Reforming Students is about fixing the way we do student ministry. Here is the basic thesis on which every argument here is made:
Entertainment, easy-believeism, anti-intellectualism, and low expectations have all combined to infect student ministry. The result has been an over-emphasis on moralism and self-esteem, and an under-emphasis on the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In an attempt to keep the attention of teenagers raised by television and video games, the methods of student ministry that have emerged, contextualize in all the wrong areas. The foundational truths of Scripture and the emphasis on spiritual disciplines have been largely abandoned for the same simple, self-help, pragmatic approach that is the plague of the seeker-sensitive movement – except it has been supercharged with more energy, louder music, and excessive games. Students are not being taught and encouraged to love Jesus and cherish the cross as their ultimate treasure, but have been shown that a self-centered, hedonistic mindset is not only permissible, but actually what the Church is trying to replicate.
This is a crisis. For the sake of God’s glory, we need a reformation.
Amen!