The Bible records a few instances of Jesus laying down an especially hard core challenge, followed by the conclusion: Many people left and followed Him no more.
It seems that these people felt over-challenged by Jesus. They concluded that the cost of discipleship was too high. So they made the decision to walk away from Christ.

As a pastor, I am heartbroken by the generation of high school and middle school students making the decision to walk away from Christ for the exact opposite reason:
The challenge we present isn’t great enough.
I feel that the greatest peril in modern Christianity relating to youth culture is that we are under challenging this generation of students with an anemic alternate version of the Gospel that isn’t worth keeping your pants on for.
It’s not that Christianity is “too hard”, so they give up…
It’s that the consumer Christianity we bore them with is too cheap, so why pay the price?
We lull them to sleep with do’s and don’ts in assorted varieties, take them to Carowinds 15 times a year to keep their parents happy because we’re “doing something for the young people”, and wonder why they ditch FCA for the bar the first Thursday night of their freshman year in college.

That’s why during DOMINATE we’re challenging all of our students to play an active role and to lead the way in revolutionary generosity.
I’m actually personally meeting with all of our students this Sunday night to share with them more of the details of the campaign, and challenge them to do something with their youth beyond beating World of Warcraft (again).
Some would say it’s a waste of the Lead Pastor’s time to meet with the students in the middle of a capital campaign. After all, what do they have to give?
That’s where they’re wrong. I was 16 years old when God saved me, and I was 16 years old when God put it in my heart to start this church. I’d rather turn this city upside down by lighting the fire of a pack of know-nothing students than by sucking up to a bunch of know-it-all fat cats. I’d better stop.

Students, I’ll see you Sunday night. And if you don’t want your world rocked, stay home. I promise you won’t be underchallenged.

The Dominate Students event for Pulse, the high school ministry and Spin, the middle school ministry, begins at 6:30pm at Providence High School. A pizza dinner will be provided. Parents are welcome to attend. Don’t miss out!