CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
There are several opinions with respect to the definition of youth across countries of the world. Jalata (2014) stated that the UN (United Nations) describes youth as a person aged between 15 to 24 years old. The African Union terms youth as individual aged between 15 to 35 years old. This paper adopts the UN definition of youth. The African population is estimated to be more than a billion people, among whom more than 65% are young under the age of 35, and the youth make up 40% of Africa’s working age population. In Africa, young people aged 15-24 account for 20.2% of the population and “constitutes a fifth of the world’s population.
Sixty per cent of Nigeria’s population is youth and youth unemployment in Nigeria is put at 60 per cent. This gives one an insight into the terrible circumstances in which young Nigerians have found themselves” (Umezulike, 2015). “The church is full of opportunities for service. One exciting opportunity is the potential of engaging and encouraging the youth in our local churches to be involved in ministry “(Paul, 2012). There are many potential youths in Nigeria, that need to be brought up in an encouraging way, discovering their
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity …” 1 Timothy 4:12. This is an admonition on the need to live a Holy and blameless life addressed to a young man, Timothy. But, premarital sex, insolent speech, materialism, ruthlessness, theft and violence are some of the common vices generally found among Christian youths today. The worst is that some of them are even part of the present day insurgence group called “Jama’a tul Ahlis Sunna Lidda Awati Wal-jihad” popularly addressed as “Boko Haram” which literally means “western education is forbidden.”
David and Pat Alexander emphasized that: “Salvation is God’s gift, but it carries with it the obligation to live and behave, from that point on, as God wants. This means deliberately discarding the old (selfish way of life), shedding former habits, and letting the new life change our thinking and remold our pattern of behavior.”
ANALYSIS OF YOUTH LIFESTYLE IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN NIGERIA
According to the Alexander’s view, supra, our salvation carries with it a responsibility for a new lifestyle; we are expected to change our thinking, remold our lifestyle, and to live a life of obedience to the word of God. Our Lord Jesus explained that:
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beats against that house and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24 – 27).
The message, which our Lord Jesus passed across in the above metaphor of the wise and foolish builders, is clear. It indicates that every Christian, consequently a Christian youth, is a builder. Everyone is building his/her destiny while on earth. If our youths obey the Word of God and put it into practice, they are like a wise man who built his house on Christ – Rock (godly values). While disobedient youths are like a foolish man who built his house on Satan – sand (worldly lifestyle).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Today, a great percentage of our Christian youths are living a life of disobedience to the Word of God, they are copying the patterns of this world with dexterity. Today, the lifestyle of the youth is such that it is very difficult to have a distinction between Christian youths and of those who are not Christians. How can we change the perspective of our youth who are easily lured and enticed by worldly lifestyle? This research is vital because it aims at making an analysis of the Christian youths’ lifestyle, enlightening them and warning the victims of the dangers ahead.
Most organizations especially in church set up always want their youths to live and practice the godly lifestyles (character trait of Jesus), the absence of this brings a very big problem between the youths and the leadership of the church. In some instances, the youths are removed from position of leadership or placed on church discipline. This indicates that Christian organizations are after godly lifestyles that will lead to a very good behavior and achievement of its goals and objective.
ANALYSIS OF YOUTH LIFESTYLE IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN NIGERIA
In this regard, the researcher was brought up at a time when youth lifestyles was relatively good, and when the relationship between youth and church leadership was also good. This made it possible for the researcher to have an enormous burden regarding lifestyles of most of our youths in Church who are beclouded by this new age philosophy which is geared towards self-aggrandizement, hedonism, individualism, and self-confidence. This has led them into a life of sexual immorality, drug abuse, occultism, pride, disrespect, indolence, get rich quick syndrome, violence and so on. This study seeks to make an analysis of youth lifestyles with the aim of finding the causes, effect, and solution of the new age philosophy that is leading our youth towards worldly lifestyles rather than Christ-like life.
