Jesus isn’t white. Shocking, isn’t it? But you could’ve fooled me.

You see, as a teenager and weekly youth ministry group devotee, I was certain of three things: Jesus was Republican, He was Baptist, and He most certainly was white. Haven’t you seen the paintings?

The Bible says we are created in God’s image; so logic simply told me that if my world was full of white, Baptist, Republicans, then certainly Jesus was a right-wing, evangelical Caucasian. It made perfect sense to me.

But then I went to college; and, like many 18-year-olds, I discovered a world in great contrast to the adolescent bubble in which I grew up. For instance, I met people who claimed to be both Christians and Democrats. So I prayed for them. Surely these heretics would realize that the term “Christian Democrat” is an oxymoron. I met Presbyterians, Methodists and Catholics who knew the Bible and were passionate about following Christ. Things just didn’t add up.

Jesus Who?
Uncomfortable with the realization that my version of reality wasn’t divinely endorsed truth, I struggled to accept that Jesus might be much more than my adolescent, finite mind realized. The boxed-in Jesus I envisioned as a child and young teenager no longer seemed applicable to my life.

This discovery made me uncomfortable, uneasy and fearful. If everything I had ever known wasn’t necessarily granite truth, then how could I feel certain about my faith? How could I feel safe?

And, quite honestly, that’s what it all boiled down to — safety. My Jesus was safe, easy and far from challenging. He was my affable buddy — the guy who held the lamb in the Sunday school flannel graphs, the guy who patted me on the head and told me everything would be fine. My Jesus taught Christianity as a mechanical 12-step program — walk down an aisle, say a prayer, read your Bible, go to church — rather than a dynamic, everchanging,  adventurous journey that couldn’t be watered down to a formula.

My journey as a teenage Christian never advanced past the first step, primarily because I feared stepping outside of my comfort zone to truly discover Jesus. Instead of branching out and envisioning a world through non-white, non-Baptist and non-Republican lenses, I asked Christ to meet me inside my safety net; but He never seemed to show up.

I’d often feel disappointed and frustrated because my spiritual life seemed stagnant, all because Jesus wasn’t being who I wanted Him to be. He wasn’t just some happy-go-lucky teacher who simply offered spiritual advice and suggestions, pointing us down an unblemished highway with road markers along the way. If only it were so easy.

Out of the Comfort Zone
In the years since my youth group experiences, I’ve found Jesus to be quite unsettling. I’ve often grown closest to Christ in the times in which He made me the most
uncomfortable. In fact, it was Jesus who led me from my comfort zone into areas of indescribable discomfort.

After spending four years deceiving myself into believing I wanted to attend law school, all the while knowing that God had other plans for me, Christ guided me out of that painful situation. I learned that money, status and others’ opinions weren’t on Jesus’ radar during His time on earth and that they shouldn’t be on mine.

Consequently, I had to suck up my pride, drop out of law school during my first semester, and face the judgmental stares of those who believed I was a quitter. At 23, I faced an incredibly uncomfortable truth: I had no clue of God’s desire for my life — but I knew it wasn’t a law career. The guarantee of a six-figure salary on the horizon vanished, and I was left with a Political Science degree and a blank drawing board. But Christ had me right where He wanted me.

When I was too fearful to end an unhealthy, one-year-old relationship, simply because I was comfortable having someone else around, God let me, quite literally, hit a wall. Frustrated to the point of unbearable anger, I punched a wall one evening while talking on the phone with my girlfriend. Faced with a broken hand, a broken relationship and a broken heart, I entered another period of unthinkable pain, discomfort and embarrassment. But Christ again had me right where He wanted me. Three months later, I met my future wife.

Why should I be surprised that Jesus can, quite often, lead us out of our comfort zones? Think about the disciples. Here were basically 12 teenage guys, most of whom were still under the safety of their parents’ wings. Jesus approached two of these young men, Andrew and Simon Peter, without warning and asked them to give up everything they had ever known and follow Him. So in an instant, these two teenagers were taken from the security of their parents, the security of their future trade as fishermen, and asked to follow this man whom they had just met.

Think of Christ’s statement to His followers in Mark 8:34: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (NIV). Jesus knew He would one day suffer on the cross, but He still asked those who believed Him to follow. Though it seemed counterintuitive to shadow a man who forgave prostitutes, healed lepers and hung out with “godless” tax collectors, they followed anyway.

The Youth Worker’s Responsibility
When I think of the Jesus who doesn’t match our safe, comfortable, westernized descriptions of Him, I often wonder: Why did it take me so long to see Jesus for who
He really is, not who I wanted Him to be?

I’ll take the blame for being too stubborn and prideful to realize that I didn’t have the market on truth cornered. I sometimes ask, though, Would I have grown closer to Jesus if my youth group leaders had painted a more challenging picture of Christ? Maybe I would have experienced more spiritual growth in my teenage years had I realized that my primary goal as a Christian is simple: to intimately know Jesus.

As youth workers, our greatest responsibility is to teach our students an unfiltered Jesus, a Jesus who might very well live outside of modern-day perception. We need to communicate to teenagers that if they aren’t feeling challenged in their spiritual lives, if Jesus’ teaching isn’t slowly drawing them out of their comfort zones, then it’s time to focus on what it truly means to be a Christian — following Christ no matter the cost.

Of course, it’s important to point out that following Christ doesn’t necessarily mean martyrdom, physical torment and governmental persecution — at least, not in America. But do communicate that the journey may lead them to new friendships with “outsider” classmates who know little of Jesus; it may lead them to a college that they have written off as “too far away” or “too liberal”; or it may take them out of a comfortable dating relationship to the daunting world of teenage singleness.

The ATM Jesus
Most importantly, following Jesus will guide them away from the egocentric and easy view of Jesus as our spiritual ATM machine who dishes out blessings as long as we say the “right prayer” and don’t sin. This self-centered philosophy reveals yet another way we attempt to manipulate Jesus to work inside our agendas and expectations so we can feel temporarily comfortable and secure.

As Ivy Beckwith comments in iPostmodern Children’s Ministry/i, “These children need a community where following Jesus is not just about what Jesus does for me”; rather, it’s about understanding that “following Jesus has more to do with what I can do for others and the rest of the world.”

When we can consistently help a 16-year-old shift the focus from himself to someone else, then we have successfully communicated Jesus’ greatest command: love. For most of us, true love is one of the most difficult and unsafe ventures we’ll ever undertake. If Jesus existed in order to give Himself as a sacrifice for others, shouldn’t that be our desire? After all, is Christianity about safety, or is it about sacrifice?

Jesus One-on-One
Finally, it’s vital to communicate to our students that church, small groups and youth gatherings are secondary and supplemental to personal time in prayer and meditation. Only through personal time with Christ can we filter the outside noise and discover the true, adventurous Jesus for ourselves.

I recall, as a teenager, believing I was spiritual simply because I went to a few youth events per month or rarely missed a church service. When church leaders overemphasize church attendance and special events, they run the risk of members, and especially youth, feeling as if these events — rather than personal, one-on-one time with Jesus — define their spiritual lives.

While, as youth workers, our goal should be to communicate the core message of the gospel, we should always encourage our students not to accept things simply because we, or the pastor, say them. When they discover Jesus on their own, when they read His words in the Gospels, they begin to develop a living, breathing relationship that grows and evolves, rather than simply to rely on their youth ministers or pastors for spiritual maturity.

This also helps them moderate the outside voices that claim that following Jesus is always safe, easy and comfortable. And when our students can filter the distractions and the misguided perceptions about Jesus, they will take the first steps toward picking up their crosses and following Him.

Where that path leads is unknown. However, one thing is certain: Expect some discomfort, expect some suffering; but when the journey is over, expect to see Jesus face to face, on the throne, at the right hand of God. Then, with the pains of earth behind us, in the presence of Almighty God, we’ll truly encounter the safe Jesus for whom we’ve always longed.

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Robert Bruce is the youth content manager for InTouch Ministries and the Charles Stanley Institute for Christian Living in Atlanta, Georgia. Recently married, Robert attends North Point Community Church. He spends his free time getting lost on Atlanta’s roads and passionately cheering for University of Georgia football.