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Aug 09, 2022 08:00am

Christian Young People vs. Back-to-School Realities

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“There’s 104 days of summer vacation, and school comes along just to end it.”

Those words are the opening lines to the theme song of a popular cartoon from when I was younger. I have never counted to see if there are actually 104 days of summer vacation, but it sounds about right to me. And in the mindset of a kid, I can imagine it does feel like the only thing school does is come along just to end the fun.

In just a few weeks, this summer will be drawing to a close. Kids of all ages will be gearing up to return to school. Some will be going back to college. Still others will be experiencing their very first semester out on their own, starting as a freshman in college.

As a youth pastor, I’m sympathetic to those getting ready to jump back into school. For three months, I have been able to give the students in my youth group undivided attention. I have taken them to camp and SOAR and I have taught them in vacation Bible school. During those three months, there was no school to interfere with those events. No secular influence from that part of their lives.

Now, some of them who have just been saved or just found a new fire for serving God are going to be returning to a place where many of their friends might have nothing to do with God, where some authority figures and even peers might be antagonistic to faith. Their summer bubble of faith, if that’s a thing, is about to pop.

And I have to trust that their faith will endure.

But I don’t want my students to live in a bubble. No holy huddle for these teens—I want them out in the world, sowing seeds of love and sharing their faith. At the back of my mind is the knowledge that there might be a greater influence now drawing them away from the things of God, but equally present is the knowledge that they have the opportunity to live out the new commitments they made over the summer. Satan will certainly try to use secular methods to quench that flame, but that is not an inevitability. I believe that those students are capable of holding on to what they have learned.

Am I concerned about attendance dropping, about extracurricular activities taking the place of youth group? Maybe a little, but historically I have seen attendance go up during the school year compared to summer. In fact, I see this as an opportunity to grow the youth group. Students seem more inclined to bring their friends on a Wednesday night after school than they do during the summer.

There will be challenges ahead that were not present in the summer. Especially for those used to being surrounded by Christian friends who are going to secular colleges for the first time, there will definitely be a rude awakening in store. The world won’t play with kid gloves, and neither will Satan. That’s why it is so important for every individual to be grounded in their faith even from an early age.

I can’t stop summer from ending. Truthfully, I don’t want to. The big summer youth events are a blast, but the real growth often happens during the consistency of the school year. There are tradeoffs, yes, but I know God will move in big ways.

So, yes. School is coming along just to end summer vacation. But that ending marks a new beginning, too. For my part, I am excited to see what that beginning brings, and I hope God moves greatly through the hearts of newly believing and newly committed students across the United States and the world as they go into their very own mission field—and battlefield—for the first time in this stage of their spiritual walk.

Great things are going to happen. All that remains to be seen is which of these precious young souls will allow themselves to be the vessels God uses to do those great things.

I can’t wait to see it.