Don't Give Up and Quit!

I had a conversation with someone recently about the future of the church.  That person essentially said that it doesn’t have one.  That was not what this person wanted, but it was what they foresaw.  It was this person’s opinion that young people won’t come to church and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.  We’ve tried, lots of churches have tried, and nothing we try works.  Yes, there may be a few churches who’ve succeeded, but that’s the exception that proves the rule.  Young people just won’t go to church, so when the old ones die off, that’ll be it for the church.

Do you agree with that?  Maybe you do.  There is some truth in it, after all.  We have tried, ever since I got here and probably long before that, to get more young people in church.  And we’re certainly not the only ones who are trying.  And yes, nationwide, statistics indicate that younger people don’t go to church as often as older people do.

But while there may be some truth in it, I hope you don’t agree with that person’s solution, because that person’s solution is that there’s nothing we can do about it, so we should just give up and quit.  Now there’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if I’ve ever heard one.  Because if we give up and quit, the church certainly will have no future.

But you know, I’ve read through the Bible, and I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where it tells us to give up and quit.  In the Old Testament, God never tells the people of Israel to give up and quit.  In the Gospels, Jesus never tells his disciples to give up and quit.  In Paul’s letters, Paul never advises the early church to give up and quit.  You can read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and not once in there will you find God saying that God’s people should give up and quit.  It’s not there.  In fact, Jesus said the exact opposite.  Jesus did not say give up and quit.  Jesus said go and make disciples.

Now, Jesus did not say this would always be an easy thing to do.  And in fact, sometimes it’s not.  It takes time.  It takes patience.  It takes persistence.  And we won’t always succeed.  Those statistics I mentioned earlier are real.  It’s not an easy thing to make disciples of anyone, and when we’re talking about younger people, sometimes it’s even harder.

But it’s worth it.  If we keep at it, if we keep trying, we will succeed.  Not all the time, but sometimes.  And the times we do succeed will more than make up for all the times we don’t.  Jesus said there will be rejoicing in heaven over just one sinner who repents.  And if we can help somehow, in some way, to make that happen, you and I can share in that rejoicing.

Don’t think you cannot do this.  You know young people who aren’t part of a church.  Maybe they’re even part of your family.  You can talk to them.  You can invite them.  You can pray for them.  You can pray for others who are trying to reach younger people.  You can pray that God will show us how to do this.  You and I may not know how to reach younger people, but we know who does.  God does.  Pray for God to lead us, and pray for us to accept God’s leading.

Jesus never promised that anything he told us to do would be easy.  Life on earth was not always easy for Jesus, either.  But if we truly accept Jesus as our Savior, we need to do what Jesus told us to do.  That does not mean giving up and quitting.  It means going and making disciples, whenever and wherever we can.  It will be hard sometimes.  Sometimes, it may even seem impossible.  But it’s not.  Remember, with God all things are possible!