Theology for Youth Ministry in a Suffering Cuba

Is there any particular necessity for theologically rich teaching in ministry to young Cubans? Let me give you a bit of context about why there is. 

I live in a country that is bleeding slowly. Every time people flee, the Cuban reality becomes more difficult. Any destination seems better than staying here. Although we understand that emigration is a human process, what is happening feels more like a stampede or like people escaping the sinking ship. 

Amid this situation, there is the church. The crisis of a system that has inoculated young people with fanatical, religious faith in its leaders leaves an entire generation of Cubans desperately searching for solid ground on which to cement their hopes. The church holds in its hands, as we were jars of clay, the message that can turn the nation back to God.

But what we are seeing from different Christian traditions is a disconnect between the future hope offered by the gospel and the one sought by Cubans without God in this world. Therefore, what is needed is an apologetic theological teaching, which forms a deep and countercultural faith in the new generation of Cubans: the genuine city on the hill. Below I share 4 turns that we should carry out, from what I have observed in different local churches and have been able to experience.

Contextualized Systematic Doctrine

When teaching doctrine (my church teaches the Westminster Shorter Catechism) and in preaching, we want young people to go beyond learning "sound theology" and to see it giving color to our national and individual realities. The intentional contextualization of a sound systematic doctrine is a powerful tool in the formation of mature Cuban believers.

• God is sovereign, not only in the mysteries of soteriology but in the darkest corners of the world, including Cuba, where he is also present and working.

• The radical depravity of the human being demonstrates the inability of any human political system to fulfill all of its promises.

• The doctrine of the sanctification of the believer sheds light and comfort on the daily suffering to which the Cuban believer is exposed.

Biblical teaching that locates the text and the audience within the great biblical narrative

In the search for alternative hope for these times we have lived through as a nation since the 1990s, Western individualism and the Christless Christianity of the prosperity gospel are an attractive refuge. The Christian faith then becomes fuel for success and personal fulfillment. In our experience, we find an ally in biblical theology, patiently showing the meta-narrative of Redemption as God's Story shaping our individual stories, and our deepest hopes and loves. 

Biblical imagery like the Red Sea, the desert, the sea and the storms, and Goliath are sometimes portrayed as obstacles for us to overcome. But we have conscientiously emphasized them as images and scenarios that point to the Redemption of God's people by His Anointed. We seek for Canaan, Zion, and Jerusalem to be defined by the context of the passage we teach, not by our wishful thinking. We insist that miracles and faith are concepts conditioned by God's Sovereignty in restoring His Kingdom, not instruments that make Him little more than our caretaker.

Powerful Application of Scripture

I seek to go beyond general precepts extracted from the text that I teach and strive to apply them to the most common situations of my audience. When I prepare to teach in my church, I close my eyes and think of those who will be present. When I am out of my local context, I ask in advance who might be present: age range, level of education, and marital status. This is a case study that illustrates the truth revealed in Cuban daily life, which is very different from what most believers experience, even in Latin America. It exposes our faults and shows us how we should live. 

I am sure that YouTube will have several sermons better than mine, presented by pastors more skilled and experienced than me. But my pastoral call amid our unique context gives added value to the applications that I can draw from the biblical passage for Cuban teenagers.

Eschatological Formation

The eschatological realization that the believer awaits is the manifestation in all his glory of the Kingdom of God; It's not America or a system change. The Promised Land is a covenantal term that Cuban religious culture, perhaps jokingly at first, has applied to the United States. 

The use of passages about covenant blessings related to the prosperity of the land to describe the USA, the pseudo-Christian narrative that has been built around the migrant, must be continually exposed as fallacies that substitute for the future vision of God restoring the entire universe. From this vision of glory, alien to any present reality, the Christian faith should be formed. 

It is difficult, but biblically correct, to establish our weekly meetings as a foretaste of heaven. Arrival, residence, or citizenship in any nation in the world should not obscure the reality of our heavenly citizenship. The formation of such faith in the Cuban allows those who emigrate to be clear about their loyalties and motivations and those who stay not to be crushed by the "condemnation" of continuing to live in "hell."

Conclusion

As Christian ministers in the Cuba, we are called to faithfully preach the Word of God. The formation of a generation of believers gives a faithful and countercultural witness to the gospel. This means an intentional and consistent effort to saturate our teaching with sound and contextualized theology, the framework of the divine metanarrative of the biblical text, a powerful application of Scripture, and eschatological training. It is the only way to completely transform an entire suffering nation with the Good News.