First published in August 2003

Jesus Christ – Superstar… During the early ‘70’s, these three words could cause as much controversy among Americans as mentioning Kent State, Woodstock, or Vietnam.

 

A close friend of mine, Exxxxxx, belonged to a Baptist church in Worden, and they had decided to take a closer look at this phenomenon that was sweeping the nation and decide for themselves if it was sacrilegious or not. Exxxxxx was appointed to prepare samples of the music and bring it to a special meeting set up just for this purpose.

 

Since he and I had worked together in the Technicians’ Club when I was still in high school (he was then a senior while I was starting college), he came to me for help with his project. The original two-album cut was eighty-seven minutes long… seven minutes too much to fit on the longest 8-track tape then available. Besides, the ‘council’ did not want to spend that much time. So Exxxxxx selected which songs he thought were the most controversial and wrote a script to connect them together. Using borrowed microphones and amplifiers from the high school, I set up a recording studio in my ‘den’ at the farm. He had asked me to do the reading, so, surrounded by banks of tube-type amplifiers from the school, and my solid-state mixers, turntables and eight-track tape recorder, we sat down together and produced a forty-minute version complete with narration. (I opened it, of course, with, “This tape is a product of the Luebbert Recording Studio.”) Then, at the appointed time, I set up a large stereo PA system in their church and played our masterpiece for the thirty-odd people who had gathered to hear it that evening.

 

To make a long story short, after much discussion and disagreement, the general consensus was that anything that might encourage people in general, and teenagers specifically, to even think about Jesus must have some redeeming value, and it was voted to approve letting their youth listen to it. I felt like Exxxxxx and I had made a very good case for our side and approved of their decision whole-heartedly!

 

Perhaps I was wrong.

 

I had grown-up in the Church… I had been ingrained with the teachings of Christ, Paul, and Peter. And when I had first listened to the opera, I had noted all of the mistruths, half-truths, and inconsistencies that it contained. And yet, as I continued to listen to it over the years I found myself accepting it more and more… primarily because I heard it more than I ever heard from the Bible, but also because I liked what it said more than what the Bible said!

 

Over the last few years I have had an opportunity to attend a large number of seminars and meetings, sometimes with (my then wife), sometimes alone, aimed at assisting those who work with and/or are interested in youth and youth ministry. Many of these have been focused on finding new ways to teach an ‘old’ message… the Good News of Christ! And I have seen many different ideas come and go… some pretty radical.

 

Group Magazine is a youth-leader oriented publication that we received for some years. (While we were the youth sponsors the church subscribed to it for us… afterwards, we paid for it ourselves.) Most of their articles and ideas are very upbeat and are aimed at connecting with the youth of today. An article earlier (that) year was titled It’s Time for a Revolution in Youth Ministry. It talked about lowering one’s approach by coming ‘down’ to the youth’s level and doing whatever it takes to get their attention. The next issue contained this ‘Letter to the Editor’.

 

      Concerning the article “It’s Time for a Revolution in Youth Ministry,” (May/June 2003)—we don’t need a revolu­tion, we need revival… The real rea­son teenagers are falling away from our churches, from our youth groups, and from God is because all many churches have to offer is a shallow Christianity. When a church promotes Christian rock concerts… singers who look just like hard rock groups. . .  and a feel-good type of Christian living… (then) of course we’ll have shallow teenagers. The teens will stop “feeling good” about [their] Christian life and realize that the church or youth group isn’t really offering any more than the world has to offer…

A. J. Potter

Ottumwa, Iowa

 

Where have we learned our convictions from? The Bible? Or from the lyrics of a favorite song we learned in our youth? Have our ideas about morality come from the teachings of Jesus… or the TV? Is our concept of truth grounded on the bedrock of God’s Word, or is it pushed and pulled by every new tide of ‘popular’ thinking? And if these things are true for US, what ARE we teaching our youth?!

 

It is very true that Christians must by necessity live IN the world. But we must be very careful not to become part OF the world! Our Christian faith… our Christian teachings… MUST be held to the levels that Christ demands them to be!

 

Otherwise, it’s all for naught!