What's the secret to reaching the next generation? How do we connect with young people and see them won for Christ? That's the question Kevin DeYoung addresses in an excellent new book Don't Call it a Comeback. He explains that, as a pastor of a church in a university town, he is frequently asked what strategy can be employed as a fool-proof means of evangelism. The answer, he says, "is easier and harder than you think."
It's easier because we do not have to be completely up-to-date with all the latest fads and fashions. We don't have to watch the popular T.V. shows, listen to the latest music and use all the cool websites to be able to connect with young people.
However, it's harder, because "instead of being "with it", we need to be "with him". We have to be close to God and then be close to people. That way we will reach them.
Kevin DeYoung offer five headings and I suggest you get a copy of the book, or download the first chapter for free off the Kindle store on Amazon, and read them in more detail. He says we need to:
Grab Them with Passion
Win Them with Love
Hold Them with Holiness
Challenge Them with Truth
Amaze Them with God
What DeYoung says resonates with me because, too often, I deceive myself into thinking that I need to be like the world if I want to reach it. But all that does is give me licence to do the things that I want to do and leads me away from Jesus. Rather, we need to be like Jesus and in doing so we will reach people in a way that the latest fads never can.
I don't think, when it comes to it, that people really want, or need, to hear about the latest movie, or the latest song. Nor do we need to employ the trendiest evangelism strategy there is in order to see people saved. What the world really needs is a church that stops playing games with the truth which it has been entrusted with and offers it in love to people that desperately need it.
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