The focus of Reaching the Next Generation is in fact more on retention than addition. DeYoung points out that most church-leavers, after having observed their parents and church leaders at close quarters, check out in their teenage years.

Book Review: Kevin DeYoung, The (Not-so-Secret) Secret to Reaching the Next Generation. Wheaton, Il: Crossway, 2024. 28 pages.

I’ve just completed my first six months at Scots’ Church in Fremantle. I inherited a fine group of elders, deacons, and board members, a committed organist, and a strong preaching heritage. I did not—like so many other new ministers in denominations of mixed orthodoxy—have to fight for the right to preach repentance and faith in Christ. Praise God, and honour to my faithful predecessors.

But Covid took its toll over recent years and there have been some challenges. Our old church building has very little parking, no cooling or heating, poor lighting and sound, wooden pews, no “music team” or network of Bible studies, no youth or young adults ministry, and precious few people capable of filling rosters. In short none of the things that are often counted as essential for growing a vibrant church.

But we do have Jesus Christ. And because we Jesus, we have everything.

So I vowed from the start not to blame any lack of growth on our lack of mod-cons. If Christ is seen in His Word, and if the Spirit blows mightily through the congregation setting each one ablaze, then hard pews and parking complications will be immaterial.

Kevin DeYoung’s booklet—you will read it in the space of a cup of tea—is a charming reinforcement of this doctrine: that it is Christ who builds his church, and that unless the LORD builds the house the builders build in vain.

The focus of Reaching the Next Generation is in fact more on retention than addition. DeYoung points out that most church-leavers, after having observed their parents and church leaders at close quarters, check out in their teenage years.

He suggests that the church in which Christ is at work, and that is most likely to retain its young people, will have five attributes:

First, it will “Grab the next generation with passion.” Lukewarmness is just as nauseating to the young as it is to Christ. I like the way DeYoung measures passion not by some arbitrary yardstick, but by spiritual growth. Christians who strive to grow from whatever point they are at are those who exude the passion that will attract the young:

“They need to hear of the mighty deeds of God. And they need to hear the message from someone who not only understands it but has been captured by it.”

Second, churches must win the next generation not by obsessing over “cultural engagement”, but with love. In a narcissistic social-media culture, where curating my online magnificence is my raison d’être, real selfless love, “not with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18), is radically and noticeably different and attractive.

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