OUR YOUTH CRISIS

It is important to realize that the pastor cannot do everything. October is Pastor Appreciation Month. We must always appreciate what our pastors have done for our churches. They suffer a lot of criticism. However, with our appreciation in mind, we must face the reality of the state of the Evangelical church. We are in big trouble, and we are losing the cultural battle on every side. Sadly, our pastors who went to seminary were never educated to handle what we are facing today. We will review the many factors that have destroyed the courage of ALL men, not just our pastors. However, the lack of courage by our men in the pews and in the pulpit has very negative outcomes for the future of the Evangelical church in America.

In order to destroy the family [Marxism’s ultimate goal] they first needed to destroy the courage of the men, who LEAD the families. Now the families in our nation are falling apart as they planned. If courage by our pastors and men in the pews is not revived, the depression and hopelessness among our non-church youth will lead to a terrible disaster. However, in the middle of this mental health crisis of our youth, we have the greatest church OPPORTUNITY to reach our youth who are desperate for answers. They need Jesus, but we need to have the courage to address the FALSE ideas that have destroyed their lives and driven them into despair.

The result of cultural lies is evident in the crisis of the mental health of our youth. They have been sold a LIE, and they see no reason to continue living. The opportunity to reach these youth has never been GREATER than right now. They are desperate, but we are afraid to address the cultural lies [woke, trans-gender, post-modernism, nihilism] that have destroyed any of their HOPE for the future. As we go through this book, we will see that the culture has NO solution for the hopelessness of our youth. Only the Evangelical church has the answer – JESUS – but we are afraid to face the conflict and lies of the devil that have destroyed our youth. We do not want to get into the BATTLE.

The psychology profession and even Christian counselors [Dr. Tim Clinton, former psychology professor at Liberty University, and now the President of the American Association of Christian Counselors] are sending out the warning. The mental health of our American youth has reached a CRISIS level. The Evangelical church must be a MAJOR part of the solution. The AACC held a giant conference in 2024 to address the issue of the mental health crisis of our youth. The Evangelical church and its pastors and church members must prevent depression and hopelessness among our own [using biblical worldview training], and those youth outside the church. Otherwise, our society will collapse into chaos, suicide, and hopelessness in the next few years. Without the serious help of the Evangelical church, our 50,000 Christian counselors will burn out and the result will be a disaster, that could have been prevented. It is time for the church, pastors and church members, to do their individual parts in this mental health crisis.

We will discuss Dr. George Barna and his recently published study in 2024. This study showed that the MAJOR reason for the mental health crisis is the LACK of a biblical worldview in the lives of our non-churched youth [NONES]. They have believed Satan’s lies, not God’s, so they see no hope for the future. Without a biblical worldview, even our prodigals are hopeless, depressed, and anxious like the NONES. Dr. Barna has been warning the church for over 25 years. He has written or co-authored over 60 books to prepare the church. Dr. Barna is the “Jeremiah” of our time, crying in the wilderness. How many pastors are listening?

An effective culturally relevant gospel message [dealing with the controversial cultural lies] and the care of the church body are the only solution for our hopeless youth. But our gospel message is weak [not dealing with the controversial issues], not dealing with sin and repentance, and therefore they see no true hope in the church.

Our youth are full of guilt because of all the terrible sins they have committed. Nobody will offer them FORGIVENESS through Jesus and the ability to start over again. But our pastors will not talk about sin, because they THINK it will drive them away. In fact, they want victory over sin and forgiveness of their sins. Many of our youth have been involved in sexual sin and even abortion, and their souls are in despair. Satan’s lies of promised happiness have proven to be futile. The failure of courage by our pastors is at the root of the ineffective gospel message we have been preaching for 30 years. The seeker-sensitive church has failed badly in many cases. The ADULTS that the seeker-sensitive church tries to attract are comfortable in their sins [already fixed in their godless worldview] and are stubborn and will not submit to Jesus and the Bible. Talking about sin could drive THEM away.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer laid everything on the line,

"Comfort the troubled, and trouble the comfortable, "

"To be effective the preacher’s message must be alive; it must alarm, arouse, challenge; it must be God’s present voice to a particular people. Then, and not till then, is it the prophetic word and the man himself a prophet."

However, the youth outside of the church are living in sin and are full of guilt, which leads to depression and hopelessness. But our seeker-sensitive churches are not preaching to the lost youth outside the church with a message about sin and repentance and forgiveness. They are “entertaining the adults” while leaving the youth in their sins which leads to depression and hopelessness.

The major change that is needed is for our gospel message to deal with the cultural lies [woke, trans-gender, nihilism, etc.] that our pastors will NOT address. The other issue is the lack of preaching about SIN and repentance. Lastly, they need to teach a biblical worldview and apologetics to the children and youth and new believers. In other words, how to live the Christian life of hope and purpose. Our pastors simply need COURAGE to preach an effective gospel and do discipleship and the church will explode in numbers. Sadly, it is the pastors and some of the men and women in the church who are holding back a true revival in the church and then in the community. Sadly, we all want the “status quo.” The “old days” are not coming back. Covid ended it.

Please follow my blog every week and share it with all your friends and pastors. Please pray for your pastor every week, so he can regain his courage.