Repentance and Young People
Repentance is a doctrine that is curiously absent from current writing on youth ministry. In part this appears to come from a desire to affirm our young people as they are, to let them assert their agency, rather than telling them what to believe or how to live. It may also reflect the enforced repentance brought about through purity culture, even for some activities that the young person had no need to repent of. Perhaps the very word ‘repentance’ also appears old fashioned and remembered mostly for the street preachers with their sandwich boards demanding their listeners “turn or burn!” Repentance, however, is an essential part of any Christian ministry to young people and, while we must be careful of the dynamics just mentioned, it can (and should) be a beautiful part of what must occur in the life of our young people. This article will describe what repentance is before analyzing how repentance occurs according to the work of the Puritan Thomas Watson.
What is Repentance?
Jesus’ first words in Mark 1:15 were “the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” Repentance is at the heart of entry into the Kingdom. It is so closely tied with believing that John Murray used the terms “penitent faith” and “believing repentance.” One cannot occur without the other. No unbelieving young person can repent and no unrepentant young person can believe. The two should go hand-in-hand in our ministry too. A young person who appears to believe but in which there is no sign of repentance should cause us to stop and reconsider what may be occurring in their spiritual life. The prophet Jeremiah makes this clear to Israel when he condemns them for their unbelief in 3:6 – they are ‘faithless’. Then again in 5:3 he condemns them for being unrepentant. We can see this work two ways in the lives of our young people (and ourselves) – an unbelieving young person cannot truly repent; a believing young person will always be repenting!
What does it mean, then, to repent? The apostle Paul sums it up most clearly in 1 Thessalonians 1:9 where he states that the Thessalonian church had “turned to God from idols to serve the true and living God.” This explains more of what we saw in the previous paragraph – repentance means a turning from evil and a belief or trust in God. John Calvin defined it as a “true turning of our life to God, a turning that arises from a pure and earnest fear of him; and it consists in the mortification of our flesh and of the old man, and in the vivification of the Spirit.” (Institutes III/III 5.) Note Calvin’s insistence on the life/death dynamic. This is a repentance that flows from an encounter with the God who calls into His Kingdom. B.B. Warfield describes it as 'all wrong to all good in which the trend of our life is altered. A change of mind and heart not only from some sins but from sin itself.' Warfield leaves no place for this to be a peripheral activity in the lives of our young people but rather demands their whole being at all times.
What does this mean for our youth groups and our youth ministry? Repentance should be at the heart of what we do. Not as a result of some sort of spiritual arm-twisting but as a direct result of an encounter with the living God through His Word. We should be championing and celebrating repentance when we see it in our young people. We should be modeling it as leaders. We should be elevating repentance as something beautiful and desirable, rather than the weakness which our world suggests it is.
What Does Repentance Look Like?
When it comes to the psychology of sin and repentance the Puritan writers were way ahead of us. Thomas Watson (c.1620-1686) was an English Presbyterian minister who suffered during The Great Ejection of 1662. He wrote a treatise which has been published simply as “The Doctrine of Repentance.” In it he gives 6 ingredients of the repentant sinner which are to be considered in order.
First, “sight of sin” – the first sight of sin is when a young person stops comparing themselves with others. Instead they begin to see their sin as it is, not making them better or worse than those around them. Watson takes this from the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18. Instead of looking at those around them and thanking God that they are not as bad as those heathen outside the youth group, we see the young person compare themselves to God.
Second, “sorrow for sin” – the emotional reaction to the sin that is seen is to have sorrow over that sin. Watson warns, however, that such sorrow can actually still be worldly sorrow that leads to death (2 Cor. 7:10). Rather, ‘our sorrow for sin must be such as makes us willing to let go of those sins which brought us the greatest income of profit or delight’. Here we will see the young people begin to change their desires; those things which seemed such a delight to them before pale in comparison with the treasure they have discovered in Christ.
Third, “confession” – those sins will be spoken out loud (Psalm 51). When this point is reached in the youth group it suddenly gets exciting. This confession can lead to more confessions. Here the leader can lead by example. However, there could be a danger of enforced confession here, where the young person feels under pressure to confess or to be accountable when they do not wish to.
Fourth, “shame” – seeing the result of their sin (Psalm 44:15). There is an aversion to shame in our culture. This is understandable when it is used as a verb – when someone is shamed. There is no place for this in our youth groups. However, there is also a right sense of shame when we have recognized that our behavior has been against God and/or has hurt others. This stage requires deep and gentle pastoral care by the leaders.
Fifth, ‘hatred” – Watson encourages us to hate our sin as an essential ingredient of repentance. Repentance “is not so much to endear us to Christ as to endear Christ to us. Till sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” Read that last sentence again. We see the connection again between repentance and faith! For Christ to be sweet to our young people they must reach a place of hatred for sin. This is deeper than merely recognizing it is wrong. Watson also makes the startling comment, “Sin is worse than hell as hell is God's creation.”
Sixth and finally, “turning” – that change of mind that we considered above comes here as a result of all that went before. Watson sees that true repentance must consist of these six steps otherwise it's not genuine. Therefore each of these steps must be encouraged and modeled by the mature Christians in the youth group.
Conclusion
Repentance is not an add-on or a bonus for our ministry. It is central and must be kept central. It must be cheered and encouraged when we see it, but not forced or pushed. As it always accompanies faith in the good news it must also be accompanied by dollops of grace at all points. If we love our young people and love seeing God’s Spirit at work in them then this will be something we delight in.