Answering Common Objections to Theological Teaching in Youth Ministry
This is the second of a month-long series about the role of theology in youth ministry. Many youth workers suspect they should be teaching theologically, but they either don’t know how to begin and question whether it’s worth the extra effort. YPT hopes this series, “Teaching Theologically in Youth Group,” will persuade you to get started. Part One highlighted the necessity of teaching theologically at youth group.
Assessing what someone wants versus what they need can be a challenge. When it comes to ministry, there are a lot of things people want, but what do they really need? Youth Pastor Theologian would like to contend that students need a solid theological foundation upon which to build their faith. As Paul states, pastors must “teach what accords with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).
Why Theological Teaching is important?
Everyone is a theologian. Theology, defined as the study of God, is not only for the academics or elites. Theology is for everyone. In You are a Theologian, J.T. English and Jen Wilkin describe how theology is for all people when they say, “All of us have words about God. We can grow in our ability to make those words accurate and good, edifying for others, glorifying to the One they describe”. Here they rightfully describe how theology essentially helps us fulfill the Great Commandment (Mark 12:29–31). To rightly love God and others, we need right theology.
Theological teaching is at the heart of Paul’s ministry. He shares his philosophy of ministry in Colossians 1:28 when he states, “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we might present everyone mature in Christ.” If we want to see our students grow to be mature in Christ, then their greatest need is not growth in sports, education, drama or anything else that a school provides. Their greatest need is right theology. They need the consistent warning and teaching that we find in God’s Word to be mature.
Objections to Theological Teaching
As youth workers who are committed to discipleship, I hope we can agree on what is stated above and the importance of theology for the Christian walk. But we will face a variety of objections as we pursue theological depth in student ministry, whether from parents or youth leaders.
Objection 1: “Students need Jesus, not theology.”
To rightly know Jesus is to practice theology. The heart cannot love what the mind does not know. Just as I cannot love my wife without knowing her, so we cannot truly love Jesus without rightly knowing Him. When we rightly know Jesus, we come to rightly know the theological doctrines of God (Trinity and Attributes), sin (Hamartiology), salvation (Atonement), the church (Ecclesiology), and end times (Eschatology). We simply cannot answer the basic question, “Who is Jesus and what difference does He make?”, without exploring these other doctrines.
Objection 2: “Students need practical lessons, not theology.”
When doing a quick search of the churches and youth groups in my area, it is surprising how many describe their teaching as ‘practical’. I agree that we should be practical in our teaching, but theological education should always drive to personal application. In each of Paul’s letters to the churches he focuses on theology before getting into practical matters. For instance, Colossians 1 teaches on the theology of Jesus’ supremacy, then he goes into practical matters about how to be established in the faith because of His supremacy. Similarly, Ephesians 1–3 establishes the right theology of God’s grace, then dives into the practical matters of “walking in a manner” worthy of that grace (Ephesians 4:1). Paul teaches us that right theology leads to right practice, and this should be our mindset within our own youth ministries.
Objection 3: “Students need easy theology, not deep theology.”
Theology can indeed be deep and challenging; but our students can think deeply and do hard things. We should not diminish their capacity for depth. Many students today are learning how to build their own app, how to code, the number of students taking AP classes have increased, and some have even learned how to start their own business! Instead of lowering the bar, maybe we should raise it. J.T. English writes this in his book, Deep Discipleship, “People are leaving not because we have given them too much but because we have given them far too little. They are leaving the church because we have not given them any reason to stay… discipleship is about giving people more Bible, not less; more theology, not less; more spiritual disciplines, not less; more gospel, not less; more Christ, not less.” Deep theology is what will build lifelong disciples, not easy theology.
Objection 4: “Students need unity, not theology.”
Theology divides and often people don’t want to study it because they are concerned it would bring about controversy. Yes, there are different interpretations on baptism, communion and worship styles and there have been many divisions over these matters. And yet, these are important for the health of a church. It’s encouraging to remember that, “Everything about our faith proclaims, ‘Unity!’ There is one body of Christ. There is one Spirit who gives us new life. There is one hope to which we were called. There is one Lord Jesus Christ, one faith in that same Lord, and one baptism into his name. There is one Father overall. And Father, Son, and Spirit are one God.” To rightly know God brings us into union with Him and union with each other. We joyfully celebrate our unity as brothers and sisters in Christ, despite the theological disagreements that arise while discussing theology with students. In this regard, theological disagreement is not the same thing as division.
Objection 5: “Students need relationships, not theology.”
It has often been said that ministry is about doing life together. Examples can be found by primarily looking to Jesus who lived with His disciples for a few years before His death and resurrection. Relationships are important to ministry but they are not the goal of ministry. The goal is to proclaim Christ (Colossians 1:28) in order to make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). We do this by being relational, but not in opposition to theology. It is important to know your students, their dreams and family background, as this will help us bring the gospel into their context in a way that is not only understandable but shows them that we care for them. After all, theology is not merely present during our sermons or lessons, but also in our daily lives and normal conversation with students. Theology also informs the way we answer students’ questions about life and faith and friendships.
Objection 6: “Students need fun, not theology.”
Students are in school as their full-time job. They feel the constant pressure of school and planning their future that they don’t always have time for fun. Therefore, some parents and students expect youth group to provide this fun environment for them. All of this is true and we should incorporate elements of fun into our student ministry; but fun must not be the primary focus or goal of our student ministry. Complaints about fun usually mean students are craving more meaningful relationships with the people there (after all, boring games with people you love is a lot of fun - and the opposite is true, too!). Seek to be relational in your discussions around God’s Word, which sometimes means having fun with one another. Theology is not the enemy of fun and fun is not the enemy of theology.
Studying theology is vital to ministry. Without it you will simply never make disciples. Our thoughts about God need to be conformed to Scripture, and God uses Spirit-indwelt people within the Church and its ministries to help us in this effort. Although there are many wants that students have that we should recognize, may it never trump their greatest need: to know Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).
Recommended books around these subjects: “Lead Them to Jesus,” “Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry”, “Deep Discipleship”, “You Are A Theologian” and “Sound Doctrine”.
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