Is Your Faith Intentional or Incidental?
Last Thursday night, during Stephen McAlpine's seminar on "How to live for Jesus in a culture that keeps changing", in response to a question, Stephen talked about the need for parents to live out an intentional faith as they seek to disciple their children in following Jesus amidst an ever hostile world. He talked about intentionally setting aside time in the week to gather with other families to go deep in the Word of God, setting an example and creating space for intentionally doing life together, sharpening one another "as iron sharpens iron".
This reminded me of Proverbs 22:6, which says:
"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."
Another version says, "Train up a child in the way he should go…"
What is "the way" in which we are training our children {and the young people around us)?
Are we being intentional about raising them up to follow Jesus? And in what ways are we being intentional?
Or are we drifting along with wherever life leads us? Are we allowing culture to dictate our priorities, meaning that any faith they might have is more incidental than intentional?
Are we doing them a disservice by focusing so much on setting them up to succeed in this life that we neglect to set them up well for the life to come?
The desire for success is not a bad thing. However, when it comes at the expense of physical and mental health, and especially if it comes at the expense of following Jesus, then I would argue that it is.
In a couple of articles this year, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has released several articles exploring young people's mental health. What they have found is rather disturbing.
According to one article, "nine out of 10 young Queenslanders have seen a negative change in their health and wellbeing in the past year."
Within our church, we have about 120 youth. According to the stat above, this means that all bar 12 of those youth have had their health and well-being negatively impacted over the past 12 months.
One of the key reasons for this breakdown in health and well-being is the constant pressure to perform and succeed.
Another ABC article highlights the discrepancy between what is "advised" and what most young people seem to be doing. Dr. O'Donnell suggests only participating in "one type of sporting activity and one type of cultural, music, academic-type activity as well." However, kids these days seem to be extremely involved in school and extracurricular activities, often having before and after-school commitments most days of the week, plus being busy on weekends.
No wonder the dismal state of the mental and physical health of our young people!
And the big question we have to ask is, "In the midst of all of that, how does faith and engaging with the church family fit?"
If we're honest, it doesn't. It just does not fit.
At the end of the day, faith and engagement in the church community become incidental. They become a side that we add to the main meal rather than being the other way around.
And that's not really what we want, is it?
So, how do we be more intentional? How do we start our young people off on the way they should go, particularly in relation to their faith in Jesus?
While it might look different from family to family and individual to individual, a primary way to be more intentional is first to ensure that we are modelling what it looks like to follow Jesus as a first priority.
At the end of the day, it begins with us. Do our lives reflect a faith that is intentional or incidental? Is engaging deeply with our church family a regular priority or something we do if we have time?
We are the example that our young people are going to follow, for better or for worse.
Telling them to read their Bible and pray…telling them how they should live…only goes so far. They need to see what it looks like for Jesus to be at the centre of our lives consistently. They need to see that he is not just an optional extra. Truly doing life as Christians in community together must be intentionally prioritised.
Otherwise, we are starting them off with faith as an incidental to life, and if that is the model we are setting them, then it is no surprise that many walk away from Jesus and the church community.
What are you doing in this space? Are you helping to model an intentional life of faith in Jesus and deep community within the church? Or are you modelling a life where faith is incidental?
Keep trusting Jesus,
Stephen
