You Get What You Expect Maybe the main reason we don’t see many churches producing dynamic young disciples for the Lord Jesus is because we just don’t expect much from our young people. I have found that people will generally rise or fall to our level of expectation from them. Let’s paint with big strokes for them for God’s glory!

Unfortunately, another reason we don’t see many dynamic young disciples in our churches — and I can speak only of my own denomination here — is because there is a famine of older dynamic disciples in our churches. Across the board, we just don’t expect much from church these days. Stand in the back of most traditional churches today and listen to the amazing depth of the 21st century American church:

Nice sermon, preacher. Boy, the choir was great today! Went a little long today, didn’t we, pastor? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) Good crowd today, huh? Man, the capuccino shop in the church foyer was a great move!

We might as well be attending Rotary. Where is the attitude of expectancy for our God to show Himself? Where is the reverence? Where is the holy thought of being used by God to build His kingdom in our communities? Put simply, it’s gone.

We have not because we expect not. No one expects anything, and no one’s talking about it. The deafening silence of God-experiences is the last hurdle to jump in order for effective collegiate ministry to begin in the church.

What in the world would persuade a teen in church today to passionately embrace a love relationship with the living God when he is surrounded by so many that lack it? Have teens today been conditioned to accept a pragmatic "what Jesus can do for you" Christianity than the forgiveness of Christ Jesus through repentance? Our kids through many of our children's ministry programs are steadily weened off of God.

Entering the greatest arena of spiritual warfare and philosophical disputation in our society today - the university - is like marching our churched students off a cliff. We have not expected much from ourselves, from our churches, or from them... except maybe that they meet a nice girl or guy and make a good living...

To be continued...