Some More Thoughts on Youth Ministry

Pastor Peter Sun

At this writing, we are already into the first part in July, in about a month, Brody, our summer missionary will leave us. We are thankful to God for him. He is the first whole summer missionary we have had. In the past we have only had missionaries to come help us with the VBS. He has tried to get our youth together to go to sports, to the beach, and to have bible study together on Wednesday evenings. As I understand the former two did not yield any takers. And for the first bible study, I am glad to say there was one. I hope there will be more and more. This brings up several thoughts in my mind which I like to share with you here:

1. Praise the Lord for our Friday night youth fellowships which have been going on. I have thought that the summer would be a wonderful time to launch a booster for the youth, especially we have a summer missionary here. It seems to me that many of our youth have already had other commitments. I think it will take a couple of years for our youth and parents to know there is going to be some summer emphasis in the church, and therefore to plan accordingly. Of course the difficulty is that we have never had a program in the church before, and all of us parents know we want to plan ahead for our youth.

2. The design of the program is not easy. This year we tried to use the program at First Baptist of Clairemont [Editor: The church up the street]. We have two of our own, the Six Flags trip and the lock-in. I personally do not know the responses to these and how good these programs are. First Baptist has the mission trips to Mexico and Setfree, a Southern Baptist rehab ministry in San Diego. Again, I do not know how our youth and their parents will feel about these. In the long run, these mission excursions will open our eyes.

3. I invite you to pray for our youth ministry. They are the most valuable asset that God has given us. Before they go to college, we must equip them. We have clothed them, fed them, even educated them in extracurricular sports or other activities. But we must equip the to have a good relation with God, help them to know right from wrong. It is not as easy as you think. To many people in this world, many things are gray. To some of us many things are not black and white, unless we know God and know what He thinks. I want to go to your next Parents and youth meeting and talk to you more. May God bless everyone.

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