5 He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, 6 so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. 7 Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.   Ps 78:5-7

Psalm 78 provides an inspiring, yet challenging history lesson for God’s people. Over and over again, the Israelites faced a generational crisis when it came to teaching their children about God. We read of very few success stories in the Old Testament of Israelite faithfulness to God in back-to-back generations. This must get our attention.

Today we face the same crisis with our children. What are we passing on to the next generation? Are we passing on true discipleship of Jesus? Or are we simply passing on church culture and traditions? What will the church look like in 30 years?  

Generational discipleship certainly presents a daunting and humbling task for all of us. Out of necessity, our church leaders, John and Barbara Porter, moved us to an “all hands on deck” youth ministry philosophy in Ft. Lauderdale two years ago. I do not believe we knew then we were heading towards “family-based youth ministry”, we were just doing everything out of a spiritual desperation to save our kids.    

At that time, we began to see a crisis as well as great opportunity. The statement of Jesus in Matthew 9:37 that “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” had a very sobering ring to it. We had only five teen workers to take care of more than 100 high school and middle school kids. We had no full-time teen ministry couple. Also, the handful of disciples in the youth ministry struggled to be set apart in such a large group.   We faced the question that many of us have encountered in our churches, “How do we reach all of these kids for Jesus?”

Immediately, the Porters became a persistent voice of alarm for youth ministry in South Florida. For two years running, nearly every staff meeting, church announcement, and sermon from pulpit has included the call for people of all ages to get involved with the next generation of the church. It has been redundant, yet very effective. It goes a long way for the congregation to hear over and over again from a senior minister the importance of youth ministry. 

No longer could we only rely on our 20 year-olds to teach our teenagers the heart of Jesus. We needed workers from all the adult stages of life to spiritually influence our kids and prepare them to be faithful, fruitful disciples.   After much persistence, passion, and prayer, God began to inspire more and more members of the church to catch a vision of helping our youth ministry. 

It all started with the parents (Deuteronomy 6:7-9).   A group of parents decided that it was not enough for them to simply “drop off” their kids at events and hope for the best. They were determined to get directly involved and with the Porter’s guidance, formed a youth ministry shepherding group.  

This shepherding group currently meets bi-monthly to disciple one another, to discuss how to help the other parents, and to dream together on how to save as many teens as possible in our community.   Additionally, the shepherds are a consistent presence at many of our youth ministry activities in a protector role.  They have also started and maintained weekly early morning prayer times for the fathers.  One parent formed a Sunday School Bible Talk for high school students and has seen more than a handful of his class become Christians.  

After some initial resistance, many of the teens have responded positively to parental involvement in the youth ministry. Amazingly, God blessed the hearts of the shepherding group as 11 of their own children have become disciples.  In fact, several of those youth shepherds helped teach and convert each other’s kids – truly a team effort. Overall, 33 teens have made Jesus Lord and become disciples in the last two years!

Our mentoring program has encouraged adult Christians from all walks of life to get involved with our teens while staying in their adult Fellowship Group (Bible Talk).  Mentors are called upon to regularly disciple one child, but are not expected to attend youth activities in the traditional “teen/youth worker role”. Married and single Christians of all ages have volunteered to mentor (disciple) our teens and many have become disciples from these efforts.

Meanwhile, God’s momentum has doubled our youth worker group from five to ten in the last two years. The youth workers are excited about the support they are getting from the ministry staff as well as the parents. Our youth workers include four heroic single women and three married couples with young children.   My wife, Amy and I were hired in January 2007 by the Broward County Region to lead the high school ministry and we love it. 

When young people are inspired about God, especially teens, other parts of the body reap the benefits. This year God used the teens to spawn a new campus ministry in our city. Two of our youth workers, Alex and Melissa Forges, took a small group of teens who were dual-enrolled at the local community college and started a campus ministry. In less than a year, the new teen group on campus has baptized three college students!

There is much work still to be done here in Ft. Lauderdale, especially in our community. So many kids in our high schools are lost and suffering the effects of sin and broken families. This summer, we celebrated our first “Gentile” (non Kingdom Kid) conversion in several years while a second “Gentile” teen was baptized this fall. Additionally, a growing number of kids not raised in the church are now coming to events and studying the Bible. Our teen disciples are getting hungry for the Great Commission and to see their friends at school become Christians. As God has led us to family-based youth ministry in Broward County, we hope that we can now offer a new spiritual family for many young people in our community.