Kevin De Young schreibt in seinem Aufsatz “The Secret to Reaching the Next Generation”, wie aus seiner Sicht die nächste Generation zu Christus geführt werden kann. Er meint vorab: Nicht etwa durch eine ausgeklügelte Strategie. Vielmehr:
- Leidenschaft: “Your services can have a lot of diffeent looks, but young people want to see passion. They want to see us do church and follow Christ like we mean it. … People need to see that God is the all-consuming reality in our lives.”
- Liebe: “The evangelical church has spent far too much time trying to figure out cultural engagement and far too little time just trying to love.”
- Heiligung: “My congregation needs me to be humble before they need me to be smart. They need me to be honest more than they need me to be a dynamic leader. They need me to be teachable mor than they need me to teach at conferences.”
- Wahrheit: “When it comes to reaching outsiders, bold, deep, biblical preaching is not the problem. It’s part of the solution.”
- Gott: “I beg you, don’t go after the next generation with mere moralism, either on the right (don’t have sex, do go to church, share your faith, stay off drugs) or on the left (recycle, dig a well, feed the homeless, buy a wristband). The gospel is not a message about what we need to do for God, but about what god has done for us. So get them with the good news about who God is and what he has done for us.”
Aus: Kevin DeYoung (ed.) Don’t Call it a Comeback – The Old Faith for a New Day. Wheaton: Crossway 2011. (21-32)
