When Programs Aren’t Enough, We Need Power
Sisters, we don’t need more programs - we need more power. Holy Spirit power.
Many churches believe their biggest problem is spotty attendance or missing age groups, particularly middle-aged adults, young adults, and children. So year after year, they ask the same question: “What are we going to do to bring the youth in?”
The solutions that usually get thrown around sound something like this:
The choir needs to sing songs they know.
We need more programs for the youth.
We need activities to keep them engaged.
We need opportunities for them to get involved.
To me, that sounds like we’re trying to trick people into faith through dead works.
I believe if we use the wrong bait, we shouldn’t be surprised when we don’t catch fish. I’ve heard it said that sheep beget sheep - but the same is true of goats. Goats beget goats.
Jesus took ordinary fishermen and made them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). These men did not conform to the culture around them, and they certainly didn’t rely on programs to draw people in. In fact, Jesus didn’t have senior ministry, middle-aged ministry, young adult ministry or youth ministry. That kind of segmentation is a societal construct.
Jesus and His disciples ministered to families. They ministered to the whole person. The triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) - ministered to tri-partite humanity: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Much of the work was personal and relational.
So let me ask: which one of the twelve disciples was the youth pastor?
None of them - because it didn’t exist.
The differentiation within the Body of Christ, according to Scripture, is differentiation by function, based on gifting. “And He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). When Jesus ascended, He gave gifts to the church “for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). The body of Christ includes the elderly, the middle-aged, and the youth - all together. God differentiated the church by function, not by age. And the chruch was differentiated by gender for discpleship purposes.
When Paul instructed Titus on how to minister within the church, the distinctions were based on maturity and gender - older men teaching younger men, older women teaching younger women (Titus 2:2–5). This was the discipleship model. God had a reason for it to be that way. He did not instruct Titus to appoint youth pastors to lead the youth - because youth need guidance before they can lead or instruct.
If youth ministry were God’s design, or if it were essential to His plan, Scripture would have told us. Instead, it is a cultural construct - likely birthed by people who didn’t want to sing the songs their grandmothers sang or worship the way the “old folks” did. Perhaps the old way was too convicting, so a new way had to be created. People who said, “God is doing a new thing,” in defense of their rebellion and their desire to be independent of God.
I regret to inform us that this way hasn’t worked because it stands in opposition to God’s design for His Body. One Body.
We cannot seek God’s blessings while refusing to surrender to God’s way. I cannot name and claim the promises of God if I am not aligned with His written plan for the ministry of the Holy Spirit through me.
That is why we don’t need more programs - we need more power. Holy Spirit power.
I remember once reading the back of a church bulletin and seeing the long list of ministries. I had to chuckle. There was a beautifying ministry - and I thought, you need a ministry to clean the church? There was a photography ministry - I must have missed that one in Scripture. Then there was a health and wellness ministry, and at that point I thought, now y’all are just making things up.
There were more ministries than people. And eventually, all of it came to nothing. Those ministries became stagnant and disappeared. Why? Not only because many of them were unnecessary, but because they didn’t align with the Word of God. I’m reminded of the words spoken in Acts: “If this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it - lest you even be found to fight against God” (Acts 5:38–39).
Recently, as the new year begins, I’ve been hearing about fresh initiatives aimed at bringing middle-aged adults and young people back into the church. Many of these efforts have not prospered in years past, because the issue is not strategy, but leadership and spiritual environment. To those ministries, I would say: stop putting the cart before the horse. Go before God. Get right first. Consecrate every part of the church to Him, and allow Him to release the necessary power.
After all, the Word says, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).
Prayer
Father God, in the name of Jesus, we acknowledge that we are living in a time of great falling away from Your Word and from Your church. Many have put their hands to the plow and turned back. Have mercy on us, Lord, and help us to remain on the path so that we may be fit for Your Kingdom.
We ask for Your wisdom in reaching people of all ages - not through human strategies, but through the power of the Holy Spirit working within us. Forgive us for segmenting Your Body in ways You never intended. Open our eyes to see Your vision for the church, and align our efforts with Your Word.
Forgive us for using secular bait while expecting spiritual fruit. Teach us to sow good seed that produces lasting fruit. We surrender our methods, our ideas, and our agendas to You. And when people come, help us to feed them with the pure, unadulterated truth of Your Word.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.