The mere mention of the phrase is sure to get a rise out of most people involved in ministry. More than likely, you’ve formed an opinion on the subject after seeing it done right, or perhaps seeing it done completely wrong. Whichever side you’re on in this debate, the question is being asked and will continue to be with each generation to come.

Can the church hold onto its values, while still being relevant to a world that is constantly moving away from them?

In no way do I claim to be an expert on this subject, but my years in youth ministry (or student ministry depending on how relevant you’re trying to be) have afforded me some insight. I only ask that I may humbly submit my opinion for your consideration.

Now to answer the question…don’t you hate it when someone asks a question, only to run from it the entire article? In short, I feel the answer is yes. The church can hold to its values, while still being relevant to a world that is constantly moving away from them. I’ll attempt to approach the subject from both ends of the spectrum.

TOO RELEVANT: We’ve all seen it done. They try so hard to connect with this generation; they’ll seemingly stop at nothing to appear “cool” and “hip”. For the record, using the words cool and hip immediately disqualifies you from being either. You know that guy who keeps trying to work Lady Gaga and Lil’ Wayne lyrics into their sermons to gain street cred. They’ll usually start their youth services off with a popular YouTube video that all their students have seen a year ago when it was actually new.

Last year I was at a youth event put on by an organization who for years has preached against television and cinema. To my surprise, the service started with a video presentation of how special effects have changed through the years in film. Which, I must say, was extremely cool, but what significance did it have to the service?

The danger in trying too hard to be relevant is more than likely the message you’re sending to your kids is this: The world is cool….really really cool. Let me ask you this: if your youth service was one of your students, how would you try to help them? We’ve all had to counsel with a teen who was was trying to mimic the world in every aspect of their life. They seem to want to be as close to the world as they can be, while still maintaining a spiritual walk with God. How does your youth service differ from this? Are you trying to pattern your music, media, and subject matter after what is cool by this world’s standard, but still hope to have something spiritual happen in the end? Maybe if we can look through this with this lens, we can see our folly to be “cool” for the sake of being cool. It’s been said a million times: “The message doesn’t change, but the method needs to.” And while I agree with this, I must warn that we be careful not to let the method become the message. I fear we can get so carried away with the latest method, that the message of Christ gets watered down or completely drowned out. Then, our students leave thinking saying , “WOW! That was really cool!” but when asked, struggle to give an idea about what the point was.

NOT RELEVANT AT ALL: Possibly without meaning to, this group projects that the world is so evil, that a good Christian must completely disengage from it to be holy. If you find yourself in this group, I’d like to start off by saying, I believe your intentions are well meaning. I believe as much as anyone that we should come out from among them and be ye separate. This is not the debate.

It’s been well said that the problem isn’t the ship being in the sea, but the sea being in the ship. This is definitely true, but I feel most people use this as an argument to dismiss any cultural ventures to reach the lost. Let’s keep with this ship in the sea analogy. Obviously, the church is the ship and the world is the sea. So what is the ship’s purpose, I ask? If it is to sail on safely to the other side, with no other objective, then by all means, sail on. However, we find that the ship has a very special purpose for being in the sea altogether. You see, there’s fish in the sea. Jesus declared to his first disciples, that he would make them fishers of men. How effective can a fisher be if he has no knowledge of the fish or the water it lives in? The best anglers not only pinpoint the lure that is most attractive to the fish, but also learn how to present it. Should I use a top water jig? Maybe I should drag a worm across the bottom. The fact is, we’re all trying to catch fish…but some of us are using different bait and presenting it in a way that ensures a catch.

The fact is, most churches are already engaged in culturally relevant evangelism. However, hopefully it’s relevant to the culture that the church is in. Understanding this, we know we’ll only win certain types of men if we only evangelize with one method. So maybe we should rethink what is relevant the next time we knock another churches style. If I’m expected to win lost teens, then I must be a student of youth culture. The same is given to the man trying to reach the farmers and oil riggers of our world.

We understand that God’s Word is timeless. It never changes. Nevertheless, culture is fluid. It’s always changing. Not only that, there is not one culture that is widely accepted in this generation. We live in a fractured culture. It will also change by geography. What works for downtown church in the major city will not work for the country church in the rural location.

Paul said, “I am made all things to all [men] that I might by all means save some.” Paul was a man of study. He had a seemingly endless knowledge of the scriptures. But everywhere he went, he found ways to present the message to different cultures. Even to a group of polytheistic pagans. I think we should follow this biblical example. First, by becoming students of the Word of God. Then, by becoming students of our surrounding culture. By doing this, I believe, we’ll insure our student ministry will always be relevant.

Rev. Kenny Chessor serves as Louisiana District Youth President and is also the Student Pastor at Voice of Pentecost in Baton Rouge, LA

Goals for Every Student

• 100 Meals fasted in one year | 2 meals per week
• 100 Chapters of the Bible read per year | 2 chapters read per week
• 100 Testimonies/Share Christ | 2 testimonies per week
• 100 Dollars given to Talents | $2 per week
• 100 Minutes in prayer per week | 15 minutes per day = 91.25 hours in a year

Each student will receive a weekly tracking chart at this year’s NYC. Completion and signature of the Pastor will result in a certificate and free NYC 2011 Unitas T-Shirt. (Must be present at NYC 2011 and submit signed tracking chart in order to get T-Shirt.)

National Goal

We are targeting 200 churches with an average of 10 young people per church to be 100% committed. By doing this together we will nationaly acheive:200,000 meals fasted (66,666 days fasted)200,000 chapters read (168 times read the bible through)200,000 testimonies given/sharing Christ (potential of 200,000 added to church)$200,000 raised for Talents10,400,000 minutes in a year (173,333 prayer hours)Please visit: www.apostoliccrusaders.org for more information.

Personal Tracking Chart

Download the weekly personal tracking chart here.

This summers’ Apostolic Crusaders Youth Corp missions trip to Jamaica was a great success! We created new friends, drew closer to God, and had a lot of fun. From the very beginning of the trip all the way to the end, the Lord kept his hand upon us. I am so thankful God allowed us to make this journey and for of His blessings he continually poured out while we were together.

The young people who attend this trip were outstanding and represented the Apostolic Crusaders in a very Godly way. They were also willing to adjust to the increased temperatures, hard wooden pews, cold water showers, bugs, and the even managed to stay in tune with God when we lost electricity during service! My wife and I are so thankful for the group the Lord brought together for this great mission to Jamaica. Going into this trip we prayed that God would send people who loved one another, strived for unity, and had a heart for missions. Thank you Lord for answering our prayer! Every Pastor who sent a young person please be assured that your young people represented their home churches with honesty and character. They were such a blessing to us. I hope they all returned home with and increased burden to do a great work for God.

Before I go any further I want to say thank you to a few individuals who made this trip the success that it was. I want to give a huge thanks to Dr. Joe Nelson. Without Dr. Nelson this years’ AYC World Mission would not have been possible. Thank you Dr. Nelson for the great sacrifice you made to be with us. Also, I want to say thank you to Bishop Ivan Evans who is the presiding Bishop over the International Apostolic Ministries of Jamaica. Bishop Evans and his staff, especially Sister Covaline, made our stay in Jamaica perfect. I am forever grateful for their outstanding hospitality and for their lasting friendship we made through this trip. Finally, I want to say thank you to our chaperones, Bro. Darrin May, Sis Julie May, and Evangelist Michael Maupin. Thank you for coming with a burden for young people and for missions.

Many of you reading this article may wonder what exactly goes on during an AYC mission’s trip; therefore, here is brief overview of our 6 day mission to the island of Jamaica.

On July 17th the first group of AYC missionaries arrived at 10:45 AM and the last group landed at 8:30 PM. Needless to say I spent quite a while at the airport.  As people would arrive they were transported over to the Montego Bay church for some rest, fellowship, and KFC. Once all 37 of the AYC missionaries arrived we loaded up in four buses and drove two hours into the Jamaican mountains to Santa Cruz, which served as our base camp for the week. Upon our arrival into Santa Cruz at the Waterloo Apostolic Church we were greeted by a welcoming committee fit for royalty. At Midnight there were 100 Jamaican young people singing a welcoming song as we all exited our vehicles. At that point I knew that this was going to be a special week for our young people.

Bright and early July 18th we came back at the Waterloo church for traditional Jamaican breakfast, which was quite the experience for some. After breakfast we all gathered together in the sanctuary for worship and a lesson on Cultural Awareness by Dr. Nelson. Later that night we drove two hours to a youth service in Granger Hill, which we will always remember. As Dr. Nelson began to preach about the calling of God, you could feel the Lord’s presence sweeping in so strong. I truly believe God spoke and renewed callings to many of our young people. I hope and pray every young person who felt this call will answer and become everything God has called them to be.

On July 19th it was off to the YS waterfalls, after our Jamaican breakfast of course. We arrived to YS the same time Hurricane Dolly was passing over us, so it was raining like crazy. However, this did not slow us down at all. Many of the guys took advantage of the swing ropes and jumped right in the waterfall, while others sped through the rain forest on a zip line. Needless to say, the rain did not keep us from having a blast. After everyone ate and cleaned up we arrived back to Santa Cruz for a prayer meeting. What a powerful time!

Sunday July 20th was perhaps the greatest day of the trip. Our day started at 9:30 AM with Sunday school. Bro. Michael Maupin taught Sunday school to the adult class with only five minutes notice and did a fantastic job. Other AYC participants were blessed with the opportunity to speak, sing, play, and teach the children in children’s church. Around 11 we came together for the main service where the AYC choir sang and Dr. Nelson preached a great message about being sealed with a promise. Concluding the morning service, we had lunch and began to prepare for the next service. Beginning at 7:30ish, remember we are in Jamaica, people started entering the sanctuary for a time of worship and you could just feel the expectancy in the air.  Bro. May and I gave a brief sermon and then worship began again, which did not cease until 12:30AM.  The awesome spirit of praise and worship we experienced during the service is one that will not be easily forgotten. I believe we all left with a commitment to “step up” our worship once we returned home.

If I could explain what heaven would feel like I would have to say it would be very similar to what we experienced on Sunday night. Different cultures coming together to stand in awe of a living savior. I watched our young people from the United States and the young people of Jamaica come together as one to worship our one God who loves us no matter what color our skin is, how much money we do or do not have, or what country we live in. I wish all of our young people from the United States could have been there to experience such dynamic praise and worship.

Monday July 21 we took a tour of the Island Apostolic Churches throughout the island. At every stop we would hold a short prayer meeting to bless the churches and the pastors of each church. Some of the churches were located in the country, some in the city, and some on mountains but the one thing they had in common was the awesome presence of God we felt at each of them.

After a long day of riding we returned back to Santa Cruz for our last dinner together with the wonderful saints of Waterloo. Following dinner Bishop Smith invited us to the Myersville church for a going away party. What an awesome and entertaining time we had there.

On July 22nd we packed up and traveled back to Montego Bay to take hot showers, experience air conditioning, and eat American food. I have never seen people so excited to eat Burger King in all my life. Some of our AYC participants were literally running.  The jerk chicken, pork, rice and beans were good but us Americans have to have our fast food fix from time to time. I think the staff at Burger King was a little scared.

Once we finished stuffing ourselves we went to see the beach and decided just to relax back at the hotel in Montego Bay. Around 9:30 we gathered back together for one last meal together.

My wife and I had such a wonderful time with everyone who attended this summers AYC missions trip. We are already looking forward to the upcoming AYC trips to the Apache reservation in December and to Cuba next summer. (For more info please visit the link for Foreign or Domestic Missions)

God bless you all and thank you again for the support you all have shown towards the Apostolic Crusaders of the ALJC and towards our Apostolic Youth Corp. Please join us on a future endeavor in Missions…. Ya Mon!