Utumishi Blog

The following are some personal reflections from iServe Africa alumnus and staff member, James Wainaina:

I recently attended a meeting to elect leaders of the youth ministry of a major denomination. I must say that my heart was very sad at the lack of commitment. Some came and after a moment they left with the excuse, “we have other engagements”. Deep within myself, I was asking, what is the problem here? Why is it that fewer and fewer young people in church want to take on leadership in youth ministry? There is a lot of laxity. When I sat there in that meeting, I realized something. When the talk was going around, it was more of, “Why do less youths come to church?” “What activities have you planned for the youths in your church?” There was discussion of lots of activities – hiking, swimming, travelling to Mombasa, sport day, dinner etc. But I was just feeling, no, this is not the thing.

I came up with some thoughts on the situation which I tried to address in the meeting as follows:

1. I think often youth groups are turning into social groupings based on the common reason that our parents come to this church so we also attend church and engage in activities.
2. The lack of commitment in the youth leadership is just a pointer to a bigger problem of the heart. I actually thought, do the youths understand what gospel ministry is all about? Do they know what the gospel is? When is the last time they heard someone preaching about Christ crucified? The problem I observed is that many of us in the youth fellowship do not understand what this is all about and therefore engaging in the leadership does not “add any value”. After all, there is no pay, no congratulations and no person to mentor us. To take it much further, I thought that the youths who do not engage with the youths fellowship view it as a total waste of time and those who do it have nothing better to do with their time.
3. There is a total lack of spiritual maturity because the gospel is no longer taught in fellowships anymore. At some point, one of the attendants at the meeting told the youth leaders, “We can be the next Barrack Obama’s” Where is the gospel there?? Isn’t this just worldly aspiration.

What are the solutions? I suggested the following:

1. We must return to the Biblical gospel of Jesus and not our own creation of what we think is the gospel. To be sincere, am tired of mediocre sermons where someone just appears and starts reading from a notebook of their own thoughts or some self-help book they’ve read instead of pointing to the gospel from the Bible.
2. We must return to the Word of God. Let it lead us back to the true worship of God. Religious practices and church traditions will not help us much.
3. Activities are fantastic but without the greater reason as to why we meet and engage in these activities, then we are not any better than a social club. I like what John Stott says, “If the church was to be described in terms of a club, then the church is the only club the exists for the benefit of its non-members.”

This must be the reason for us going to church each Sunday. To hear the gospel, to be transformed by it and above all, to share it with others. That way, our churches will be transformed and grow in their work of discipleship, evangelism and mission. Let’s get back to the gospel.