My heart was broken.
I felt overwhelmed.
I felt nauseous.
I had just spent 2 hours reading through 259 anonymous confession cards of 7th-12th grade students.
This summer I spent 4 weeks volunteering at a Christian youth camp. During one of the weeks, the camp pastor had the students write down the sins they were struggling with and leave the slips of paper at the altar.
After the service, I asked the pastor if I could categorize them, so we could report the aggregated data back to the student’s youth pastors. I was shocked at what I read.
My high school years were from 1994-1998. When I picked up the stack of papers, I had no idea how much things had changed for high school students in the last 15 years. Of course, I knew things were worse but I hadn’t seen it first hand…until now.
Here’s a sampling of what the youth wrote:
“Texting dirty pictures of myself.”
“Pornography. I can’t stop. I hate myself for this.”
“Thoughts of hurting someone physically.”
“Lying to almost everyone I know.”
“Can’t stop cutting.”
“I tend to disrespect myself when it comes to guys.”
“I’ve had suicidal thoughts.”
The top 10 struggles for guys and girls broke down like this:
Source: 259 Total students from 7th-12th grade.
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123 Female Students |
% Struggle |
|
1 |
Bad Friendships/Being a bad friend |
46% |
|
2 |
Lying/Deceiving others |
44% |
|
3 |
Disobey parents/authority |
44% |
|
4 |
Running from/straying from/not trusting God |
42% |
|
5 |
Cussing/dirty language |
41% |
|
6 |
Gossip |
37% |
|
7 |
Lust/Porn |
28% |
|
8 |
Hatred/anger |
27% |
|
9 |
Sex/going too far |
23% |
|
10 |
Jealousy |
20% |
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|
136 Male Students |
% Struggle |
|
1 |
Lust/Porn |
51% |
|
2 |
Lying/Deceiving others |
50% |
|
3 |
Cussing/dirty language |
49% |
|
4 |
Disobey parents/authority |
34% |
|
5 |
Hatred/anger |
32% |
|
6 |
Running from/straying from/not trusting God |
30% |
|
7 |
Bad Friendships/Being a bad friend |
21% |
|
8 |
Stealing |
17% |
|
9 |
Selfishness |
13% |
|
10 |
Sex/going too far |
12% |
And keep in mind, this sampling is composed primarily of “church kids.”
Do Christian single adults struggle with some of these same issues? Of course.
How do we overcome our own habits/sins?
Step 1: Ask God for forgiveness.
Step 2: Confess your addiction/sin to another believer so the healing process can begin. (James 5:16) Isn’t it crazy that healing can only begin when you confess to another believer, not just God?
Most of us stop at Step 2, because we feel we have to be completely free from our sin or addiction before we can minister to others.
Step 3: Don’t let your testimony go to waste. Find someone to mentor/disciple and let your testimony of God’s faithfulness encourage and spur him or her on.
If we wait to get “cleaned up” before we start ministering to others then we are falling into the #1 trap of the enemy – feeling unworthy for ministry and thereby becoming an ineffective Christian.
Did you know that 87% of Christians make their decision to follow Christ before the age of 18? At the age of 21, it goes up to 97%.
To put it another way, once a person reaches 21 there is only a 3% chance they will surrender to Christ as an adult.
If you have even a slight stirring of compassion for the younger generation, do something about it immediately. Eternity is on the line. We don’t have to have our “act” together before we can be used. Thankfully, students want our presence more than our preaching anyway. The majority of the time, ministry is about showing up; God promises to give us the words at the moment they’re needed.
Finding and serving in your church’s singles ministry can be important, but have you considered God is calling you to serve students during this season of your life instead? There certainly is a need.
*Photo credit: Ava Weintraub Photography
