5 Ways to Make Your Student Indifferent to God

5 Ways to Make Your Student Indifferent to God by Mark Cox

In youth ministry, one of the hardest things I’ve had to experience is leading students into a growing relationship with Jesus, while their parents are doing the opposite. In a lot of cases, the parent wants the best for his/her teenager. It’s just that their definition of “best” might not match up with mine. There are some hard-and-fast rules to engage if you don’t want your teenager to care about God. The following are just a few.

1. Make sure their extra-curricular activities are priority over church. You should always make sure that their scholarships are intact, and that they don’t get kicked off the team. That’s definitely more important than their relationship with Christ and eternity, for that matter.

2. When your teenager screws up, ground them from church. Of course! If they don’t care that you take away their TV, cell phone, or friend time, hit them where it hurts. Take away church. Yeah – that oughta do it.

3. Don’t call them out when they need guidance. Always let them make their own mistakes. And if they’re about to do something super-destructive, it’s probably best that they learn on their own. Because learning it the hard way is always the necessary path, right?

4. Talk negatively about your church staff around your teenager. If your pastor messes up, make sure that you call a family meeting to roast him. You should definitely let your teenager know that people can’t be trusted, especially incompetent church leaders. Your teenager needs to know that trusting church leaders isn’t smart! If they don’t trust church leaders, there’s a small chance they’ll ever accept God’s direction in their life. And that’s the safer way to live.

5. Don’t model real faith. At the end of the day, the last thing you want to do, if you want your teenager to ignore God’s voice, is to follow it yourself.

Please know my heart on this issue. We parents need to be leading our families to Jesus every chance we get. Maybe it’s time to take inventory of who or what we’re actually leading our families to.

After all, actions speak louder than words.

Mark Cox is the Student Pastor at Indian Springs Baptist Church. Stalk him at his blog www.thinknextnow.com or on Twitter @markhcox.

Tips for Parents and High School Grads

Tips for Parents and Grads

Right now many students are preparing to head off to college away from home. Below are a few tips for parents and students as they prepare for departure.

Tips for Parents

1. Arrange time for goodbyes

encourage your student to spend some extra time with siblings. This can be a great time to take a trip together.

2. Make lists and go shopping

Help your student(s) think through their needs when they leave. Go shopping together. This can be a great time of bonding before they leave.

3. Communicate confidence

Many students can seem very confident but can be struggling inside with fear. Instill in them confidence in their abilities both past and present. Remind them of past victories in their life, especially when they thought they might fail.

Tips for Graduates

1. Walk a mile in their shoes.

Remember this is hard for them. Your parents will be struggling with confidence that they prepared you well. They have guided you for 18 years and it can be a little scary for them. Keep that in mind as you prepare to leave.

2. Look forward to family goodbyes

These last few months can be very meaningful before you leave. You will want to spend time with all your friends before you leave, but don't forget about spending time with family as well.

3. Be others-focused

Everything can begin to focus around you...when are you leaving...when can we get together...etc. It can be easy to become self-centered. Make sure you keep your focus on others. This is the Jesus Principle.

Hope these are helpful for you as you prepare for the great departure. We love seniors!

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