How Young, New Believers are a Detriment to the Church, by Remy Dou

Have you ever met a young, new believer, the kind that speaks with fire in his eyes? His mouth salivates at the sound of God’s work. His lips move like lightning setting the words he preaches ablaze. And it seems that those he speaks to (mostly the young) are either intimidated or inspired. Have you ever seen this person a few years later, broken, worldly, away from God?

A few years ago I met a young man like this. He was passionate for Christ, and his passion carried desperation. He must have been seventeen or eighteen. Once, I saw him preaching in front of a crowd of over two-hundred teenagers. There were tears in his eyes as he admonished the wayward youth. We spoke about his plans to go to seminary. He didn’t go alone. There were others with him infected with a zeal for the Lord. It’s been almost two years since we spoke. Last I heard his new favorite past time includes drugs, women, and alcohol.

Why is it that so many of us have heard this story before? It seems like the good news we heard of someone coming to Christ has become another reason why the Church loses credibility.

When I was seventeen I came to know Christ in a supernatural way. I was so excited. A friend of mine encouraged me to pray that God would continue to feed the fire that was raging within me. In hindsight, I now understand why he asked me to do so. In fact, he even warned me: ‘many times people start out excited for God when they first experience Him, but then they lose it.’ My friend was used to the pattern. So, did I fulfill his dreadful prophecy? Not right away.

I was frustrated that almost everywhere I went I kept running into blaze Christians. It was heartrending. I felt out of touch with the Church, like I was alone. I ended up finding a church whose young people made my fervor look like pudding night at the local hospice. I joined these young people as they went out into the streets and evangelized. I saw gangsters shaken by the Spirit of God. I saw older people bow their heads in public and confess Jesus Christ as Savior. And we would worship God and give Him praise.

But the fire burned out. The leaders that I admired fell into sin. Some of them started to act worse than before they met Christ, including myself. How many times had I prayed that I would not end up like the ones I had seen or heard of fall? But I did, and the Church suffered for it.

I saddened and disappointed many of my friends. Some doubted whether or not I had ever been a Christian. And because I had been a Christian long enough I still acted like one superficially. But that only made matters worse. I directly caused people to stumble. God knows the extent of the consequences of my behavior. And like Ravi says, the least of the pains that I caused were the ones I inflicted on myself.
The Church bears the burden of the sin of these young leaders when they fall. And if it wasn’t because of the truth of the revelation of Christ’s love on the cross I suspect hypocrisy, false conversions, and fallen Christians would have stamped out Christianity as we know it from the face of the earth.

How do we react as a body of believers? Many of us chuck it up to our enemy’s credit. It is the enemy that leads them astray, is what we conclude. And I can agree that is partially true. Others say that these young individuals represent the stony soil in Jesus’ parable. That when they heard the Word “they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away.” (Matthew 13:5-6) And though these things partially explain what is going on, I also partially blame myself, the Church.

We make two major errors when we encounter these young people: 1) We fail to embrace them 2) We make them leaders. I remember speaking to one of my mentors and he looked at me and told me that he remembered when he had been as excited as I was to preach the Word. He implied that I would eventually float back down. I writhed inside and promised to myself never to become as complacent as he appeared to me. Four years later, I was telling another friend that had recently come to Christ the same hurtful words that my mentor told me. I alienated this new, young believer because I failed to embrace him.

Thanks be to God, that there were others in the Church that did embrace him and nurture him as the Holy Spirit matured him, as the sun came out to scorch him. They stood over him and provided a shade. Our faith may have matured, but we’ve forgotten what it is like to be passionate. Young believers are looking for someone to relate their new feelings to. Let’s stoke the fire that runs deep within us so that they do not go looking elsewhere for companionship, because the enemy will try to present it. Let us not despise their youth. (I Timothy 4:12)

Yet, these same older believers that shun the passion place the youth in leadership position because it seems like no one else in the church or youth group is willing to take on the responsibility. But the Bible clearly warns not to place new believers in leadership positions (I Timothy 3:6). We fail to understand that God will provide or show us that He doesn’t need to. We take matters into our own hands and end up hurting others as well as that young man or woman that should have been instructed before becoming the instructor.

I close with this analogy. If you have ever tried to light coals for a barbecue you know that you first have to get a few coals glowing red, hot embers. This burning coal is usually covered with grey ashes and placed underneath all the other fresh coals to help light them and keep them burning even after the lighter fluid evaporates. Let us be those deep burning coals. Though there may be no flames on our surface let us support the fresh coals until they start burning deeply. And let us be stirred by the wind of the Holy Spirit so that our embers would glow brighter.
A few weeks ago I saw a fresh, young man, on fire for God, preaching the Word. Someone mentioned that he preached ‘as if he’d been doing it for thirty years.’ Let us come underneath him to ensure that he’s still preaching thirty years from now.