Carl Henry’s Temptation (And Ours) | Youth Pa stors Ditch Gross-Out Games and Help Student Ministry Grow Up: CT We ekly

Billy Graham tried.

He preached in the White House the first Sunday after Richard Nixon was inaugurated in 1969, and he tried to preach clearly enough that the new president would hear his message. Graham engaged directly with Nixon’s inaugural address and said Nixon was wrong to rely so much on himself, his own ingenuity, his own goodness. Nixon was wrong when he said, “We need only look within ourselves” to solve the country’s most pressing problems. The president and the ...

In the 1990s and early 2000s, youth group culture relied on delivering fun and entertainment by any means possible: gross-out games, Christian rock concerts, hip hangout rooms, and pizza-party blowouts.

The activities were seen as vehicles to get kids in the door before sharing the gospel or offering Bible lessons.

Things have changed a lot since Jeremy Engbers grow up “playing games, getting dirty, and drinking blended Happy Meals” in church youth ministry.

Engbers, the 31-year-old director ...