Two of the most influential voices in my life during my youth pastor years were Mike Yaconelli and Ron Luce.  They were two men who loved Jesus, loved teenagers and youth pastors, but could not have been more different in their approach to youth ministry.  Yaconelli was the co-founder of Youth Specialties, an organization that provided tons of resources and training to youth pastors across the world, but during his later years became a man with an almost singular focus on the importance of helping teens and youth pastors develop intimate relationships with Jesus.  He hated how youth ministry had become so focused on big events, big numbers, and attractive personalities, and loved to honor those men and women who may not have fit the stereotypical mold but because of their willingness to love teens were making an eternal difference.  He would tell stories about 75 year-old grandmothers, rough-around-the-edges truckers, and scared youth leaders everywhere who just wanted to love young people to Jesus.  Yaconelli frequently boasted about being the pastor of the “slowest growing church in America”, a small community church out in California that had shrunk since his arrival, but based on his stories seemed to be made up of a lovable band of misfits who would dare to follow Jesus wherever He led, even if it involved doing things that normal churches might not do.  His message was a simple message that always reminded me of Jesus’ incredible love and grace over us, no matter how far we fell short of the ideal.

 And then there was Ron Luce.  In some ways, Ron seemed to epitomize everything that Yaconelli was speaking against.  He also loved Jesus, loved teens and their youth pastors, but was a man of tremendous vision and passion who was always looking to do something bigger and with greater impact.  He founded an organization called Teen Mania, putting on high energy conferences around the country called Acquire the Fire, and organizing dozens of mission trips for teens every year to places around the globe.  He created a discipleship school called the Honor Academy, wrote books and produced videos about growing your youth ministry and reaching teens for Christ, and seemed to do it all from a perpetual spiritual high.  When we went to Acquire the Fire, teenagers inevitably came away “on fire” for God, ready to conquer the world and defeat all enemies in their path.  And we youth pastors all came away determined to not let the fire go out, but to challenge our teens to higher and greater depths in their walk with the Lord. 

 Mike Yaconelli and Ron Luce were two who loved Jesus and loved youth ministry, but who could not have been more different in their approach.  I resonated so deeply with Yaconelli and his Jesus who passionately loved us and was full of compassion and grace towards the broken, the ordinary, those who just never measured up to the person they knew God wanted them to be.  But something in my spirit just longed for what I saw in Ron Luce, a man who you knew was up at the crack of dawn to seek the Lord on his knees, who lived with passionate abandon for God, with a desire to see the gospel reach the far ends of the earth and to do everything he did with excellence unto the Lord.

 I also realized that there were downsides to both approaches.  With Yaconelli, his emphasis on intimacy with Jesus and the grace of our Savior made it tempting for me to become complacent, to rest in the accepting love of God and never challenge myself to move past that.  On the other hand, with Luce, I could see how easy it was for teenagers to equate spiritual maturity with always being “on fire” for God and to believe God’s love for us was based on our performance.  Therefore, when the passion faded (usually about 24 hours after an Acquire the Fire conference), they would come to see themselves in some sort of spiritual backslide, never living up to the Ron Luce Jesus who seemed to be like a coach on the side of the track with a stopwatch, yelling “Faster!!!  Faster!!!” at us until we finally gave up. 

 These past five weeks as I have preached on biblical assurance, especially focusing on the tests given in 1 John that evaluate the genuineness of our faith, I have been reminded of these two men.  John gives strong challenges in his letter, like how the one who knows God will not continue in unrepentant sin, will not walk in the darkness, and will not hate his brother.  The goal of the series was in line with 1 John 5:13:  “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life;” I wanted to give assurance to those who truly do know Jesus and have eternal life, while creating a real doubt based on Scripture in the hearts of those who may not truly know Him.  But I also realize that we all fall short in many ways and never measure up to the man or woman we know God wants us to be.  I do not want to leave anyone believing that unless you are living perfectly 24-7 and always desiring God in your day-to-day life, that you are not truly a believer.  God is not the track coach yelling at you to go faster, shaking his head at you every time you miss a quiet time or don’t tell your co-worker about Jesus.  God is a Father who sees every believer as perfect in his sight not because they had their quiet time but because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

 At the same time, 1 John is meant to challenge you.  It is meant to be a mirror in some ways that you hold up in order to see whether your life shows evidence that God has done and continues to do a supernatural work in your life.  Has He saved you from your sin?  Is He continuing to sanctify you, to discipline the sin out of you and replace it with His eternal life, His heart, His love for others?  We must always hold these two truths in tension – God loves you just as you are, but loves you too much to let you stay the way you are.  He wants you to be just like Jesus. 

I think that the only way to become like Jesus is to have both kinds of people in your life – the Mike Yaconellis who remind you of the perfect love of God, full of grace and intimacy, drawing you to worship Him and seek Him and trust Him as a Father who loves you; and the Ron Luces, who will not let you stay as you are, but want to continually challenge you to greater depths in your walk with Jesus, to always give Him your all so that the gospel might go forth to all your nations.  The Yaconellis are better at communicating the beautiful love of God that is extended to all of us, no matter how much we stumble and fall, while the Luces excel at communicating the love of God that calls us higher, that exhorts us to spend our lives on that which truly satisfies.  I encourage you to seek both of those voices in your life, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to allow God to use both of them in your life for His glory.

Write a comment