Young people today are tasting the bitter fruit of broken relationships. Many have been raised without any real father. Yet God has created them with a longing to be fathered, whether they understand it or not. What we, the church, have to offer them is powerful provided we can back it up with a supply of real fathers. The church must become functional and properly ordered, a place of security and integrity in relationships. Young people are longing for the experience of relationship that postmodern culture denies them. Women have sacrificed family for career and are now living to regret it. Their assumption of leadership roles in business and government places them in a boxing ring where men, by nature, fight to win. Is it any wonder that young women are now smoking more than young men or that women’s life expectancy is projected to come down eventually to the level of men’s for the first time? Extreme feminism is under attack — by women as much as by men. Men who have abdicated their roles are feeling the emptiness. Studies show “house husbands” develop more health problems than other men. Young people have lived with a generation of men who have abandoned their families in search of their own happiness and they are sick of it. They are looking for stability and commitment while believing a philosophy which teaches the opposite. No wonder they are confused and under stress!
This is not a time to match what the culture is offering by trying to entertain people or make them feel good. It is a time to preach the loving, disciplining, directional care of the Father. It is a time to preach the cross and commitment to goals higher than ourselves. I believe there are millions of young people out there waiting to hear the call to this kind of discipleship — if we will preach it and live it ourselves.