“Everybody is smoking grass.  Should I take my youth group home?”

Let me explain.  I was a desperate youth pastor.  My teens would never make the cover of Christianity Today.  Going to church was slightly more pleasant to them than a tooth ache. 

They were obese with knowledge but emaciated in their faith.  To them, Christianity was about ethical principles rather than the person of Jesus.  So, I put them to work.  I created challenges for them that were so difficult they would need to turn their heads upward.

I invited John to join the Christian band I was forming.  He wasn’t a super spiritual guy, and he didn’t play guitar, but I promised to teach him.  He signed on, and then he recruited others until we had ourselves a band.

We worked hard, even wrote our own material, and began to sing it.   Our equipment was janky and our skills jankier.  But when the boys sang for other teens, the kids really listened. 

After each concert, kids would seek out band members and ask questions about God or ask them for prayer.  My guys realized that they were in over their heads, and it pushed them to seek the Lord.  They were definitely growing!

But then John signed us up to sing at a fundraiser.  We followed our map to the end of a dirt road to a makeshift amphitheater.   We settled in and listened to the bands that preceded us.  Church this was not!

One band sang, “If you got bad news, you want to kick them blues, cocaine.”  Band after band was singing their hedonism with all their hearts as the acrid scent of marijuana wafted over the crowd.

I was thinking, “Oh man the parents of these kids are gonna throw a fit. There is surely a pink slip in my future.”  So, we huddled up and I told the boys that we didn’t belong there, and the crowd would never tolerate our message anyway.

But the boys, to a person said, “No this is exactly the kind of crowd that needs to hear our songs.”   Oh my!  I created a monster – or at least helped to cultivate a monster faith in those boys. 

So, it was finally our time.  Most of the bands were old and grizzled, ours had peach fuzz faces.  But they set those faces to proclaim the Gospel.  We started with the song, “Jesus is the Only Way” and several folks found another way – they left the concert.

We did a song called, “Oh No” about a boy who resisted the invitation to have sex with his girlfriend.   Most of the crowd was shocked but they listened with extreme interest.

The multitude was polite and they clapped after every song.  Soon after, we packed up for home.  I wanted to Fabreeze the boys but couldn’t find any.

A couple of weeks later, a stranger recognized our drummer from the concert.  He told him that he had recommitted his life to Jesus that day because of what we did.

Our guys beamed with sanctified pride over what God did to them and the way God worked through them.   I am happy to say that 35 years later those men are still doing life with Jesus. 

So how about you?  Could it be said that you too are obese with knowledge but emaciated in your faith? 

We typically lack in the faith department because we avoid situations that require faith.  We settle for security and comfort rather than risking something for Jesus.  And yet the author of Hebrews wrote, “Now without faith it is impossible to please Him” – Hebrew 11:6.  – NETBible ®

Move out of your comfort zone into a realm that requires faith. Teach the Junior high class; go on that mission trip; share your faith with your neighbor.  Pray as you do, and your faith will be met with wonderful fruit and a sweetened intimacy with Jesus.

A PRAYER: Lord, please push us out of the nest and help our faith to fly.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.