During a panel discussion on Rooted’s five pillars at the 2024 Rooted Conference in, Clark Fobes mentioned missiologist Dr. Stefan Paas’ research, which suggests most effective means of reaching a post-Christian culture with the gospel is ministry to the next generation. This article cites Paas’ quote in hopes of encouraging those working with youth to see the missional value and dignity of their ministry.
How does the church reach a post-Christian culture? That is the question pastors, ministry leaders, and Christians more generally have been asking over the last few years. There has been no shortage of books, blogs, podcasts, and plenaries in effort to answer this question. While most have looked to conventional answers like church planting, greater evangelism, and living justly, few would consider youth ministry the most effective means of evangelizing a post-Christian culture.
In his 2016 book, Church Planting in the Secular West, Dutch pastor, professor, and missiologist Dr. Stefan Paas examines the validity of the claims that church planting is the best way to evangelize a post-Christian generation. In a brief section that is easily overlooked, Paas notes that the greatest predictor of non-believers coming to Christ is childhood involvement in church. He explains that “people who decide to join a church later in their life are almost always people who draw from childhood experience. This appears to be the case even when these people went to church on a very irregular basis” (Paas, 167–68).
Paas even goes so far as to assert that ministries focused on reaching the next generation (children and youth) are the greatest tool to evangelizing a post-Christian culture. “As evangelistic mission in Europe (or anywhere else in the West) is largely dependent on the availability of a fishing pond of people with some previous church involvement,” Paas writes, “trying to attract children may be the best long-term missionary strategy” (179).
Since Paas writes from the highly post-Christian culture of Europe, we should carefully consider what he is saying here. He is not advocating that we give up on evangelizing to adults with no church background. Gospel clarity and gospel relevancy are still hugely important for our current Christian witness. Doing justice and being good neighbors are biblically mandated components of mission, regardless of the times. Instead, Paas advocates that any church genuinely desiring to reach our post-Christian culture with the gospel must care about their ministries to the next generation.
To put it plainly, youth and children’s ministries are one of the most important—if not the most important—ministries for the local church’s witness and mission. While there are many implications of Paas’ observations, three most obvious ones come to the surface as we think about the mission of our youth ministries within the broader church.
1. Youth Ministries Need a Theologically Robust, Kingdom Vision
At the most fundamental level, next generation ministries can no longer be just about attracting or entertaining a crowd of teenagers. Reaching a post-Christian generation requires presenting a robust vision of the gospel and the kingdom of God. Church leaders who truly care about evangelism in the church will care deeply about the quality of teaching, discipleship, and community in their next generation ministries, especially to youth.
By prioritizing biblical teaching and theological depth, youth ministries can nurture a generation to become well-versed in Scripture and deeply rooted in their faith. As Paas points out, individuals who decide to join a church later in life often draw from their childhood experiences. Investing in spiritual development at this foundational age prepares young people to be good students of the Bible, and also to treasure it as their anchor for years to come.
2. Youth Workers, Parents, and Teenagers Need Equipping for America’s Most Pressing Mission Field
Generation Z has been described as the “first truly post-Christian generation” in America. Teenagers today represent the smallest percentage of Christians (evangelical) than any generation before. Most studies estimate 13–17 year olds to include anywhere from 21% to as few as 10% evangelical Christians. In more liberal leaning, metropolitan cities, those numbers drop drastically to anywhere from 3–7%.
While Paas encourages us that it is far more effective to reach people when they are younger rather than older, teenagers today are more akin to unreached peoples than they are to their more Christian predecessors. This means that reaching Gen Z requires far more than simply getting them in the church doors. It will require thoughtfulness in theology, evangelism, discipleship, mission strategies, cultural apologetics, and the like.
If youth ministries are the most critical evangelistic ministry within the local church, then youth pastors, workers, and parents are the most vital assets to a church’s mission in their city. They are the frontlines of Christianity’s missionary encounter in America. This also means they deserve the most equipping, training, encouragement and honor of anyone in the local church. Rather than relegating less gifted or less mature members to the youth room, churches should prayerfully commission their best into the trenches of ministry to teenagers.
If teenagers in America make up the most unreached population in our country, then youth themselves are also some of the most vital “missionaries” in America. When we think of missionaries, we often picture heroes of bravery and valor, those who journey across seas and skies to serve unreached people groups on foreign shores. But have we considered our youth as modern-day missionaries to our own nation, cities, and neighborhoods?
As this generation becomes increasingly diverse (ethnically, socioeconomically, etc.), we have a tremendous opportunity to engage with this diversity through our students. The United States has the highest number of foreign-born residents of any country in the world. This demographic shift challenges us to think strategically about how we can mobilize our students to reach their peers from varied backgrounds. Many of the least reached peoples are now within arm’s reach of our churches through our teenagers. This reality presents us with new missional opportunities that the whole church can seek to fulfill the Great Commission.
We may have a tendency, intentional or not, to shelter our students from the darkness of our times. Lament and weariness have their place as we remember that this world is not our home and we are exiles awaiting our Savior (Heb. 11:13). But by no means should this cause us to disengage ourselves, and more importantly our children and students, from the spheres of influence in which God has sovereignly placed us.
In Foolishness to the Greeks, Leslie Newbigin explains that mission “is not meant to call men and women out of the world into a safe enclave, but to call them out in order to send them back as agents of God’s kingship.” A missionally engaged youth ministry calls us to reshape our discipleship models. We must consider how, as the church, we can equip and edify the next generation to be commissioned as agents of God’s kingship.
3. Youth Ministries Must Play the Really Long Game
Finally, as much as we should pour into teenagers and our youth ministries for the future missional success of the church, we should not always expect to see immediate results. Paas makes one final observation of ministries to the next generation, namely that their primary goal may not be the fruit of today, but to “sow the seed for future evangelism” (167).
While we should equip and strategize well for our youth ministries to bear evangelistic fruit, the reality is that many teenagers may eventually walk away from our churches, and subsequently, the Christian faith. However, reaching a post-Christian culture requires playing the long game—the really long game. If childhood experience in church is the greatest factor in determining one’s future coming to faith, then in many ways, ministry to the next generation truly is about sowing seeds.
Failing to see the fruit of our labor today should not discourage us from patiently hoping for what is yet to come. The Apostle James exhorts us to “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7–11). He likens this patience to that of a farmer waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Farmers invest significant time, effort, and resources into planting seeds, knowing that the fruits of their labor will not appear overnight.
At times, we may receive joyful news that a student we’ve been discipling and praying for has finally declared Jesus as their Savior. Other times, we may never see the seeds sown during a student’s time in youth ministry come to fruition, leading us to question where we might have gone wrong or how we should change our methods. Discouragement can set in as we regularly see others reap the fruit of our hard labor. But sometimes that fruit may not come for five or 10 years; it may not even come for another 20 years.
For all the talks of revival that have captivated our interests, revival, according to Paas, will require a seed of faith sown in the distant past. Those of us working with youth may never get to experience revival under our watch, but we can take heart knowing that our faithful labors today just might sow seeds for future revival.
Playing the long game reminds us that our waiting is not in vain. Like the diligent farmer, we can labor and wait with expectation, knowing that, in due time, the fruit of our labor—both in our lives and the lives of our students—will be revealed.
Faithful witness in a post-Christian culture ultimately trusts in the seed of the gospel to bear fruit according to God’s sovereign hand. Jesus has already purchased those whom he has redeemed. So any waiting for fruit to arrive is done under the peace of Jesus’ pursuit of his own children—children whom he loves and seeks out in far greater measure than we ever could.
If you’re looking for resources to help you grow in gospel-centered youth and family ministry, consider applying for one of Rooted’s mentoring cohorts.
