One Of My Youth Ministry Regrets

I was involved in youth ministry in some capacity for about 15 years before taking a position as a senior pastor this past Spring. I have many fond memories and am still amazed that God used me to shape students for His kingdom for over a decade. I’ve also got plenty of things I wish I had done differently.

One of my biggest regrets is that I wish I would have taught Galatians less and Proverbs more. Maybe I should just say I wish I had taught them Proverbs more. I don’t regret one second that I spent with these students teaching them justification by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. But I do regret that I often did this at the expense of teaching them things like Proverbs.

As I’ve watched former students (and even myself) grow up what I’ve noticed time and time again is that a firm understanding of the gospel does not automatically translate into knowing how to do life. If it did I don’t believe God would have inspired the Proverbs and preserved it for the His Church. We need the Proverbs to know how to do life. That’s not a life divorced from the gospel by any means. The Proverbs are the gospel with legs.

Galatians will tell a young man to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. Proverbs will tell him that what this means in the day to day life is that he won’t flirt with sin by thinking he is so gospel-informed that he can walk by the house of a whore and not be impacted.

Galatians will tell you that you’ve been crucified with Christ. Proverbs will tell you how one with a crucified flesh uses his words and his wallet. Can you really be gospel-centered while your reputation in your community is one who doesn’t pay his bills on time and who doesn’t work hard to provide for his wife and kids?

And so I’m not saddened by any second I taught our students the gospel. But I am saddened for the times when I neglected the whole counsel of God’s Word and didn’t equip students to live out the gospel. I rightly believed and taught students that we need the gospel for every area of life and that everything centers upon the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I wrongly assumed those truths would magically inform students how to love their wives, pay their taxes, and work their tails off at their job. I wish I’d cracked open Proverbs more.

Thankfully the gospel is true and God is sovereign. Even as I largely neglected the Proverbs, the Spirit hasn’t. And so I’m able to sleep at night knowing that Jesus is a faithful Shepherd and leads his people into green pasture even when his under-shepherds are a bit bone-headed and neglect portions of His Word.

—

Image source: here