Jumping The Gap

JUMPING THE GAP SURVIVING THE GAP BETWEEN STUDENT AND ADULT MINISTRY Adam Page



INTRODUCTION | 01CIHNAPTTERR1 ODUCTIONYou've grown up in it, but maybe Now with nothing in your church designed forit never really clicked. Maybe you've been upset your age group, (maybe there is a small group,about it for years... but there’s this self-fulfilling but it is under financed and has little to noprophecy in the church today, it speaks directly direction) you may feel that the church isover young adults and students, and it says treating you like you are inconsequential, likesomething like this… “You are going to rebel, you are not really valuable or worth puttingyou are going to stumble and struggle, but energy or money into. If that is the case, yousince you won’t be giving financially, and you aren't alone. The Irony is, this mentality iswon’t be attending regularly, the church need completely at odds with the example that Jesusnot invest in you.” So as you leave your youth sets, He pursues the lost sheep, leaving the 99group, it may seem as if they are saying to you, and chasing after the one. Im sure it doesn't“We will see you when you get it all figured seem like it, but maybe that’s whats happeningout, and have kids. Good luck.” even though to you right now.they, as adults, Seem to have the exact samestruggles, and don't seem to have much more If you were lucky, and you happened to attendfigured out than you. a healthy church, you may have attended VBS (Vacation Bible School) and in that settingGenerations of this mentality have produced a you learned a few basic truths. These truthschurch that went from loving God, to a church turned into the cornerstones of what youthat attended with their parents, to a church believe, and they usually include:that had no interest in what their fathersbelieved, (because they don't strongly believe \"Something about nicodemus.anything, they just go to church out of habit) Something about Jesus on the cross.to a church with little attendance and members Jesus walking on water with peter.that are just completely lost with no faith to Maybe Elijah at mount Carmel.speak of. And the next steps get far worse. But And maybe the woman at the well.\"luckily, we aren't there yet. What has this done for your faith? You needIt's at this point that you may have noticed, as and deserve more.a young adult or student, your church doesn'tseem to be designed for you. Even as a youth As a middle school or high school student, youstudent, part of your church was closed to you, learned random seeming things from the bible,and the part that was intended for you, was but in most churches, that all turned into aclosed to everyone else, and you might be blur of vague life lessons. and you are hardthinking wasn’t it a little like day care? a safe pressed to recall any specifics. Under theplace for you to be entertained and stay out of pressure of being a full time student with nothe way? And sadly, you only got exposed to real ambitions of you own, you had a hardthe church workers that intentionally time getting interested in anything, becausevolunteered in the youth group, the others, you had so many requirements put on you.great grandfatherly members of the church And now that you have a little freedom andthat might have been good mentors, you never you want to flesh out your faith a little, Itmet them, and they are strangers to you. seems like every door has slammed shut.And a little surprisingly, you find yourselfcoming to grips with the fact that you are anadult now, and your youth group has releasedyou, or even kicked you out.

INTRODUCTION | 02Now you find yourself struggling with someserious questions, like \"Where do I go with myspiritual questions?\" and \"How do I grow inmy faith?\" and most importantly, \"How do Ido these things alone?\" Your pastor probablydoesn’t know you, your youth pastor says (orat least you assume) you aren’t theirresponsibility anymore. The thriving peer groupyou expected just seems to want to party andtheir faith is at best a distraction from theirsocial life. The world is quite possibly a moredangerous place, because you have beensheltered in the church and you don’t knowhow to believe without someone else (external)faith Keeping you moving forward.Now that your life feels shattered, and we’velisted all of the “truths” that are crushing youlately… Keep reading.At this point you are quickly realizing that youwill have to be responsible for your own faith.What you probably haven't figured out yet isthat this has been true from the verybeginning. Your youth pastors, children'spastors, and lay-leaders in VBS and sundayservices, were just resources, you got out ofthem what you sought to get. and though itmight seem that you are out of resources, thatis not true, they just aren’t locked in a roomwith you one day out of the week anymore. Soa little seeking may be in order.I bet at this point you are expecting this bookto turn into a bootcamp. Read these books…block off this amount of time for quietness…do some laps around the church… start somecrazy work out routine… But that isn’t whatyou’ll find here. The best we have to offer is topoint out the doors that are still, and havealways been open to you.

DIVING IN | 03DIVINGCHAPTER 2 IN Sadly, the church is still struggling to get past this. If the first Christians only told their friendsFirst, If it seems your church has nothing to and family, then only Palestinian Jews would beoffer, stay put, you are wrong. (Even if all you Christians. That’s a pretty select group ofcan learn is what your church is doing poorly) people, and I highly doubt most of us wouldn’tYou can still serve in your local church, and make the cut.there are people there that want to pour intoyou. They may be less obvious than a pastor But let’s get practical, If you are suddenlywith a name tag, and they might not meet you finding out that you are responsible for yourat the door, with a greeting card. Look for own faith, boy have you been set up for abible studies or small groups in your church. fall… Your church led you to believe that youDon’t be afraid to go talk to your pastor. and if would be spoon fed for the rest of your life… Ithe isn’t receiving, talk to a deacon or elder. doesn’t work that way. The yellow brick roadsomeone in your church wants to help you. if has come to an end, and you are nowhere nearyou pursue it and there is no one there, go the emerald city. (I like making literarysomewhere else, but I'd suggest you keep that references, get used to it.)as a last effort. You get to, from today on, walk out your ownSociety's goal for you is that you have a career, faith. It’s actually pretty exciting! So where doa family, and a house by the age of 30, but you start. In the event that you are trying tomore and more people these days aren’t doing grow and not counting on your church tothat. and even paul says to timothy “it is better provide a system for that, I suggest that you firstto be single, and a family is for when loneliness turn to scripture. God has revealed Himself andbecomes to hard to handle.” (This is heavily His goals for us in this book we call the bible,paraphrased.) your youth and freedom from (with means book in latin,) and we need to usemajor commitments gives you a lot of power. it as a standard that we compare all of ourYou have great potential because you have influences against. Next, I suggest you turn tomomentum, energy, and nothing to loose. church fathers and great christian authors. There are a lot of great theologians, that canYou have the freedom to truly be disruptive. help you dig into your bible. But there are also aWe are the product of a stagnant system, that lot of writers that don't claim the theologianis designed to barely equip members, and title, like one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis.mostly to grow by addition and conquest, Even though his books are amazing, interesting,where the church mainly grows when members and convicting, there are a lot of his writingshave babies or conquer neighboring lands, out there that are just his thoughts on faith and(think about the catholic church in the middle God. I’d start there. Before diving into thingsages.) But that isn't the example of Jesus, The like the screw tape letters or the great divorce. Ioriginal model, exemplified by Jesus is a find that we learn more sometimes when we aregrowth by multiplication. Jesus poured into his entertained by what we are reading, somedisciples, and they told some people, those theologians are very dry and you have to workpeople told some other people and so on and harder to internalize their thoughts.so on. They didn’t only tell their friends, theytold strangers and thousands of people gotsaved on a daily basis.At some point in our history, the churchbecame very conservative about evangelism.“Let’s only witness to our best friends” becamethe idea of how we should evangelize.

DIVING IN | 04My pastor shared with me several years ago a be a bad idea. The worst thing you could do indiagram that exemplifies how we need to exist your spiritual life is be an inappropriate orin the church. This is the ideal situation for us unhealthy authority in someone else's life. Let'sto be in in order to grow and be healthy just face it, you don't know enough to be ofchristians. any use to them. If you do find yourself in a place where you are leading, be leading toward Jesus and to your Mentor. \"Lean not on your own understanding.\"What this is showing, is really just having theright kinds of relationships in your life,someone who is further than you, a Mentor,someone that is closer to where you started, AMentee, and some people that are in a similarplace as you, peers. With these people in yourlife, you will have a good flow of learning,leading and hanging out. No one of these ismore important than the others overall, but incertain parts of your spiritual walk, one willalways be more important than the others. Asyou begin your adult walk, It is important thatyou don't walk alone, this means you needpeers. People that you are for the most part inthe same season of life with, You have goals,hobbies, habits, and schedules in common.Casual conversations with these people willshape a lot of your faith, among other things.Just as important or more is that you and thesepeers are being lead into growth. It isconceivable that you could (only through thework of the Holy Spirit) discern from scriptureand grow without a Mentor, but it is highlyunlikely and not easy. A mentor doesn't haveto be always present, just giving some directionfrom time to time can be enough. You will alsoneed an authority that you can go to when youand your peers have struggles or questions. Atthis point in your walk, you don't really havemuch to hand down, so Having a Mentee orfollower is not very important, and might even