(Judges 1-2)
Judges begins with an Israel in transition.  Under Joshua’s leadership, they had succeeded, took possession of the land (soberingly, by force most times), and they prospered in the blessing of the Promise God had made long ago.  But Joshua had died.  The entire generation who had worked so hard to stake out their place in the Promised Land, they too had died.  And though God’s Word tells us that they had been faithful, we are told that the generation that followed “didnt know God.”

We arent told the circumstances as to what had happened.  Perhaps it was complacency.  Perhaps they felt, having all they had needed and were promised, they didnt need God anymore.  They got out of the habit.  They grew lax–lost the passion.  Whatever the reason, an entire generation passed while the next passed forward without knowing God.

They worshiped convenient gods.  They did their own thing.  They lived off the prosperity of the land.  They were fine, even without God.  But God makes a hard decision, decides not necessarily to abandon the people but to quit providing for them as God had in the past.  If the situation is that the next generation, spoiled off of what God did through and for their ancestors, were simply living off the accomplishments of the past and felt they had no need of God, then God would set up a situation where they might feel otherwise.  God decides to no longer drive out their enemies or remove the obstacles in their way but leave them right there, for the people to face–hopefully with faith.  And it is only when we face such obstacles–our own obstacles–that we scour the depths of our faith.

Recently I’ve been having the “youth” talk with various members of my congregation.  We are like a lot of churches out there, finding ourselves competing for the attention of young families and youth.  There are a lot of churches out there who are succeeding in reaching the youth of their church, but a lot of mainline churches like ourselves are struggling not necessarily in planning programs but in getting youth there. 

I dare not lay blame, for I have seen the social demands that raising children today puts on parents.  “I fell like a taxi service.”  “I’m coaching two teams.”  “Today, it’s volleyball; tomorrow, piano; I cant even remember what we have to do the evening after that, but it’s something.”  But as a pastor, I know that we are failing and that we are slowly drifiting towards a situation like that in which Judges begins–an entire generation that I fear are knowing God less and less, if not all.

I dont have the answer.  I know as a church we have to be creative.  We have to work with parents and their schedules.  I know that we have youth who split time between two parents.  I know that there are certain elements of other events that the church used to fill for people–the need for friendship, for working together towards an end result.  I know all of these things.  But I dont want an entire generation to go without knowing something about God, about how the Holy Spirit can help youth find their place in the world, how the Grace of Christ can keep them on track. 

We can do better.  We need to.