youth – Gospel Minutes for Everyday Missionaries

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Arriving in the evening before the big hike, we set up camp for the night. Early morning came, and we prepared for the hike. I had never led a trip up the side of a mountain before, but the guys wanted to do it. We started out, and it took about three hours to get to the top of Mt. St. Helens. I was hot and tired. Not knowing what to expect, I had brought too many clothes up the mountain, which made my pack heavy. Here I was at the top of Mount St. Helens, peering over the edge into the bowl, thinking to myself, “I could have just seen this in a postcard.” I was at the top of a mountain that had erupted just over 20 years ago, and I was not in awe of God’s creation. I was focused on the fact that I was tired and still had to hike back down. Tomina likes to comment how I am not good at living in the moment. I am very quick at wanting to move on to the next thing. Which means I miss a lot.

I almost missed out on something huge that God was doing at Challenge this year, but God didn’t let me. If it was up to me, I would have moved too quickly toward bed, because I was so tired. But instead, God intervened and showed me that I need to stop moving so quickly and live in the moment, because he was working in that moment. I had been on this trip before. I had seen God do the normal things on this trip in years past. I expected him to do the same things on this trip. He had different plans. He wanted to show me that he works in crazy ways still. Being in youth ministry for over 20 years has given me a veteran cynicism that isn’t healthy. God took my cynicism and turned it into wonder. God showed up in a way that I had not seen in 20 years of ministry. This past trip to Challenge reminded me why I went into ministry. God still works in crazy ways. I got to see that firsthand, and I would have missed it if it was left up to me.

I feel like this happens every Sunday. We show up to church because it is what we are supposed to do, but do we expect God to do anything on Sunday? I want to change the way I view Sunday. I want to encourage us to view Sundays differently. God is active, and I want to see what He is doing, so I want us to come every Sunday expecting to see God do something amazing. I want to wake up every morning, seeking God and watching for Him to do something crazy. It may not happen every day, but it does happen, and I don’t want to miss it because I am too busy going from one thing to the next, going through the motions of my life.

And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. (Acts 2:44-47, NLT)

I want to see this happen at Elim, where God is adding to our fellowship those who are being saved because we are actively seeking Him and expecting Him to show up in crazy ways, which will lead to people coming to the saving knowledge of Christ. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that God is always at work. He wants to do crazy things in our church and community if we are actively seeking Him. I am not sure what He is going to do, but I don’t want to miss out because I was to busy going through the motions.

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by Brian Sharpe, with an article by Shane Stacey

Here is an article that I read recently that would be good for all of us to read. It was written by Shane Stacey, the National Director for Students Ministries in the Evangelical Free Church. He is highlighting the need for churches to focus on ages 12-22. I am grateful for how you all have supported student and young adult ministries through the years. It has been a focus for Elim and it needs to continue to be a focus.

Please be praying for Common Ground (our Jr. and Sr. High ministry) and Pulse (our young adults ministry) as we seek to work with these age groups, pointing them to Jesus.

“10 Reasons Why Youth Are the Strategic Bulls-Eye of our Missional Target”

by Shane Stacey

The “12-22 window” is quickly becoming the largest unreached people group in the world. Young people, ages 12-22, must be a central priority of today’s Church.

In Hurt, Chap Clark writes that today’s adolescents operate within an environment in which adults have largely abdicated their responsibility to mold and shape teenagers’ everyday lives causing them to create an “adolescent underworld.”

Is the church contributing to this underworld? Are we unintentionally abandoning our collective role in reaching and developing young people? We must awaken to the opportunity before us, seeing youth as the most strategic missional focus of our day!

This is true for several reasons:

This is a “tipping point” generation. The Millennials/Gen Y is the largest generation in history (3 billion under 25 globally; 100 million and climbing in America).

Youth are treasured by God. The birth of every new generation is an expression of breadth of the work of the cross that extends to yet another generation. God calls himself the Father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5), enlisted young people into His redemptive story, and literally mandates the older generation to reach to the next (Psalm 78:3-7).

Youth are wired for passion; looking for a cause. As Kenda Creasy Dean says in Practicing Passion, “Students are looking for something worth dying for and, sadly, all too often we give them pizza.” It is the cause found in the story line of the Scripture that will move young people to live out their unique Ephesians 2:10 purpose in God’s epic story.

Youth are like new wineskins. Youth are incredibly moldable, having far less to unlearn than most adults. If they adopt a disciplemaking way of life in these early years, there is far greater likelihood they will live a lifestyle of multiplication over the next 50 years.

Youth are highly responsive to the gospel. The high majority of those who repent and surrender to Christ do so before their 20th birthday.

Youth are accessible. Nearly 25 million teens will pass through 67,000 middle and high schools before scattering into college campuses, the military and the market place. There is an incredible opportunity for any church that will take the time to collectively pray for, serve and support even just one of their local schools.

Youth are motivated by relationships. One of the core motivations of young people is the need for connection, relationships and community. On top of this, the social media revolution of our day has been invented and driven by young people. Both their motivation for connection and the social economy of the world creates a relationally rich environment through which the gospel can spread.

Youth are globally-connected. Youth are more informed of global news and events than in decades past. This “wired” culture has created a global youth culture that, according to McCann Worldgroup’s article entitled The Truth about Youth, share many of the same core motivations: community, justice and authenticity. This has created a truly global youth culture.

Youth are kingdom contributors, now! We need to believe that young people are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and because they have discretionary time and are indigenous to youth culture, they can be ministers in their own right today.

Jesus modeled it for us. If we are still not convinced, then all we need to do is to look at the strategy of Jesus. Most of Jesus’ disciples were teenagers. There is also good reason to believe that most of the 500 that Paul mentions in 1 Cor.14:6 were young people.

Read the full article (PDF).

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Ten reasons why youth are the strategic bullseye of our missional target