Negative Influences Among Teenagers

Recently, I was ask the question: What are some of the top negative influences I have observed in the lives of teenagers in recent years? Though there are many influences that are negatively impacting students there are a few standouts that I have experienced over the past sixteen years of working with teenagers.

1. The first negative influence that I observe in the lives of students is the promotion of tolerance in our society. This idea of tolerance seems to be impacting every aspect of our society whether it is referring to religious belief to sexual preference. This external influence of tolerance has brought about the criticism that Bible believing Christians are facing and will face with greater hostility due to the fact that other religions cannot be correct if the Bible is correct. In addition to religious issues, our society is producing successful results of convincing many people that homosexuality is just as normal as heterosexuality. We should accept everyone regardless of what they believe or how they live. I do think there is a real difference between loving people who are not believers and embracing a non-Christian world view. The bottom line is that our society is successfully influencing everyone, including the church, to embrace this idea of tolerance and the acceptance of principles and lifestyles that directly oppose scripture.


2. The second external factor that is negatively influencing teenagers deals with sexuality. Our society is successfully convincing people that sex is purely physical. There are many voices in the world that see sexual activity as no different than shaking hands. Sex has been reduced to a physical act and the emotional and spiritual side of our sexuality is often ignored. All you have to do is watch an episode of a popular TV show and you will see this philosophy of sex being preached with great effectiveness. I see so many students who don’t understand the emotional consequences of sex outside of God’s design and they are finding themselves experiencing a great deal of pain, frustration, heartache and disappointment. Unfortunately, the ideas about sex depicted on TV are not accurate. Our society communicates that orgasm’s feel good but it fails to teach that sex with multiple partners produces a great amount of emotional scars that are much harder to heal than physical scars. Satan has really made a good move when it comes to sex. Since man noticed women, Satan has been throwing that hook of sex outside of God’s plan and people take the bait every day. This factor has played a huge role in our student’s struggles with self-esteem, self-worth and peace of mind. It is a major negative influence.


3. The third external factor that is facing our students points right back to the leaders of the church. One thing that I have observed over the years is our ineffectiveness in making true disciples of Christ among the youth culture. In my opinion, youth pastors, (me included) have struggled to produce biblically literate disciples who can go into the world and effectively live Biblically among other people. It seems that as a whole, churches are producing students who may be passionate about serving God, but they are not very well equipped to really take a strong stand on a college campus. This has to be the reason that most students who grow up in church bail on God until they finish college. We in the church must do a better job of leading our students to be disciples. If this is going to happen, we must be disciples ourselves and we must reproduce our lives in the lives of our students. We must equip them to understand why the Bible is true and model for them how to live it out in their everyday life. I truly am questioning our methods of making disciples. This is something that I am looking at very hard in our ministry and choosing to honestly evaluate exactly what I am producing from our ministry. This honesty has not been a lot of fun because I have forced myself to recognize areas that I need improvement. I have also had to honestly evaluate what we are doing and why we are doing it. We in the church must do a better job of making real disciples of Christ if we are going to have the impact that the Lord has asked us to have.