The Responsible Church: Schools a Missional Focus
There are 67,000 schools in America with close to 25 million middle schools and high school students in them. Not every community has a para-church organization that is focused on young people. But, most every community has a church.
The mission of the EFCA is to glorify God by multiplying healthy churches among ALL PEOPLE. When we think of “all people,” this of course means people of all gender, race, and socio-economical class. But, it also means of every generation. Therefore, being a healthy church, in part, means being what I call is a Responsible Church, a group of Christ followers to take seriously God’s call to make His name known among the next generation (Deut. 6; Psalm 78; Psalm 71; Exodus 3:13-15; Deut. 6:4-15; Psalm 71:18; Psalm 78:1-8).
Therefore, what does it mean for a church to a Responsible Church?
- First of all, I think it means we take responsibility for challenging, equipping and partnering with the families in our churches in the faith formation of the young people that are already part of the church family.
- Of course, a Responsible Church also equips their young people by allowing them to be shaped by the Story of God and join God in the reconciling of the world to Christ through a self-giving love and the proclamation of the gospel.
- But, it’s more than this. Being a Responsible Church means that the adults of the church adopt the middle or high school closest to the church building and seek to learn from the administration and faculty what their greatest needs are and seeking to mobilize the church family to meet the needs over the long haul.
- It means calling the church to corporately pray for the young people in the community and for all those who serve the youth of your community.
- It means honoring teachers, coaches, counselors and other community leaders who invest into the next generation.
- It means sending out missionaries from your church to actively pursue the youth of your community that are on the very fringe in order to bear witness to the incarnation of Christ by pursuing young people by going to where they are.
Being a Responsible Church does not simply mean we have a youth ministry with a handful of volunteers who are willing to care for “our” youth. Being a Responsible Church is one who, as a gospel community, takes seriously the call of God to take responsibility for the next generation.
ReachStudents is part of the Campus Alliance which consists of over 40 organizations and denominations who are in a relational network that embrace a vision of serving and reaching out to every high school and middle school student at every campus (in every community) in America, sharing the love and truth of Jesus Christ.
For a great resource that will inspire, encourage and provide you with ideas/tools in reaching the next generation check out www.everyschool.com. Be sure to sure to watch their “start here” video that gives you a tour of the website.
What do you think it means to be a Responsible Church? What things are you already doing to take responsibility for the young people in your community?
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