First of all, I don't think in our present culture that we're going to change the structure of youth ministry. Some elements of it are good, considering that overwhelmingly, if people aren't brought to Jesus before they are nineteen, they never come to Jesus. That's a scary thought. So I am all for major investment in youth ministry and outreach.

What I am not for is the template of youth ministry being little more than religious babysitting. I am not sure where it began, but the “sectioning off” of kids, while good for focusing teaching at a level they can grasp, has the added element of “getting them out of their parents' hair” a few times a week. Definitely not a negative for parents.

However, youth ministry is by and large considered a lesser ministry, is notoriously underfunded, and youth pastor positions badly underpaid. That in itself tells me that most people consider it not a huge priority, and youth pastors are generally treated like Junior Pastors - “Pastor Lite.” And if there were ever a time when youth outreach needs to be a priority and youth pastors prayed for and supported, it is now. We send our youngest and brightest into battle in the world, knowing they are able and their role in the military is essential to everything else. Why do we not give youth pastors the same support and backing? Frankly, many churches, while paying top dollar for adult pastors, would be happy to pay just a stipend or nothing at all to get someone to handle the kids, if they can get away with that arrangement. Does that seem right to you, does that seem like we think our youth are very important at all?

I have noticed a painful reality over the years, that once a young person reaches, say, 18 to 21, they are gently nudged away from the “youth nest” of fun activities, belonging and significance into “real church.” And the real world. College and career lie ahead, and likely marriage and family, and all of that is terrifying enough, but in addition, they have to deal with the loss of friends and that place they could call their own. It's terrifying, lonely and sad.

I believe it is here that we lose kids en masse. We set them adrift, without a plan spiritually or a purpose. We just expect them to grow up and adjust. After all, didn't we? (Or did we just give up all sense of spiritual purpose for a worldly pursuit of “the good life”?) But they feel abandoned. Worse, they cease to be very important to the youth pastor because they are no longer a kid. And that's the most painful of all. It's not the youth pastor's fault, it's in the nature of how we've segregated youth as a time-bound project that has an expiration date on its significance and influence. The Kingdom of God was not meant to be so divided - adults to the left, youth over to the right…we have lost the vital connection of explosive power that runs through the entire scriptures.

I believe we have left out an eternal principle that is Biblical, practical and life changing - a principle that can be the bridge to secure and further the destinies of our youth. It is the principle of spiritual inheritance and heritage.

The scriptures are clear about the command to “teach your children.” The Word of God was first taught parent to child, orally, at meals, before bed, working in the fields. It was the INFUSED WORD. Infusion is the key. It wasn't just handing someone a book and saying, “here, read this.” It was as intimate as Elisha laying across the dead child and literally breathing life into him.

The “mentoring” concept captures a little of this, but not nearly enough. Some have caught the idea of mentoring and “accountability” but it's much more. It is not just meeting weekly, going over a few verses and saying, “So, how's your walk with God?” It's committing to raising spiritual children, infusing God's life into them through prayer, love, the Word, example, play, work, wrestling with life, and mostly, TIME.

Elijah picked Elisha. Elisha burned his plow and followed him to learn, to “wash his hands” (a woman's job, by the way). By all Elijah said and did, he raised Elijah to one day “take his mantle” and carry God's anointing beyond his own life and time into the next generation. That was true infusion - true discipleship.

“Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab King of Israel, saying, `Thus says the Lord, Have you seen this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the Lord.' So Ahab said, `By whom?' And He said, `By the young leaders of the provinces.' Then he said, `Who will set the battle in order?' And He answered, `You.'” (I Kings 20:13-14)

Do you see the model I am speaking of? Old warriors and new youth leaders had no disconnect here. One was to set up the battle, show them what to do, and the young were to carry it out. Instead we have an army of adults who just want to do adult things, and kids who are just taught to have fun and learn a few things about God.

What I am today did not come as a result of merely study, experience and opportunity. Far from it. Nor did it come from sterile mentoring from men of God who were saddled with me because they had to be. No, God had chosen for me a succession of spiritual parents that infused me with life, and life-giving cornerstones that would become the foundation of who I am in God.

An 86 year old never-married Baptist lady gave me God's love and security in Him. A 50 something Christian man, by prayer and persistency, was the door that led me to the Place I found Jesus, and infused me with a love for kids who felt unloved. A young dynamic house leader infused me with the necessity and tools of evangelism, and an unswerving loyalty to God's Word. A giant of a man in Bible School taught me God's gentleness and faithfulness. A pastor-prophet from half a country away took me in as his own spiritually and taught me, by word and deed, by message and personal time with him, both prophetic truth and the human side of leadership. Two women from a city no one outside of Texas has heard of, infused me with tears, intercession, ministry principles and the longing for the deepest mysteries of adventure and intimacy with God. At every step I was infused with a richness and heritage that touches everything I now do. They, each of them, set the battle in order for me.

The spiritual bridge between generations has been almost completely washed out in the church. The message we give kids is, “Get excited about God!”. The message after they are no longer a kid is, “Get a good job, marry, have kids, go to church.” That's why we're losing college kids in multitudes. We start them on God's love and purpose for them, then shove them into the world, effectively castrating their purpose. Who has a plan for the long distance run? Who understands that church is not about maintaining a safe harmless life, but about a life and death battle of the ages against evil and to redeem the lost? Only then can the plan God gave to Ahab make sense. Like Ahab, those of us who are older and trained are to “set the battle in order” - explain the life goals of spiritual purpose, plan attacks against darkness, instill courage and determination, INFUSE the young with a LIFE-LONG mission in God!

We need men and women of God whose heart is willing to be the Elijahs who bring the young into the “school of the prophets”, the Elishas who will take the young and breathe their life, love and experience into them, the Pauls who will be bold enough to say, “Follow me as I follow Christ” and thus raise up sons and daughters in the faith.

We need youth who want more than a purposeless, worldly purpose who will seek after their Elijahs, who will through the years beyond “youth group” say, “Do not make me turn back. I will not! I want everything God gave you and more!”

Together, the older will set the battle in order and the young leaders will carry out the war firsthand. I may not see it in my day, but I pray for it every day. Already in some I know who are barely 20, I see it being birthed in them as they take the charge and say, “I can do that”, going on missions, volunteering to minister to the younger and even youngest. Why not? I myself at 17 took the immeasurable love and gifts given me by a spiritual parent SEVENTY YEARS my elder, turned back, grabbed hold of a young life four years younger and infused God's life and purpose into them. I have never stopped, though I am now 33 years older than I was then. And every life God blessed me to infuse with His life is in my life still.

This way of ministry shatters the illusion that only young, hip people can reach youth, or that the young can only relate to someone young, or that the older kids and older adults should just go out to pasture and sit in a pew. It shatters the lie that only after years of school and preparation can a youth be a minister. They are ministers and soldiers NOW if we take hold of them and infuse them with God's lifelong purpose and gifts to them NOW. This is my burden. This is my vision.

Though we do not see the battle now, the day is soon upon us when the war will be fierce and clear, and it will be a time of “all hands on deck.” Let's train the troops now and not be caught a spiritual nation with no army to fight the battle.