The Dangers Of Youth Groups

Where to start? Well, to begin many kids in youth groups can't explain the basics of the Gospel. And this partly because they are not being taught the Gospel nor do many a youth want to hear it. They want to hang out and have fun and this goes for the believing youth and unbelieving youth attending these groups. They tend to drive the direction of that ministry. What I mean is that many "youth pastors" will observe that if they are teaching core biblical truths and the kids get bored, leave and not return- their youth groups get smaller and smaller while their natural tendency is to cut out the amount of teaching on doctrine (if that even happens) and replace it with more "activities." Thus resulting in just another local hang out spot with a Christian spin to it. For many teens it even replaces church. They love to go to youth group but dread going to boring church. The danger is that these gatherings feed the desire to be entertained for the Word of God and a gathering of God's people to have meaning.

Have you ever wondered why "un-churched" (non- believers) will go to youth group and not church? It's because they view these gatherings as a place to hang out and have fun rather than to learn about the cross of Christ, while at church they will (should) hear about the Gospel and not have "fun." Many a "youth pastor"  will take note of this and simply spend more time with games than with any teaching of God's Word. I have never seen any enticing for youth group attendance with a statement like this: "Come attend our youth group where our gatherings are centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Come learn and grow in it" or "Young people come and learn how Christ endured the wrath of God for sinners, reconciling to God all who repent of their sins and believe in Him, as He rose victoriously from the grave and is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding behalf of those that are His, having bore their judgment on the cross and crediting to them His righteousness." Sounds kind of silly for a youth group announcement, doesn't it? Yet that is the foundation of any gathering of God's people (A brief note: I am a convinced believer in family integrated worship). Therefore, how can any group gather in Christ's name and not know that or be able to express it and desire to grow in it? I believe it's because those gatherings have become about everything but the Gospel and it's other related truths; instead of the "youth pastors" leading the youth, the youth are leading the "youth pastors."

If the main attraction of youth groups is socializing, fun, while sprinkling in some moral biblical truths, we have drifted way off course. Of course the same can be said of church. If our churches main attraction is anything other than Christ Himself, as made only approachable in the Gospel that bears His name, we again, have lost focus. My fear is that we forget what Paul thunderously wrote, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith”(Ro 1:16–17). We don't have to get fancy to attract people to the Gospel. The Gospel attracts people. The Spirit attracts sinners to the grace of God. We have the blessing and privilege of delivering that message. I am reminded of Robert Robinson, the author of that beautiful hymn Come Thou Fount. While he was a young hoodlum, with some of his rebellious friends, he want to hear the great preacher George Whitefield in order to heckle and mock him. Whitefield's text for that day? Matthew 3:7-  "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Mt 3:7). It was from Whitefield's preaching this text that the Spirit of God regenerated Robert Robinson so that he repented and believed on Christ, calling upon the name of the Lord. The Word of God is that powerful. It turns mockers into lovers of Christ.

Far be it from us to compromise any gathering of people under the name of Christ in order to keep a ministry. Our foundation is Christ and Him we proclaim as the faithful Christians of old did- "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Co 2:1–2). I believe far too many youth groups are either trying to lay a different foundation other than Christ or they are trying to build on that foundation with wood hay and stubble.

I am not the only one with this concern Tom Chantry and Phil Johnson have both written good articles dealing with this subject. Here is a quote from Chantry's article:

In other words, I spent four years among kids whose religious background was in your church - a position that was both challenging and distressing. I came to realize that your church’s youth, most of whom would classify themselves as “Christians,” actually comprised the greatest Unreached People Group I have encountered in my years of ministry. This was a conclusion that I reached quite reluctantly, and one which I hope you will seriously consider. Many of those kids had no more idea of the basic facts of the gospel or of its implications for sinners than do the members of the remotest tribes in places American Christians still think of as “mission fields.”

You can find both articles here and here.


For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—  each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done (1 Co 3:11–13).
Soli Deo Gloria!

For His Glory,
Fernando