Teaching Youth the Quiet Beauty of Christ
Youth ministry must prepare souls for ordinary faithfulness, not constant fireworks.
After more than a decade in youth ministry, I’ve come to believe this: One of the most sacred things we can do for young people is prepare them for the quiet, unglamorous beauty of ordinary Christian life.
Not the noise, not the lights, not the crowded rooms filled with energy and music and adrenaline… but the slow, faithful rhythm of simply being with Jesus in the ordinary.
Because if we teach them that Christianity is mostly about spectacle… games, events, emotional highs… what happens when all of that is gone?
When the music fades?
What happens when they graduate into a church that isn’t built around their preferences?
What happens when they get older, get married, have children, and find that the space once filled with energy and freedom is now filled with diapers, dishes, exhaustion, and responsibility?
What happens when following Jesus doesn’t feel exciting, but just feels… hard?
If we’ve given them a faith built on fireworks, we shouldn’t be surprised when they struggle to find God in the silence.
So we must teach them now:
How to sit still.
How to pray simple prayers.
How to open the Scriptures and not rush.
How to confess without shame.
How to repent without despair.
How to sit through a sermon that doesn’t entertain but might, quietly, transform if they have ears to hear.
How to ask for help from someone older, gentler, wiser.
How to serve in ways no one sees, and to find joy in the hidden places.
These are the quiet practices that carry us through adulthood.
These are the threads that hold a soul together when life unravels.
Youth ministry must be more than noise.
It must be a gentle invitation into the deeper waters.
Real life with Jesus is not always loud.
It is often still, slow, and mostly unseen.
But it is there…right there, that Christ meets us.
And if we can help them find Him there… we’ve given them something they can carry for the rest of their lives.
-Aaron
For more on this, see my other essays:
Preaching to Gen Z Requires Blood, Fire, Mercy, and The Kingdom
I’ve preached a lot of sermons over my 2 decades in ministry.
We Told Gen Z to Build a Platform. Now They Don't Know How to Build a Soul
You posted about serving at the homeless shelter. Got 247 likes. Felt warm inside, like you’d done something good.
If this work has fed you, challenged you, or pushed you closer to Jesus, then I need your help!
I’m Aaron, a former long-time church staff pastor now doing ministry out in the wild. Since 2018, I’ve been building GoodLion Ministries to help young adults follow Jesus deeply in a post-modern, post-Christian age that pulls them in a thousand directions.
On Sunday evenings, I lead the GoodLion School of Discipleship, a multi-year formation program where young adults wrestle with Scripture, ask hard questions, and build a faith that can handle doubt and chaos. Through this work, I watch students move from confusion to clarity, from fear to faithfulness, from being spiritually adrift to knowing how to walk with Jesus in real life.
I also write here on Substack, mentor young leaders, and create resources for people who want substance over hype.
Our mission is simple: We believe in Jesus, the King who is not safe but is very good. We’re here for the doubters, the deconstructors, the burnt-out ministers, the church kids haunted by legalism, and anyone tired of shallow faith.
Here’s the reality: I’m bivocational. For years, I’ve supported my family through freelance work while building this ministry in every spare hour I can find. My goal is to transition to doing this work full time so I can expand the School, write more, travel to teach, raise up more leaders, and serve every single person who need what GoodLion offers.
This is my life’s work. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been helping Gen Z learn to think deeply, wrestle honestly, and follow Jesus in a world that tries to pull them apart.
If you believe this work matters, I invite you partner with me! This is not a side hustle for me. This is a mission. Even $10/month helps me teach more, write more, and disciple more young adults who genuinely need it.
👉 Support GoodLion Ministries Here
Thank you for walking with me.
– Aaron
Links
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🎓 GoodLion School of Discipleship
Amen. I’ve found throughout the seasons that the dry, mundane, and silent times always come to bear more fruit. The larger the fruit grows whenever you humble your entire self and sit in the presence of God, no surroundings, no distractions, just sit in silence in the mundane lows and the dry moments.
The fruit that God grows through you during those moments is all about how we respond whenever we’re in those seasons. I believe it’s during these seasons where obedience is the most important aspect in our walk. How we respond to difficult situations, or dry conditions of day to day life determines how that fruit blooms.
Thank you for this, I appreciate your work.
In your school of discipleship, as you’ve observed those from our next generation of Jesus followers sit in the silence with Him, to what degree have you seen their walk with Christ work itself out into a call to the ethne - the nations - to cross-cultural missions work among those who have little or no witness among them of Christ?
If you’ve got statistics, great! But even some anecdotal evidence from what you’re seeing would be super helpful.