Youth Groups are Not of God.

Taking a long, very hard look at the 'church', in all the time we have been in 'churches' (including the 'churches' we grew up in), comparing scripture to the things that we have seen, we have come to understand some things very definitely. These things are not mere intellectual niceties, or finer points of argument about theology. Ideas have consequences – very real consequences – in people's lives, and the departure of the Body of Christ from a biblical outlook and operation has consequences for the lives of believers, unbelievers, 'church' bodies, and the culture at large.
  
When a person has a cancer in their body, it is death living in them. The more death lives in their body, the more life dies, and living becomes harder and harder. Eventually, it becomes harder to live than to die, and death reigns in that person dragging them down to the grave. Departure from biblical patterns is a cancer in the western 'church', and it produces death in our 'bodies'. And that death lives in the lives of believers, and in the corporate lives of our 'churches', robbing them of a proper life in Christ. Our culture, looking at the cancer wracked Body of Christ, increasingly decides that there is nothing there of real value, nothing that is really germaine to their lives, and increasingly dismisses us as irrelevant.

So, what are these things I am talking about?

For starters, Youth Groups are Not of God.

I know that is an extreme statement; after all, 'churches' put a lot of time, energy, prayer, thought, and finances into the 'Youth Program', and a lot of folks believe that they are called to be 'Youth Ministers', but what could it possibly mean that a seemingly indispensable part of contemporary 'church' life is completely absent from the NT experience? At one time we also believed quite sincerely that we were called to be Youth Ministers (and so we are, and so is every parent, but not in a Youth Group). I'd like to say I am exaggerating on this point, but I'm really not. The truth is that Youth Groups are "a plant that My Father hasn't planted" and the fruit really shows. Sometimes they are led by sincere but misguided genuine Christians (we've seen some of those) and sometimes they are led by charlatans (we've seen that too); but they are always, always, always a non-biblical extra-'church' organization cobbled together by people (as opposed to created by God), based on worldly forms and ideas (in this case from the world's schooling system). Because Youth Groups are unbiblical at their very foundation, they actually act to demonstrate, by example, from the outset, to the youth they are supposed to be discipling, that scripture is negotiable; and no amount of religious double-talk will equip those poor children to be able to parse that one out.

How then do I explain that God does work through Youth Groups?

A: God is not constrained to work only in ideal circumstances. God worked through Abraham to bring both the Scriptures and Messiah to the world, even though Abraham had some rather notable failures. God worked through Jacob to establish the promises given to Abraham even though Jacob was a deceiving schemer. God worked through the murderous intentions of Joseph's brothers, as Joseph said, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." God worked through the false prophet and sorceror Balaam to pronounce great blessings upon Israel and deliver a poignant and beautiful prophecy of Messiah. If God was able to accomplish His will in and through all these situations, then He is certainly able to work in the midst of a Youth Group that is lifting up the name of Jesus. But that doesn't mean that right was done, and the bad fruit that is borne in all these situations (Abraham, Jacob, Joseph's brothers, Balaam, and Youth Groups) makes that clear.

B: Mostly, He doesn't.
You may be jumping up and down at this point, especially as most 'churches' are unfortunately accustomed to having regular and painfully uncritical cheerleading sessions to hype the docile congregation up about "all the exciting things that Jesus is doing in our Youth Ministry," but the fact is that various studies by Barna and others have found the failure rate of church youth groups is somewhere between 75 to 85 percent. Personally, I think that's being rather generous! So yes, some young people may be sincerely touched by God through their participation in a Youth Group, but what about all the tomfoolery that takes place in the meantime? All the sin and sensuality? The opportunities for the flesh that are opened up in so many ways? What is mostly accomplished is that both to the few who do come to a sincere faith, and to the rest who do not, the scriptures are shown to be an irrelevant (or at least very pliable) thing that we do not really have to take all that seriously.

And that is a pernicious evil that permeates all the 'church'.