Full Project - A THESIS ON YOUTH LIFESTYLES AND CHURCH GROWTH

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Full Project – A THESIS ON YOUTH LIFESTYLES AND CHURCH GROWTH

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Abstract

This thesis was set to investigate youth’s lifestyle and church growth in Nigeria. Most church denominations in Nigeria have been affected by the change in the lifestyles of their youths. The thesis intends to dig the root cause, the effect and the appropriate way of solving the worldly lifestyles affecting our youth so that the church will benefit from the research findings. The youth and their well-being have been neglected by the society which gives priority to false success images as opposed to the youth well-being. In today’s church, it cannot be ignored that the youth are the church and the world both in the present and the future. This is seen as in their support for the church members who are adults in teaching them and assuming church responsibilities in the future when they grow older. In contrast, the youth today have been known to take a nosedive into the technological and consumerism distracting worlds that lead to destruction of their spiritual attachment with Jesus as well as their ties with the family. As is evidence, the dominating secular culture in the world deprives the youth of personal, economic and spiritual tools which will aid the young generation into being Christ’s disciples. In turn, the young generation has sought to neglect their role in spreading the gospel and settled for less since they have been ignored by the society.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

God used a youth name “Timothy” to pastor and lead the Ephesian church when he was a teenager. According to (1^st Timothy 4:12), “don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity”. This is an admonition on the need to live a Holy and blameless life addressed to a young man, Timothy. But, premarital sex, insolent speech, materialism, ruthlessness, theft and violence are some of the common vices generally found among Christian youths today.

The fact remains that, youths plays a vital role in the life of a Church as they are the leaders of tomorrow and future of the church. The elderly stands out but youth’s contributions have been shinning and have always been flag bearers of every Church. For any tangible growth to take place in any church, the youth must be significant in that process of growth. This is the more reason why wise nations, countries, groups and organization focus more on the development of youths so that the future of such investments would never be improvised or blind. It is therefore of vital importance in today’s Church to prepare assiduously youths for the tasks they would naturally face in the coming future. It is only when we have nourished our youths that they in-turn develop the Church. The questions are “what amount of attention do we give the youths and what level of devotion does the youths give to the church.

The youths of today have very high ideals, and to deny this would be grossly unfair. But we must admit that very often these ideals can sour, can be perverted and can be exploited. Often young people ultimately relinquish their ideals if they suspect that the situation is hopeless; if they conclude that nowhere can these ideals be fulfilled. Unfortunately, this is the usual progression of events today.

Disappointments lead to abysmal falls, often to depths lower than those they condemned when their idealism was fresh. Where this does not happen, ideals are exploited by false prophets of good. The sectarians far from the fullness of truth are able to inspire youth to make such amazing sacrifices Yet at the same time, the Orthodox Church, possessing the fullness of Truth, has a real difficulty in keeping her youth (Abednego: 1989). It could be that in ignoring the high ideals and potential moral heroism of our youth we have failed to familiarize them with our examples of such heroism, displayed by our own young, even the very young, who loved Christ and His Church in past ages. The youths are important fabrics in the society. Can there be any society without youth? Obviously no, that is why we must see to it that our youths find their rightful places in the church. David and Pat Alexander emphasized that:

“Salvation is God’s gift, but it carries with it the obligation to live and behave, from that point on, as God wants. This means deliberately discarding the old (selfish way of life), shedding former habits, and letting the new life change our thinking and remold our pattern of behavior.

According to the Alexander’s view, supra, our salvation carries with it a responsibility for a new lifestyle; we are expected to change our thinking, remold our lifestyle, and to live a life of obedience to the word of God. Our Lord Jesus explained that:

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beats against that house and it fell with a great crash (Matthew 7:24 – 27). The 21^st century being a technological age has modernized most of the Godly youths, such that to differentiate between a God fearing and worldly youths is posing serious challenges to scholars around the world.

When talking of church growth there are some factors to be considered, among such factors is the leaders’ relationship with the youth ministry which breeds the next generation church. Church Growth is a movement within evangelical Christianity which focuses on developing methods to grow churches based on business marketing strategies. Church growth begins with church health and not the other way around. We see in nature that healthy things grow. The church is a community composed of members from diverse backgrounds who enjoin to share the work of God. The youth must therefore be involved actively in drawing the congregation both old and young to participate responsibly in the work, life and mission of the church and the community (Nielson, 2016). When the youth are drawn to the community it becomes easier for them to comprehend what it is to live in the Christian community.

The youth have a big role in today’s ministry which can only be possible through adults demonstrating to them that a discipleship and love culture is embraced in the church (Day & Kurtz, 2017). This is by no means a new concept, but it’s still true. From this research, we will discover what a healthy church is like and how youth life style can boost church growth.

1.2 Problem Statement

The church has a responsibility towards it host community, and such responsibility should not exclude the youth’s ministry, which forms part of the church participating in God’s mission on earth. This is not often the case as the youth in the church is at times only good for church activities, through taking part in the Sunday worship and the various ministry departments in the church. One major challenge in today’s church is the inability to examine the role of the youths with respect to church growth. Although the current attitudes and behaviors of our young singles are becoming alarming and even more destructive. This thesis assumes that, the reason for all these is the neglect of the youth ministry by the church. The church is only concerned and interested in married couples and families while the single adult’s social life, emotions and challenges is the last to be considered. Only few churches have a well-organized and meaningful youth’s ministry. This has led to moral failures, decadence, immorality, homo-sexuality, lesbianism and in the church today. The youths are important fabrics in every society. The big question is “if there exist any society without youth”? Obviously no, which is why the church must see to it that the youths find their rightful places in the church through single’s ministry. Today, a great percentage of our Christian youths are living a life of disobedience to the Word of God, they are copying the patterns of this world with dexterity. Today, the lifestyle of the youth is such that it is very difficult to have a distinction between Christian youths and of those who are not Christians. Thus, examining youth life style and church growth has always posed a major challenge to scholars in theology. This research became pertinent because it aims at making an analysis of the effects of youth lifestyles to church growth.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The primary aim of this thesis is to investigate youth lifestyle and church growth. The researcher intends to cross examine the following sub objectives;

To examine youth life style and church growth.
To analyze how working with the single’s ministry can aid church growth.
To change the unhealthy culture of some church youth ministries.
To cast a fresh vision for the church on youth and Godly lifestyles.
To proffer solutions to the challenges facing youths in the church today.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions were formulated to guide the indebt of this thesis;

Does the youth lifestyle go in line with the church doctrine?
Is there any significant relationship between the youth lifestyle and church growth?
Do the youth contribute to the growth and sustenance of the church?
What are the roots causes of the moral degradation and eroding of our Christian values among Christian youths?
What are the effects of the influence on the youth and the society?

1.5 Research hypotheses

The following research hypothesis will guide the study;

H₀: There is no significant relationship between the youth lifestyle and church growth

H₁: There is a significant relationship between the youth lifestyle and church growth

H₀: The youth lifestyle does not go in line with the church doctrine

H₂: The youth lifestyles do go in line with the church doctrine

1.6 Significance of the study

This findings of this thesis will assist churches, ministries, pastors, etc in discovering the vital roles youths play in the life of a Church as they are the leaders of tomorrow and future of every church. From this research, we will discover what a healthy church is like and how youth life style can boost church growth. This research is very significant because youths are the future of every organization especially the Church. Many, if not all church denominations in Nigeria have been affected by the change in the lifestyles of their youths. The researcher aims at digging the root cause, the effect and the appropriate way of solving the worldly lifestyles affecting our youth so that organizations, parents and youth will benefit from the research findings.

1.7 Scope/Limitations of the study

A research of this nature on youth lifestyle and church growth seems broad such that it cannot be exhausted in this research work. For this reason, the research shall focus on what the Bible teaches about Christian youth and godly lifestyles, the root causes of moral degradation and eroding of our Christian values among Christian Youths, its effect on the youth and society, and how they can overcome these negative tendencies. On the other hand, this research shall focus on some selected churches in Nigeria only because of security challenges, time, and budgetary constraints. The researcher shall sample the opinion of some selected Christian youths from different churches in Nigeria through a questionnaire.

Limitations of study

Financial constraint– Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint– The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8 Research Procedure

A procedure is an established method of doing something. Research has to do with careful study of a subject matter to unfold new ideas of fact so as to advance knowledge, solve problem, produce literature and grow the understanding of the researcher on the specific issue.

The research procedure in this regard will require reading relevant books and literature to extract facts that are needed for the subject of neglect of single’s ministry and its effect on church growth.

Therefore, the research procedure shall be based on the following sources:

The research materials are based on journals, articles and publications available online.

The researcher’s personal library which includes notes.

Interactions with the church leaders, youth Ministers and pastors of the church.

The use of structured questionnaire which will be administered to single adults, youth’s ministers and pastors.

1.9 Operational Definition of Terms

Many terms have been used in this work but few uncommon English terms are defined below. These definitions should be understood in their utility for our purpose:

Church Growth: Is the science that investigate the nature, function and health of Christian churches as they relate specifically to the effective implementation of God’s commission to “make disciples of all nations (people)” (Matthew 28:19).

Youth: Youth is the time of life when one is young, but often means the time between childhood and adulthood (maturity).

Life style: Lifestyles define us; they are the way we live our lives, what we do, with whom, where, how and what we use to do it.

Cult: “is any religious group which differs significantly in some one or more respects as to belief or practice from those religious groups which are regarded as the normative expressions of religion in our total culture.”^[1]

Disrespect: lack of respect for somebody or something.”^[2] It is also discourtesy or rudeness.

Drug abuse: “also called substance abuse or chemical abuse, is a disorder that is characterized by a destructive pattern of using a substance that leads to significant problems or distress.

Hedonism: “is the philosophy that pleasure is the most important pursuit of humankind, and the only thing that is good for an individual.

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