The NOT-Next Generation of Church Leaders
Our church has a higher percentage of teenagers who serve on a Sunday than adults
Based on verses like Matthew 19:14 (“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”), one of Salt+Light’s priorities is: Equipping Children, Teens, and their Grown-Ups. “Jesus highly valued inviting kids to participate in God’s kingdom,” is how we explain this value, “So we prioritize child- & teen-specific spaces for pƒeer relationships & teaching, & equip them to start discipling others.”
Kids and Teens in the Family of God
“We want every man and woman and child to discover their gift, to serve and give somehow, to both be discipled and also to disciple others – from as young an age as possible.”
We believe that everyone has a role to play in the household of God. Most people live this out in their nuclear households: little people will do some chores as they own a little bit of the responsibility in the household. We believe the same is true in the household of God: we want every man and woman and child to discover their gift, to serve and give somehow, to both be discipled and also to disciple others – from as young an age as possible.
So here are some ways we (imperfectly) pursue this:
Most of the team that runs slides for Sunday Gatherings are 4th - 6th graders. Yes, they miss a lyric at times – but sometimes, so do paid A/V techs at megachurches!
Most of our preschool class lessons are taught by middle schoolers. Of course, there are adults in the room to guide (and gently correct), but the students take their responsibility seriously.
Most Sundays, high schoolers join adults in our elementary class. And too see the younger kids’ joy and gratitude that older kids care about them is a delight to the adults in our church family too.
Preparing for Adulthood in the Family of God
In many Western churches, kids and teens are in positions where they only receive from older folks in the church until they're about age 18. A lot of ministry is “fun” until they are 18. They are in a separate space from the rest of the church. Then at age 18, all of a sudden, they're put into “big church” – which is not known to be fun! And they're asked to give and to serve and to pour out, but they've never really been trained to give and serve and pour out.
It can feel like a bait and switch, or maybe a little bit of whiplash happens – especially for students who don’t attend college but enter vocational life after secondary school. In fact, study after study through the mid-2010s says the number one age when people leave the Church is 18 years old. Of course, there are other factors for that – but certainly this isn't helping.
So over the last 10 years or so, the traditional answer among those leading the ministries is to just extend kids' ministry or teen ministry into college ministry. So it's still fun, and it's still a separate space and so forth. But today, the most common age of people disengaging from churches is 22! (In the US at least, the previously mentioned ages generally coincide with leaving high school, then college, respectively.) So, we've just perpetuated a problem. We tried to put a Band-Aid on something and not fix it.
A 2025 report from Pew Research (which shows many hopeful signs for American Christianity) highlights this departure of young adults from the church: “people who were ages 18 to 24 in 2023-24 are less religious than people who fell within that age range in 2007 and 2014.” And “among adults ages 18 to 24, 26% are former Christians. By contrast, 5% are converts to Christianity. This ratio is reversed for religious ‘nones.’ One-quarter of adults ages 18 to 24 have become ‘nones’ after not having been raised as a ‘none.’”
A Stair-Stepped Approach
Returning to our local church, Jesus’ value for kids and the trajectory of teens leaving are two key factors in our goal to create a stair-stepped engagement for kids and teens.
We do have preschool classes every Sunday. However, as kids grow older, they become increasingly relational with adults in the church and participate in church-wide gatherings more frequently. There's a mix of multi-generational discipleship with elementary kids as we send them to a specific class a couple of times a month. But we also love having elementary kids in church-wide gatherings a couple of times a month.
Then, teens are fully engaged with the church family: we create some evening space so they can have peer-to-peer relationships (because that's also important as we learn to follow Jesus together. But starting about age 16, teens will jump into an adult DNA group (our small groups) or serve with younger teens.
These increasingly engaged, intergenerational relationships are deeply valuable. And inviting kids to serve is one of my favorite things that we do. I love that kids are often the ones to welcome people on a Sunday. Sometimes they might do a weird dance for guests, but no one can deny that they welcome people with gusto!
These are some ways our little church teaches, models, and engages Gen Z and Gen Alpha in holistic discipleship, which is both being discipled but also discipling others. And it intersects with one of The Equipping Group’s core training priorities: mobilizing leaders.
Leaders Get To Raise Up Leaders
If we’re going to see church planters, missionaries, church staff, planting team members, elders, deacons, and other ministers in 10… 20… 50 years, then planting seeds for ministry starts now. Training people to engage in discipleship younger than we think they might be ready. (Because really, no matter their age, who is ever fully “ready”!? Jesus’s disciples sure didn’t seem to be!) Helping people discover their gifts is a priority for every church, and 1 Corinthians says every Christian, thus, even young ones, have gifts for the good of the body!
Equipping the saints, affirming their giftings, and empowering people to take on responsibility are priorities for every church and every leader. And we’ve seen, time and time again, that kids are eager to step up – sometimes more than adults – if we free them and encourage them and train them to do so.
And as I get to tell people in our church often – whether adults confused by a child reading our morning’s scripture or an excited kid as he or she steps into her new role – the heart behind these choices is that kids and teens matter to God and they matter to us. They have a part to play in God's family. They are part of God's family, and you have things to offer that every age needs. They have things to offer that old people need.
Because kids and teens aren’t just the next generation of church members, servants, and leaders. If we give them the opportunity and training, they are the current generation of church leaders, too!