circulating out there. If the very term deconstruction makes your head spin, this book breaks everything down in easy to understand ways that will not only help you, but allow you to have better conversations with others on the topic.
I’m not sure how the young people to whom you minister would respond to the idea of reading this book at the same time you do and discussing it with you (those too far down this road may dismiss it as toxic and refuse to even look at it), but it could make a great book to help you have meaningful conversations with your students – perhaps before they are even exposed to these issues. Fore warned is after all fore armed!
Whether you read this book for yourself or with your staff, volunteers, your students or their parents, read it. We have to stop this current movement from taking any more young people down the path of destruction.