Current evangelism methods are not working for todays youth and must
be changed to reflect the way todays students think, Mark Matlock warned
recently.
“We are missing huge generations of teenagers,” said Matlock, creator
of PlanetWisdom.com, the Internet ministry of Wisdom Works Ministries of Dallas.
Current evangelism methods are not working for todays youth and must
be changed to reflect the way todays students think, Mark Matlock warned
recently.
“We are missing huge generations of teenagers,” said Matlock, creator
of PlanetWisdom.com, the Internet ministry of Wisdom Works Ministries of Dallas.
The probability of a person accepting Christ between the ages of 5 to 13 is
32 percent, Matlock noted at the third annual Youth Ministry Institute at New
Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. There is a 4 percent probability within
the ages of 14 to 18 and a 6 percent chance from age 19 to death.
“Ninety-six out of 100 teens will be lost for eternity if we do not figure
out how to reach them,” Matlock lamented.
Research indicates that churches simply are reaching their own when it comes
to young people, leaving those outside the church unmoved by the gospel, Matlock
indicated. And although four out of five of the students in a recent study identified
themselves as Christian, only 32 percent could be identified as “born again,”
Matlock said.
Indeed, when pressed, 49 percent were severely questionable regarding salvation,
he said.
“The basic teachings are overlooked too often,” Matlock said, noting
that a study done for his organization showed 61 percent of students did not
know the John 3:16 passage, 94 percent did not know the Great Commission passage
and 66 percent did not know what the gospels were.
Even the “cream of the crop” – those who said they shared their faith
at least once in the past year – are lacking in basic doctrine, Matlock said.
One in 10 say the Bible is not accurate in all it teaches; one in five say Jesus
sinned on earth; one in four do not acknowledge the existence of the Holy Spirit;
one in three do not acknowledge the existence of satan; and one in two say truth
is relative, he noted. “It is not good for students to have zeal without
knowledge,” he emphasized.
The time has come for a re-evaluation of how churches do things and reach out
to people, Matlock said. For one thing, they must understand that the postmodern
generation is not as rational as the previous ones, he said. To postmoderns,
authenticity, reality and genuineness matter more.
Personal involvement and individuality are key as well, Matlock noted, cautioning
against putting evangelism in a “box.” Unfortunately, while the world
is marketing uniqueness and individuality and while Christians stress that every
life is uniquely created, they still tend to use the same evangelism methods
again and again, he said.
“Instead of using the same tool for sharing Christ with every unique individual,
we need to adjust our evangelism as a tool box where different things may be
pulled out in each situation. There is no one approach to reaching all students.
“God has made each individual unique.”
That will require more than just changing ones style of evangelism, Matlock
suggested. “We have to move from teaching that evangelism is leading a
person into the Sinners Prayer and realize that it is more
of a disciple-making process thats needed. We must present evangelism
as a long-term process, rather than a simplified microwave experience.”
The latter approach does not work with todays students, particularly
in light of the way Christians are viewed, Matlock said. “For better or
worse, non-Christians do not tend to see much difference between Christians
they know and other people who are not Christian. In all, 83 percent of non-Christians
said that, based upon their impressions of Christians they know, they would
say that Christians are not significantly different from other people.”
As a result, people tend to see evangelism as an interruption, Matlock noted.
To counter that, Christians should ask permission to share the gospel and should
respect the listener during the process, he noted.
“We must eliminate the pitch type presentations of the gospel
and focus more on prayer evangelism and service evangelism,” he said. “We
must teach students how to identify needs of people and train them how to meet
them.” (BP)
(To review notes from this years Youth Ministry Institute, visit www.nobts.edu/ymi
or www.youthministryinstitute.org. For more on teenagers and evangelism, visit
www.planetwisdom.com.)