Emily+V’s+2017+OpEd+Article

Why I love Jesus but hate church
By Emily van Deinse

Church shouldn’t be something I have to endure. I want to love going to church. But I don’t anymore because in the attempt to revolutionize the image of church and appeal to young people, I think church has lost its authenticity.

Religious organizations have yet to find a happy medium in their appeal to young people. It’s similar to the “clenching” of the Puritans. They want to show a relaxed, no pressure version of religion while trying to maintain the integrity of what it means to be a faithful and God fearing servant. It is a balancing act that they can’t seem to master.

For high schoolers, there are usually two choices: youth group or big church. I don’t think either is very effective. In going to either, I’m either surrounded by teenagers that are only looking for a hangout spot or by older people that I don't relate to. Youth groups have been around for a long time as an attempt to draw in young people. I do think that they can be successful in helping students connect with God and with other Christians but from what I see and hear, these cases seem to be rarer and rarer. For every committed Christian that goes, there are many others that go just to hang out with their friends. This is a natural result. Church leaders are now trying to rebrand youth group as cool and hip instead of strict and stifling. This attracts a new crowd of people who don’t necessarily care about spirituality. And in all their efforts, I think that the church leaders are trying too hard now to grab and hold the attention of young people. For goodness sake, it’s a bit overkill when 50 year-old men wear snapbacks as an attempt to identify with teens. They are trying to sell the idea that they are the cool friend but to some extent, they lose their image as an authority figure. Do I really want to listen to a preacher who inserts “dude” and “gnarly” into their sermon?

I think this shift from intense to informal has caused youth group to lose some of its spiritual strength and substance. Youth groups have become riddled with cliques and social climbing and flirtation and drama, all of which create a toxic environment for growing in faith. The spotlight has shifted from relationships with God to relationships with Guys and Girls.

To cater to the wider audience that ranges that youth group now attracts, religious messages are vague and superficial. Sermons are watered down so that students don’t get overwhelmed and the same, hackneyed topics get recycled year after year.

This doesn’t foster spiritual awakening. Religious experience is personal. It doesn’t happen after listening to a broad sermon for half an hour. It happens on mission trips. It happens when singing worship songs and finding new meaning in the words. It happens when tears start falling during prayer for no apparent reason. It happens when I read and reflect on the Bible for myself. In these ways, I create my own religious truth, not one that is spoonfed to me on Wednesday nights.

But there is something to be said for connecting with religious support groups. You can meet other people who think like you and you can hold each other accountable in your walks of faith.

So that’s why I go to a small girls Bible study. I have a leader that I can trust and I meet other girls my age who are going through the same things I am. This environment fosters growth through discussion. Within this group, there are differences of opinion, but we all get a chance to talk about our own beliefs and interpretations in a respectful way.

It is this conversation that I think is so important in religion, what the youth groups are missing. Youth group has become impersonal but conversation is not. To read and to ponder and to come to your own conclusions while others advise you along is as personal as it gets. Students don't want to be talked at, they want to be included in the conversation.