Let’s straighten something out.
Yes, my goal is to train the next generation to live out their faith and turn the world upside down. But I can’t do that alone.
In fact, that’s not even my job.
Yes, I’m a Youth Pastor, but it’s not the Youth Pastor’s job to disciple the teens and children in the church.
Go ahead… read that again… and tweet it.
It’s not the Youth Pastor’s Job to disciple teenagers in the church. It’s the parent’s job.
Tweet
We read in Deuteronomy 6, as God gives the Israelites the creed to live by:
Deuteronomy 6:4–6 (ESV): “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
And then He goes on to say:
Deuteronomy 6:7–9 (ESV): You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
You see, God tasked the parents to be the ones who pass on their faith. The parents should teach their children about God. The whole rhythm of a family’s life should point children to Jesus.
And that’s not just an Old Testament thing either.
Paul writes to the Church at Ephesus:
Ephesians 6:4 (ESV): Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
It’s the parents, and specifically Fathers who are to raise their children in the things of the Lord. Too often dads abdicate that responsibility to the moms and parents abdicate that to the church.
Phil Vischer, creator of VeggieTales, had an interesting take on this. He says that since Parents have been allowing the Church to disciple their kids for so long, they don’t know how anymore. In an interview with Christianity Today he said “we keep asking parents to disciple their kids, forgetting that no one discipled the parents.” And with his new content he’s been trying to “create materials that can help parents pass on their faith to their kids and clarify the faith of the parents as well.”
So, what’s a Youth Pastor’s Job in 2020? To partner with the parents to train their kids to live out their faith and turn the world upside down.
Nate Deck 