(This article is a translation of most of the first four sub-sections of notes for an address that Pastor H. Folkers gave during a February 1993 conference for officebearers in Friesland, the Netherlands. The translator abridged the first page and the last sub-section of his notes, in view of their detailed references to the Dutch situation, which are not directly applicable to our situation.)

Introduction⤒🔗

In preparation for the conference I mailed out to the various church councils the following four points in writing:

1. Too often the older generation talks about young people in terms of problems. They easily associate 'young people' with pubs, a disinterest in Christianity, and forget the many good things about them. For that reason, I request that you ask yourself the following in preparation for the conference:

• What have been recent experiences of a positive nature in my work as an officebearer in my contact with the young people? (Think of some specific points.)
• What have been recent experiences of an alarming nature as officebearer in my contact with the young people? (Not what I have read about them or what I have heard about them from fellow-office­bearers.)
• Do these specific experiences correspond with the general picture that is often given of Reformed young people?

2. If you desire to understand the young people, you must try to enter into their way of thinking and living. That is why it is necessary for officebearers who minis­ter to young people to read what they read, including the materials they use for their Bible study, young people groups, etc.
    
3. For more information you can contact the teachers at the high schools and colleges where our young people attend.
    
4. For my speech I'm making use of the sketch that I wrote for the young people league and the special issue of CJB, entitled, "Being Young in Church."¹By means of these materials I propose a course of action for working with the young people.
   
   ​You can approach the topic from two angles.

• There is concern that young people follow a path that we have not shown them, and now we wish to hear how we can get them off that track.
• There is concern about the inability of the officebearers as to how to minister to young people, and now they ask for advice on how to arrive at conducive contact with our young people.

I consider both approaches timely and legitimate. They start from practice, even if they represent only part of practice. It is that practice we wish to look at during this conference, not merely at some theory, which is not my strong point.

The important thing is: Can we help each other along so as to get that which we need — to get a clear picture of the nature of the problem?

The first question is: "Are there problems?" The answer is self-evident: Of course, there are problems; otherwise, we would not talk about this topic or write about it. The second ques­tion is: "Have we properly charted the prob­lems?" We must answer this negatively. True, there have been inquiries, and many signals have been given out, but I am not aware of a truly thorough inquiry into the thought processes and life habits of Reformed young people. The consequence of this void is that we cannot properly gauge the seriousness of the problems. To mention a couple of examples:

1. There is concern for the conduct of young people. Experience shows, and inquiries prove: They are often not motivated to be involved in the youth group activities, they keep aloof in catechism classes, they hanker after a worldly life style: modern music, spending time in pubs, etc. The question is: "Who says that that is how they are? Is it true in general? Does this occur more in one congregation than in the other? If so, are there any causes that can be pinpointed? How serious are the consequences for later on in life?"
    
2. There are also young people who want to be involved in the youth group activities but who go through one disappointment after another. Whatever they organize is unsuccessful. Their desire to bring about wholesome change and renewal flounders because of obstruction by others, with the consequence that they run away to activities other than the youth group in the congregation. They get involved in music groups or find refuge in evangelical circles.
    
3. For that matter, I question whether we can speak at this point of a youth problem. When you make an inventory of the complaints, then you should make a comparison with the activities of the adults. For instance, what percentage of boys (young men) are part of the youth group, and what percentage of men are members of men society? To what extent are young people having personal devotions (Bible study and prayer), and to what extent are the parents spending time studying Scrip­ture and in prayer? How many young people prepare themselves for the youth group Bible study by studying the Bible passage first at home, and how many parents study the Scripture passage at home before they go to men's society or women's Bible study? How much time do young people waste in meaning­less amusements and going out evening after evening, and how much time do parents waste in watching TV and talking in a trivial and silly manner when they visit friends? The conclusion might well be: young people are very much like their parents and behave very similarly. The only difference is that the young people do so in a different culture which upsets us older ones.

Central Task of Officebearers←⤒🔗

It is the task of officebearers to help young people to make their life a life of serving the Saviour. To accomplish that task successfully, I'd prefer not to start negatively from the concerns we have about our young people.

Rather, the starting-point is to be God — the God of the covenant. He is also the God of our young people, who from their childhood on joined Himself to them by baptism and Chris­tian upbringing. That is how they receive their place in the church. That is also how they come under the pastoral care of the officebearers.

Some decades ago we didn't need to con­sciously dwell on this. Children walked in the footsteps of their parents more often than not. They hardly knew otherwise. Their horizon was the world of home and their immediate neighbourhood. Our open society has brought about change in this. Home, with the world coming in from all angles, is no longer an enclosed home. And there are no more boundaries to the village or neighbourhood, because young people easily shift their boundaries by means of money, time and easy transportation. If we, therefore, wish to moti­vate our young people to live a Christian life style, we need to be able to convince them along different lines from some decades ago. Some decades ago we could say: "This is the way it is to be, and everybody does it that way." This will no longer be convincing and this circumstance is often very demanding on parents, especially if they don't take the effort to work through these questions for them­selves. After all, it is needful for persons to be clear on why they live the way they do, before they can share it with a new generation. In other words, we must motivate and define our living by faith more specifically than we did some decades ago. If young people see how genuine our faith life is, then they will be more readily to follow that same path.

It is, therefore, first of all the task of officebearers to point out these things to the parents. Family life is of crucial importance for later developments. I repeat what many others have said: "What we experience as a problem regarding the youth, turns out to be in reality a problem motivated by the parents." Reflect on this in all honesty and examine your own personal faith life. The Form for the Ordination of Elders and Deacons says that you are to be "examples to the flock" (1 Peter 5:3). This puts matters in a very practical light. To that end, it is advisable to take up contact with other youth leaders: teachers at the Christian high School, youth group leaders, or catechism teachers.

Would you like me to be more specific? Then ask the following questions of yourself: "Do I walk with the Lord? Do I include God in the practical things of life: in my attitude at work, in my choosing of TV programs?" Do I ever say after Bible reading at the dinner table: "Son, what a touching story, what a mighty Father in heaven we have!"? Do you ever show something of your emotion, of your sadness, of our personal struggles? If not, train yourself then to share. Don't merely talk with the young people about topics that don't affect you personally, for instance those topics that we quarrel over in church and in articles in the church papers. For our young people are not interested one bit in those things. Rather, talk with the young people about things that touch your heart and will and desire, about heart-felt things. If you train yourself in this and bring that into practice in your contact with the young people, then they will experience that you are genuine, that you are who you are. And that is of crucial importance for the nurturing of their faith.

Place the Young People in Church←⤒🔗

You cannot say that we have hardly any time for our young people. On the contrary, the Reformed Churches have invested a great deal in their young people. Our young people know this very well. Sometimes it even comes across as a challenge that is unattainable: "There is so much that is required of us in church." That burden becomes only heavier when they think of all the other duties: doing lots of homework, the pressure to have the Friday evenings and Saturday evenings off for going out, the need to make lots of money. Then amidst all those pressures they lose sight of proportions. Sometimes they set incredible priorities: "Pastor, can you please close catechism five minutes early, else I'll be too late for the ball game." So there are many activities that they're involved in: school, youth group, catechism, part-time work or jobs, watching TV and having time off with others. And yet many young people say: "I feel somewhat like an outsider to the real things in church." Or: "It's all so formal in church, and they do everything in accordance with the Church Order. I wonder if they actually need me. For instance, on Sundays the ministers tend to preach over our heads, and in family visiting they do put some questions to us all right, but it seems the elders are not truly interested in what is deep down in our hearts."

I believe that young people who say such things make a point we need to con­sider. The tight structures of our church life turn them off. We tend to structure church life in all sorts of details. If I may be permit­ted to exaggerate some­what: when we encounter a problem we establish an organization, relegate our problem to this organiza­tion, and then we think we've solved it. Within that organization they will have to work at that problem. Perhaps that is how our young people experience all our organiza­tions with regard to youth work. Since we do so much for them, they'd better appreciate it!

But children grow up so that they may learn to give their hearts to God. That is why we take them to church at an early age. That is also why we want them to make profession of faith in the congregational worship service. It is within that congregation that they have their place. If that place is not given to them, they long for it. They long for a place where they can grow and develop, a place where they can adapt, at least to an extent, in accordance with their own ideas, where they can have some responsibility of their own. If we don't allow them to have that place, they give up. That is sometimes one of the reasons young people turn their back on church, a reason for which we are co-responsible.

Well, if we want to do something about that, then youth work must have a place in the midst of congregation. I would like to plead for the congregation as a whole to become more involved in the youth activities or, the other way around, for youth work to get an opportunity to manifest itself in the midst of the congregation. Bas Buchner put it well in the ND,² when he wrote:

You feel at home where persons

1. understand and accept you;
2. take your ideas seriously;
3. make good use of your gifts.

To put it differently, young people in the congregation should function in the same way as children do in a family as they grow up. As Reformed people we readily say: children are children of the congregation. But we are less conscious that there they must fully function with all their gifts and abilities.

What can you do about that as Officebearer?←↰⤒🔗

1. Keep pace with what is going on in and with young people. Don't right away belittle them as being immature and causing unrest. Rather, think about it and ask: "Is it really foolish, or is there some sense in what they say and do?" Don't think in advance that every­thing must stay as it has been. Living simply by tradition is not a biblical concept.
    
2. Sit down and talk with young people inside and outside of church, so that you get to know them, gain their trust and show kind interest in them. Learn to listen to them. A simple hint: Young people tend to stand and talk together somewhere at the entrance of the church or outside on the parking-lot. Why, as office­bearers, spend so much time in the council room or talking only to the elderly? Why not join them in the hallway or on the parking lot, spend some time talking with or listening to them, and share something with them.
    
3. During family visit put some sensible questions to them. Not: "Do you regularly attend catechism classes and the young peo­ples group?" or the like. Young people con­sider such questions totally pre-programmed. Actually you need to know beforehand about the attendance of the young people in your district, so that you only ask such questions when there is reason for it. Instead, try: "What's your favourite TV program? What sports are you involved in? What do you pray for at night before going to bed? What was it that struck you in the sermon this past Lord's Day? Do you love singing the songs in the song book, or are you critical of them? What are your hobbies? And are you able to use your gifts in the Lord's service?"
    
4. Don't condone the things that are wrong. To be sure, don't judge too quickly. Be open to their criticism of fixed opinions and long­standing traditions. But young people do know what God approves of and what He does not approve of. Specifically, it is not right for a Christian to spend a night in a pub, waste money and drink excessively, or have a lax attitude in church. In brief, love the sinners, pay attention to them and have patience with them, but do not condone sin. Condoning is not wanted either; it only makes them still more insecure.
    
5. Give young people a function in church. Their gifts and possibilities must become visible. We must not only do a lot for young people, we must also teach them to take on responsibility themselves. The latter can only be done if you give them trust and a task, as well as a status. If they come up with an idea, give them the room to get to work on it, even if you have mixed feelings or reservations. But particularly, if they have gifts, see to it that they can use their energy on them. Precisely those young people who are able to do much more with their hands than with their 'heads' should experience that they are very valuable to the church. We must make room for that, also for creative gifts. Think back to the func­tion of the 'reader' and the collectors that we used to have in church. Why don't we have them today? Why not form a children's choir or youth choir, possibly for a special occasion? Why not show pictures or other crafts that the children have made in youth groups? An organ is beautiful, but if there are young people who are very musical but not organists, let them musically express the praises of God. All these are things, even though the possibili­ties left open by the Church Order may be limited, that can be realized without any objections from anyone, the objective being to involve our young people to a greater degree than heretofore.
    
6. Create a possibility for church council to regularly have contact with the young people, not only when one delegate or two delegates from council visit the young people group for the annual or bi-annual visit. When you talk about the young people in a council meeting, why not invite a delegation of young people as well? Regularly organize an evening for contact and discussion with them, and engage in some project-activities with them.
    
7. Include young people as much as possible in church activities such as: actions, commit­tees for welcoming visitors and new members, work of evangelism, et cetera. And don't let them be responsible merely for some 'insignifi­cant errand,' but rather let them join in various discussions and deliberations, and listen to their ideas.

Some Policy Plan←↰⤒🔗

Particularly in the special issue of CJB, entitled, "Being young in church," that I made refer­ence to above.³ I provided materials to coun­cils to have them sit down with their young people so as to prepare some policy plan, along the following lines:

1. I submitted a Bible study sketch on what God Himself says about the place of young people in church. Sit down with the young people and work through this Bible study. The main line of the sketch is that God gives a unique place to young people in the world and in church. This guide finally deals with specific questions that opens a view to our unique biblical calling.
    
2. The idea is to draft a policy plan which points out

• the singular task for young people and
• the singular task of the officebearers.

My advice is: Please work at this. An article for officebearers on youth work is alright, but it remains useless if it is not implemented. Why not appoint a small committee consisting, for instance, of an elder and deacon and some representatives of the young peoples group. Then by way of the above-mentioned ap­proach prepare a specific policy plan.