Biblical youth leaders/Instagram celebs and old virus of 'Simple faith'

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Years ago, I remember a person who used to think that leading the Youth in a certain direction will require certain techniques like Musical ability or Cool personality. When you seriously think, a massive amount of Gujarati Boys and girls are going across the Globe or in secular culture and they simply do not have an idea of why they see Christian World out there as so different from my Christian World back home. The reason is this : Virus of Simple faith has ruined our Gujarati Community.

• If you want a robust list for right leadership, we have to look into 1 Timothy 3: 1-7, and Titus 1:5-9. This list is for all those who are in ministry, not just youth leaders. But, there is a strict configuration for selecting the right youth leader :-

You find these words, "Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach....He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. "

• And you will see a similar list in Titus. Important need for today is those people who are above reproach and able to teach. That means doctrinally sound people who are living real life examples should be in the Youth ministry. This will also affect all other leadership apart from youth, however I am targeting new trends of youth leadership which are emerging in our churches.

1] The Virus of Simple faith in Gujarati community :-

It was said many times, Gujarati people have this massive problem of 'simple faith', and it is everywhere. I call this virus, because it is everywhere in our Gujarati mindset, whether here or in USA or in UK, I have often found that our people are so satisfied with basic Bible knowledge. So much so that certain people think 'theology' is a taboo word for the Church. They neglect theology, they sideline those who preach certain theological truths. They do not have any training to think theologically, and they do not allow our new generation to follow theologically. Old Pastors think that if people know theology, their pulpit will become weak and they will sound dim before an equipped crowd. So they are always afraid to let the people go deep into theology. I must say openly, our Gujarati Churches are submerged in a power game by certain position holders, and they will still infest people with this idea of 'Simple faith'. Our youth also have been told the same thing, no matter wherever they go and wherever they involve, everyone is systematized in this simple faith ideology. Simple faith has this idea of 'not getting deep into the Bible'. We are often told, "You are alright and it does not really matter if you do not go deep, all that matters is basic information". And I have actual real life testimonies where youth leaders were discouraged from preaching deep theological truths of the Bible. 2] New leaders should emerge with the right theology :-

Titus 1:9 "He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it."

In the midst of all this chaos, I find there is tremendous need for Theologically equipped youth leaders and new generations who should speak against this Simple faith culture and come out and fight for Hard Truths of the Bible. As you might notice, there is a certain amount of political structure which everyone needs to face once they come up with the right theology. I believe with all my heart, as Satan is pro-active when we start right Bible teaching, he will bring in people who are not allowing it to happen. Yet, when young people are strong in their Doctrinal stand, no authority will be able to overthrow God's truth off the map. We as Reformed coalition have this passion, of bringing Reformed Truths in our Limited Gujarati mindset. If the Roman Empire was not able to stop the Reformation, our Church Politics will not be able to stop it as well. Fires of Reformation have already started to ignite young minds here in Gujarat. Lot of times, what we need at the end of the day is 'Trust in God's Truth' and be willing to stand for it.

3] Youth ministry is not about personality/ Music / Dance and Picnic :-

You might have heard this old rhetoric, Sensitive Music For Sensitive Boys & Girls, and next week you get 70 people in the crowd. Well that is the problem, the form of appetite you create by providing this kind of food will also affect Youth mental cravings for certain levels of entertainment. Remember, if you serve chocolate candy, they will create an appetite for Chocolate candy. If you serve solid food, they will create an appetite for solid food. No matter, kids will move away, but those who want to grow will stay. We have youth leaders who are very shallow in their Biblical understanding, but they want crowd so they feed chocolate candy teachings, with no doctrinal convictions and full with Musical ability. The criteria that we have selected at large is 'dynamic personality , fame, status, dance, music and in certain churches political strength of the person is considered for him to be selected as youth leader. We have youth leaders emerging with very basic understanding and a lot of publicity goals. All dynamics are useless unless the person is Theologically equipped. If you do not know the Bible, you will give to the youth what you have and that is 'Personality'. Unless a person is equipped with Hard Truths , he can not run the youth ministry just with the help of skinny jeans and cool shirts.

4] Instagram celebrities :-

In recent times, we have what I call 'Instagram celebrities' who want to be heard and get some fame without having any fire for Holiness in their real life, and without any Biblical example to the real world. It is one thing to get famous on Instagram and Facebook and it is another thing to remain on social platforms for taking stand against anti-Biblical trends and spreading the Truth. Anyone trying to spread fame on Facebook will often do the things to do self-promotion , achievements and quote themselves by their own statements. Again, I am not saying Facebook or Insta is a really evil thing, but with what attitude we are making our ads on facebook is very crucial. Let God be the judge, you ask this question : Am I posting any Truth or Posts about God, to draw attention to myself? Or Am I posting things to let people know the Truth and defend the Truth?

Instead what I see today is exactly the opposite, Person with highly sophisticated youthful vibes, goggles on and rustic personality will quote underneath their picture Mr. and Mrs. so and so and they think this way is fantastic to draw the crowd. The truth is they want to draw the people to themselves and not the truth. In reality Truth is being used as a side-tool to a publicity stunt. Let me get this straight at the end 'Dancing ability, Music ability or personality is not prerequisite for Youth leaders but Biblical Understanding is'.

May we come out of this shallow system and Gujarati Culture of Simple faith, and excel in deep things of God and select the men who know the Truth.