Student Ministry: Are We Just Playing War?

Although spiritual warfare is real, we must be careful not to role play Christian living like children playing pretend games. When I was a boy (admittedly multiple decades ago), my friends and I would make pretend guns, run across pretend battlefields, fly pretend planes and take pretend casualties. We were children playing a serious game, totally oblivious to the fact that real soldiers get wounded and die.

The Christian life can be full of joy, peace and hope but we are still in a real war. Perhaps we have lulled ourselves into believing we have no enemy. Ministry should be fun and fulfilling but we must never forget that the battle is real. I wonder if this scenario might be one of the reasons we are so surprised when someone in our ranks becomes a spiritual casualty.

I am not suggesting that we become skeptical or paranoid about our Christianity. But I often have to remind myself that the devil is real, sin is dangerous, and the world is not my friend (James 4:4). I am to be in the world but not of the world (John 15:19). I am to be vigilant because my enemy would devour me (1 Peter 5:8). I am also to rest in the fact that “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (John 4:4).

Our teaching should equip students with the use of spiritual armor and the Word of God. Our goal is to prepare students who know the truth and own their faith.

In the military, soldiers are pushed to reach further than they thought they could ever go. They are assisted in the maturation process because the consequences of not being prepared could be deadly. And they are expected to excel. Could this work in student ministry?

Consider the following questions as it relates to your student ministry:

• Do you have a strategy for equipping your students for spiritual warfare?
• Do your students know that this is a battle field and not a playground?
• Do your volunteers realize the importance of their investment?
• Do your students know how to use the truth of the Word of God?
• As your students are dropped into a society lacking moral moorings, are they equipped to stand firm because they own their faith?

This generation responds to a challenge. They are attracted to a cause. They want to be pushed not pampered. This generation may be the greatest generation yet and we have the opportunity to prepare them for the battle. Do you have a battle plan?