Fire the Youth Pastor and
Cancel All Youth Programs!

Okay, so I don't really mean that. We Love You Josh! But that is the message that a few people might hear in this posting. In 2009 our church leadership will work through a book called Sticky Church. It's a good book and a rather quick read (I knocked out 60 pages in a few minutes last night), but what makes it great is all the practical advice that it has. And last night as I was reading through Chapter 7, I ran across a passage that was entirely contrary to what I believed. He writes:

When I was a youth pastor, I noticed an all too familiar cycle. Little kids participated in a great children's program, moved on to a dynamic youth ministry, and graduated to a vibrant college program--then followed all this with a predictable postcollege or newlywed fadeout. That is, until they had their own kids to bring back to our wonderful children's and youth programs.

Okay, I'm hooked. He's speaking right to me. This describes perfectly every church I've ever known. He continues:

[I] began to wonder if the best gift we could give our children and youth might not be the great programs we were offering but instead something different--the simple but profound gift of a growing mom and dad. After all, it's a well-known fact that young adults tend to mimic the behavior patterns of their parents once they start to have their own families (despite all their protestations to the contrary while growing up).

...Once they hit adulthood, our influence waned and their parents' influence held sway. They parented like they were parented, did marriage like their parents, and even did adult Christianity like it was modeled by most of the adults around them. All this made me ask, What would happen if the children in our church saw their parents regularly opening their Bibles to prepare for a Bible study, going to someone's home to learn more, praying for other adults, serving in the community?

I came to the conclusion that they would assume that's what Christian adults do--and they'd start doing the same when they were adults.

Certainly that's non-sense. Kids don't listen to their parents, and they certainly don't follow the example they've set. They rebel. They do everything contrary that they can. They don't want to be anything like their parents. They run!

How would building a strong adult small group ministry benefit the kids--or the church for that matter? Everyone knows that kids programs are what bring people into the church, right? A good youth group, an engaging youth pastor, and a descent Sunday morning message is all you need. That's how you grow a church, right? Well...not quite.

Now that we've had enough years to follow the results, it's just as I had hoped. Our young adult dropout rate is a fraction of what I've seen in the past. And I'm convinced it's because we've focused on giving our children and youth the powerful gift of a growing mom and dad.

North Coast is on to something here. They're sharing their experiences, not their thoughts. They're telling us about proven methods, not speculations. This book Sticky Church is going to rock CrossPoint from the top to the bottom, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's not about me--it's about the kingdom and I see a lot of good news coming out of this book. I hope you're as excited about it as I am.