Which word above best describes the way a believer can reach someone from the next generation for Christ? This is a great question. I think the answer would revolve around the best way a believer can reach anyone for Christ.
Let’s start with facts. If knowing the facts were enough, America would be in good shape. Access to the Bible and its content is not a problem, especially since the advent of the internet. Bible facts are true! But, if you’re in love with facts, you’ve missed the point (John 5:39–40). Bible thumpers love the Bible, some more than God himself. I can’t help but wonder if these have ever met the God of the Bible (His name is Jesus)? Giving the next generation a list of facts isn’t going to cause much change. Even more than experience (FOMO is real), the next generation is seeking relationship. We all are because this is how we were made. Life wasn’t meant to be lived out on an island alone.
How about feelings? If this is your answer, I think you’re onto something! Emojis, anyone? These little images provoke feelings. The LGBTQ movement has advanced by appealing to people’s emotions, not because it makes the most sense. We always hear in the church that head knowledge must move six inches down for hearts to change! But, for some reason, feelings have been downplayed in the church. It’s okay to have feelings and it’s definitely okay to express feelings. King David used psalms, prayer, and music to express how he felt to God. And sometimes he was angry at God. How do you feel now??? No matter how you feel, I hope you feel something. Can you feel or have you taken self-control to mean having and showing no emotion??? We think when someone at church gets real demonstrative, they have obviously lost it. No, not necessarily! It’s called emotion, and many of our robotic, zombie-like, cookie-cutter Christians that have been manufactured at church all come out looking and sounding the same. I’m here to tell you it’s ok if you’re different and it’s ok for you to show emotion!!! If anyone should have life, it’s the Christian, who has The Life living inside of them (John 14:6).
If you still can’t tell which answer I’m leaning toward (facts, feelings, or fear), let me say some things that well, might make you feel something! How many times have you told your students that Jesus died for them on the cross, etc…………….. (I know, that’s one too many periods)! Did they look back at you with blank stares because you say it every week (maybe in the same way)? Try this on for size! Next time, ask your students if they “remember the thump as the nails were pounded into His flesh?” Ask them if they remember the look on Jesus’ face when he carried a heavy wooden beam up a hill with a back that was missing skin? Make it real, because it was! Make them feel something, because they should! Let’s not treat the most sacred event in the history of humankind like it’s just another day! They know about the cross, but do they really?
Some of you may be thinking . . . well, we have to make sure our students are not saved by emotion alone. True, and some of our students may not show much outward emotion, but, if the story of Christ doesn’t affect a student to some degree on the inside, I would question if the student heard the true gospel. Whether one expresses him or herself in bodily emotion such as in crying or not, I don’t think one can receive the gospel as truth without feeling something (I should say, someone) on the inside! We don’t just hear Jesus’ call. I think we feel it too! Let me explain with a story where I hope you are moved on the inside. I don’t know if the person in the story ever accepted Christ, but I do know his emotions were stirred. Ravi Zacharias recently asked a university student if God loved him? The student said no, because he was a bad person that did and thought bad things. Then Ravi asked the student “whether, years from now, he would stop loving his child if that child began to think and do bad things.” The student responded that “no, I would continue to love him.” Ravi then said, “If God is a father and you are his child, wouldn’t He continue to love you through both good and bad?” The student paused, his eyes filled with tears, and said, “I guess that makes sense.”
Isn’t love the greatest emotion? The parable of the Prodigal Son is a classic! Bible facts don’t ask you if you love them, but Jesus asks Peter three times the same question I think he asks of you and me, “Do you love me?”
Warning: Let me say some more graphic things to stir your emotions. Christian, you may be going through a hard time, but thank God you’re not going to hell! Speaking of hell, have you forgotten that hell is a real place where people who have not accepted Christ will spend an eternity in? How does that make you feel??? One time, Francis Schaeffer was explaining Scripture to a group of young people in his chalet in Switzerland. A young man spoke up and asked, “Dr. Schaeffer, what about those who have never heard the gospel?” The group waited expectantly for an incisively brilliant answer. But Schaeffer did not speak. Instead, he bowed his head and wept.
I had an old Sunday school teacher (a couple) tell me they would rather talk heaven into a person rather than scare the hell out of them. I agree! The Bible says “there is no fear in love” and that “perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18). There may surely come a time to talk fire and brimstone with people, but I wouldn’t start my conversation with a new acquaintance by saying, “you’re going to hell.” We need to be winsome when sharing Jesus and we don’t need to be the ones freaking out. To quote all the great rappers (and I’m not one), “Do you feel me?”