The Problem: Once children pass the Sunday school age of about twelve, little by little they trickle away from the church. Pressures from the world mount up, including tuition classes to excel in studies and night courses to move up in the career ladder and financial income.

In most middle class English language congregations in Sri Lanka we hardly see young people crowding the services – unlike in any spiritually dynamic, non-charismatic, Bible centred, well educated churches in Europe, USA, etc.

     Most congregations are aging with 70% or more of those found in the pews being above 40 or 50 years of age. It is often rightly said – it is a shame on the church – that the majority of the Sinhala and Tamil speaking congregations throughout Sri Lanka (including Colombo) largely consists of what is socially classified as the poor class or low castes. There are things dramatically going wrong and we truly hope that the clergymen and concerned lay people face the reality and seek biblical solutions to what is a serious leak and weakening inside the churches. Many charismatic and Pentecostal churches grow drawing spiritually starved people from other churches, who keep moving depending on the latest star personality around, so that as someone put it, we Christians are good at playing musical chairs – while our spiritual power and impact on the society and nation remain negligible.

      Previously parachurch organizations such as YFC, HCF, YWAM, CC and FOCUS tended to take many of the teenagers and University students away from the church and build their separate ministries and power bases based on these people. But now even these groups are numerically depleted or competing with each other, or again mostly raising numbers from the poorer crowd. The danger of such class/caste bound groups leads to the raising of a whole generation of rice Christians as with most modern missionary work in Sri lanka. The church remains weak and only able to sustain itself because of old investments in expensive lands (mostly the colonial churches), foreign income or in the ability of some preachers to get people to empty their pocket with a hope of a better material return.

Three Key Points

In this brief article we do not seek to give a complete solution to the problem, nor an analysis of why this rapid decline in the number of teenagers and those in early 20s inside the church is happening.  The church needs to organize meetings of leaders to look deeper into these issues before we are left with a very aged church except for poor, or low class congregations (the church cuts across these discriminating lines when it is truly filled with the power and wisdom of God.) The following are three points address the actions needed to keep the young people inside the church, leading them to a real experience of salvation in Christ and growth into sacrificial and courageous disciples of Christ.

Build strong, personal relationships with your teenage children at homes and in churches. The teenagers are normally  a very insecure group of people, seeking both heroes to emulate as well as  secure and happy relationships and an extended family. Some reasons why the ISIS (Islamic State) group is successful in attracting young people to join them are (a) it opens avenues for young people to become part of a larger family, accepted by a senior group of men and women who have a cause to fight and die for (ii) they are accepted into this group, and are expected to be sacrificial and heroic, not wimpy, “what is in it for me”, or the success syndrome type of teenagers. Create common ground to stand and work with them, not merely a second class entertainment or an ego-centred group (as many church groups have become) but serious, challenging, demanding sacrificial discipleship to the risen Lord Jesus Christ. In families there needs to be that daily meals of eaten together, at least once a day, and Bible reading, singing and praying together. Often the quality of life they look for is: good fellowship, good songs, and good food.

Honestly face up to and address from the Bible the pressures and opinions their peer groups and media impress upon them. Much of Christian leadership today that globe trots is a deeply selfish Christian leadership which is weak, easy living and wimpy compared to, for instance , the immensely self-sacrificial leadership of the early church fathers, Reformers and Bible translators of the King James Version (e.g. Chrysostom, Polycarp, Latimer, Tyndale, Whitfield,….) The young people need to look afresh for models from the Bible and church history, and to frankly look at the alternatives to what the ideas and life styles the world presses upon them, self-destructive ideas such as : What matters is what makes me happy. If my friends are OK with this, it is OK for me. Life is short, have a fling. What matters in life is success, wealth, ease, beauty and power (sadly this is what the majority of us are also living for- why blame the young? The older folk need to examine or own lives, abandon sin in our lives (greed, lack of daily prayer and Bible reading, non-payment of income tax, self-seeking priorities, over charging for our services, misusing God’s Name for power and prestige, lack of concern for the interest of others, etc.) ,  and we need to bring forth the fruits of repentance.

Bring the teenagers up to be God dependent and not self-dependent - this is what we see in the narrative were David faced Goliath. David was zealous for the Name of God and was thoroughly God dependent. We older people need to honestly acknowledge that we are fools in ourselves, we have failed and sometimes played the fool. The young need to see us living a life of dependence upon God, acknowledging our sin and helplessness, or desperate need for Jesus alone and the word of God wrought change: our lives turned inside out by the Holy Spirit of God. We need to cultivate and focus primarily on their hearts – a heart that is rooted in the fear of the Lord our God and delights in His law and praise – rather than focus on their grades, beauty, popularity and extracurricular achievements.

Dr Paul Hoole is a Professor of Electrical and Communication Engineering. Both his father and maternal grandfather were ministers in the Anglican Church. He holds an engineering doctorate degree from the University of Oxford, and is currently working on a doctorate thesis on the Cross of Christ in the 21st century. His wife Chrishanthy is a medical doctor. They have three children.