Global Youth Sabbath: Adventist Young Adults Do Community Service
March 21, 2016: “Over eight million Adventist Millennials took the church to the streets to occupy their communities with goodness … to lend aid to the needy [and] give genuine attention to those in the margin,” wrote Dr. Allan Martin in his summary of Global Youth Day. He is pastor of the Younger Generation congregation at the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, and convener of the Facebook group for Adventist youth and young adult ministry professionals.
The denomination’s official Web site for Global Youth Day included reports of nearly 10,000 projects on a map of the world. Each report included video or digital photos from a local participant or reporter. A total of 73 percent of these reports came from Latin America and the Caribbean, with two to seven percent each from Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and the Pacific.
Many of the projects included demonstrations with parades of young people carrying signs. “Their placards stated their adamant sentiments about compassion and their intent to ‘be the sermon,'” Martin wrote. “Their actions validated their determination to be agents of grace and kindness.”
The projects included feeding the homeless, working with children from poor families, sharing appreciation with law enforcement and local civic leaders, donating blood and many other kinds of activities. The denomination’s television Hope Channel broadcast reports throughout the day on Sabbath.
In Oslo (Norway), Adventist young people teamed up with the Red Cross to recruit volunteers to help welcome refugees and immigrants. In Plymouth (England), the youth group and the church school worked together to present an Easter service in church in the morning and then, after lunch, went on a nature walk in Jennycliff preserve to clean up trash along the footpaths, beaches and parking lots, equipped with litter pickers and plastic bags.
In Malawi, Radio Malawi 24 reported that Adventist youth conducted a blood donation drive with the appreciation of Wamale Muyaba, senior public health nursing officer for Lilongwe municipality because “most of the time their blood in is infection free unlike other people.” Pastor Kelvin Buya, associate youth director for the denomination’s Central Malawi Conference, urged young people to get HIV testing so they could donate blood. Adventist youth also planted trees and picked refuse in public markets in villages.
Groups of students and other young people from Newbold College in England visited residents of Birdsgove Nursing Home, sang in Princess Square in the nearby town of Bracknell, and helped with community gardens at Jealotts Hill Community Landshare. One group traveled to Newmarket-on-Fergus in County Cork, Ireland, to help with a new congregation getting started there, according to a news bulletin from the denomination’s British Union Conference.
“As Christ shed his blood to save us, so are we called on this day of service to also donate blood to save a life,” Pastor Alfred Asiem, youth director of the denomination’s South Ghana Union Conference, was quoted by the Ghana News Association in media across the country. Adventist youth marched on several main streets in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and organized a blood drive at Borstal Institute, the news service reported. In Ghana the World Youth Day projects also launched a Youth Week of Prayer extending this week to Easter.
Some 300 Adventist young people in Belgium participated in 60 projects just two days before the tragic, senseless killings by terrorists in Brussels, the nation’s capital city and headquarters for the European Union of countries (EU) as well as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In Denmark, youth from the Aalborg Adventist Church made waffles for and played with the children at a refugee center. In Finland, a group of Adventist youth dressed as beggars on the street, “but instead of asking for money, they offered one Euro to each passerby who was willing to share their story,” reported a news bulletin from the denomination’s Trans-European Division (TED).
Pastor Sam Gungaloo teamed up with Keryhs Sterling, a young adult from Aylesbury, a suburb west of London, to provide live coverage of Global Youth Day on the Internet for 24 hours. For Sterling’s final report on Facebook she wrote; “Another fantastic Global Youth Day is complete, and what an incredible and inspiring experience it was! Spent with the greatest of people! Continue to go out there and make a difference in your communities. [It] isn’t just a day, it’s a lifestyle!”
Parading and singing at a nursing home may seem like nice things to do, but they hardly are the sort of things described in Isaiah 58 as the ways God wants us glorifying Him on the Sabbath. But they’re a start. Jesus did many miracles on the Sabbath that made a real difference in the lives of the people He was helping and got criticized for breaking the Sabbath. Maybe in the future the youth will be guided into doing things that actually make a difference instead of only being allowed to do things that traditionalists think are “not doing work on the Sabbath.”
Yep. Generate some good PR and some photo ops.
From my own youthful days I tended to avoid these kinds of “helping activities”. i preferred longer term commitments that might actually result in some positive changes. For example, while in college I drove a min-bus of like-minded students to tutor inner-city children, not just once, but once a week on an on-going basis. I don’t know how much we eelvated their grades, but by about the third or fourth time we showed-up the thought taht we might actually care about them began to sink-in.
But of course we were largely ignored by own own university PR mill. That was not the kind of story they were interested in. Not the kind of image they wanted to project. And because it was a student initiative as opposed to adminstration initiative, it didn’t make them look good and they regarded us with a measure of suspicion.
Now I must say that since that time, some SDA campuses have actually made ongoing constructive service to their surrounding communities, a sustained priority as opposed to an annual one-day feel-good PR event.
What a wonderful positive thing. What a new breath when the millions of young Adventists become known as “those kids who do something good for their communities” every Sabbath. May Global Youth Day become a regular habit 52 Sabbaths a year. Carpe diem! Take Sabbath back from the Pharisee. It was made for mankind.
It’s great to see Adventist youth world wide doing “good” in the community, even if it’s once a year, however it may not be such a spiritual idea, after all, when the fourth commandment is ignored and broken in the process thereby making light of it. Getting our youth to do those social actions on the Sabbath day, world wide, in an official capacity, when they are supposed to be worshipping their Creator with the rest of the church is to send the wrong and subtle signal that it doesn’t really matter. If it is permissible to do it one Sabbath why not on other Sabbaths as well? For our leaders to support and encourage this is to set the wrong example to our youth and the very community they would want or hope to become 7th day Adventists one day – or maybe they don’t. Why not do the same thing on a Sunday instead? Would it perhaps offend other Christians who would not take too kindly to their gardens being attended to because they are keeping their Sunday sacred?
Claude,
I fear you are confusing worship with the 11 o’clock service instead of doing what glorifies God before others by ministering to their needs in loving ways.
What greater way can we bring glory to God and show our adoration for Him than by ministering His love to others in ways that improve their lives? Please, read Isaiah 58, not just verse 13, but the entire chapter where God talks about all the things He wants us to do to honor Him. Read about the miracles Jesus performed on the Sabbath. We are only imagining that we are keeping the Sabbath holy when we withdraw from the world and only go to church. We are not blessed because we prohibit ourselves from serving others in the vast number of ways available to us on that day.
You would be surprised by the number of ways God has led me to help people on the Sabbath and how they praised God for the blessing they had received. Helping people recover belongings after a house fire. Working with an electrician (also an Adventist) to restore electric service at a home where the meter base had gone bad (I had to go to Home Depot and buy parts). Delivering food to people who didn’t have a job. The list is so long that I’m writing a book about the ministry adventures God has sent me on. Some of my greatest blessings have come from serving others in those ways on the Sabbath.
Why does this sound something like what Jesus experienced with the Jewish leaders in the NT?
I would suggest kids become more spiritual through helping (after a short youth SS) than sitting through a boring church service.
EM,
What a wonderful idea! I would love to see that happen.
I don’t want to let a cynical quest for accuracy get in the way of a good story, but…
Are there really 8 million millenials in the Adventist Church? The article refers to young people, youth and millenials interchangeably. I don’t get the feeling that there were very many post-college age kids involved, which knocks out about half the millenials. Self-reporting is generally highly unreliable when an occasion for unverifiable moral exhibitionism presents itself. Ya’ think there might have been a little temptation to inflate the numbers and embellish the story?
To the extent this is reliable, it is more a testament to the organizational skills of Adventist youth pastors and young adult leaders around the world than an indication of real commitment to service on the part of Adventist young people. Most, if not all, academies in NAD require community service. I’d much rather hear of ongoing, sustained projects that entwine the lives of Adventist young people with their communities in organic, transformative ways. Symbolism is great if the thing that it points to is real and substantive. Otherwise, it’s just moral exhibitionism – a clanging “symbol”
Nathan,
Well said! Where possible, skewer hypocrisy and deflate overstatement.
Please lets not put down a beginning! It has to start somewhere to grow and become part of our culture. It’s something youth can become interested in and make religion more attractive. Why do you think people like Bernie Sanders are so popular with youth–they want to make a difference in the lives of others, especially the marginalized and think that’s what he wants. Ignorantly they don’t know what else Bernie stands for.
I’m sure you’re right about the inflated numbers–it’s like church members and converts after an evangelistic effort.
What I think we are missing here it that the best witness of Sabbath-keeping is Worship to God, while refraining from secular, day-to-day activities. Pertaining to the youth in England cleaning up the trash along footpaths, beaches, and parking lots; the Malawi youth painting trees and picking up refuge in the parking lot; the Newbold College Students helping in community gardens; these are all activities that bring proper Sabbath-keeping into question. I will assure you that no one is explaining to the public that they are, in fact, keeping the Sabbath as they do these activities.
What does “six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God” really mean? The “but” in that verse means that what takes place on the sacred Sabbath is vastly different from what takes place during the secular days. These acts of compassion are noble; but done on the wrong day. While making for a powerful witness in helping others, the witness of the Sabbath is diluted; if not obliterated. Make no mistake, we all can come up with things we can do to help others on the Sabbath that are synonymous with secular activity; but where does that leave the Sabbath? The jobs many Adventists have help people. Why not just keep working into and throughout the Sabbath; if our jobs help others? Our first duty is to show that God gave mankind (I’ll not say “humankind”; our new terminology) the Sabbath and that it is UNLIKE any other day.
Bro. Turner,
Tradition speaks more loudly in your words than scripture. The command of God is to refrain from doing our daily work so we can focus on spending time with Him. Serving others on the Sabbath to relieve their suffering and improve their lives is not a violation of the Sabbath, but in perfect harmony with it. The many miracles Jesus performed on the Sabbath give us a rich example to follow in doing good.
We Adventists have bound-up the Sabbath with so many misconceptions about what is or is not “work” that we’ve made it a burden instead of a day filled with joy in celebrating and ministering the great love of our creator and redeemer.
One would think Sunday a better day for this, but maybe in Europe that would cause other problems (though I understand they are more secular than here). Actually you maybe out of touch with secular people. They wouldn’t understand doing good on your Sabbath to be out of bounds–that would be ludicrous to them. Is it like pulling an animal out of a ditch? Such a day must start with a short worship and blessing for the day and those they help. Don’t you understand that today’s youth are more apt to become spiritual through helping others than sitting through a boring sermon (as they interpret it). Most kids don’t grow up in ideal homes any more. “Work” is generally interpreted as making a living for oneself as on other weekdays–not a time set aside. We become more spiritual in a mature way and kids can’t be expected to worship on the level of an adult. Thank God, He meets us where we are. He does not expect us to rise up to Him as in some religions. Or meet us half-way as in others. He is with us.
I just wish they would keep the Sabbath holy, and then do all these things the next day on Sunday. Things that don’t absolutely need to be done on the Sabbath (i.e. non-emergencies) should be done at another time. Leave the Sabbath for rest and fellowship, and do community service another day. We’d be a better witness, because we’d actually be practising what we preach. Or don’t we preach that anymore?
Unfortunately, I don’t hear this preached any longer 🙁
If you study the Gospels carefully, you will find that Jesus went out of His way to perform “non-emergency” healings on the Sabbath.
For this cause the Jews sought to slay Him.
The Jews were the Seventh-day Adventist church of their time. They kept the Sabbath and eagerly anticipated the Advent of the Messiah.
Seems like the contemporary Seventh-day Adventist church has no shortage of Judaizers?
In the eyes of Jesus every form of human suffering was an “emergency”.
In the eyes of the Pharisees, there were six days to attend (or ignore) these “non-emergencies”.
Leo H,
Your tradition contradicts the example of Jesus.
Luke 13:14-16. “Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
“Your tradition contradicts the example of Jesus.”
No it does not.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath. These young people are not healing; they are sweeping streets, carting out rubbish etc. These are not activities for Sabbath. Adventist medical personnel already heal on the Sabbath and the Adventist church has no problem with this, but Global Youth Day is not this.
Is it unlawful to do good on the Sabbath? Please, show us where God defines what is or is not “good” that can be done on the Sabbath. You are imagining rules that cannot be found in scripture.
Picking-up trash off the roadside was not what they would typically do. Is that not the essence of not doing your regular work as described in the 4th Commandment. They were seeking the good of others instead of focusing on themselves. Is that not seeking the good of others that God is talking about in Isaiah 58? If you still think not, then I ask: Do you ever do anything good for others on the Sabbath? I think that is unlikely. The works Jesus did on the Sabbath improved the living of the people He touched. What do you do on the Sabbath that improves the living of others?
Bro. Noel,
To me you wrote,
“Serving others on the Sabbath to relieve their suffering and improve their lives is not a violation of the Sabbath, but in perfect harmony with it.”
But then to Bro. Leo (I would think) you responded,
“Please, show us where God defines what is or is not “good” that can be done on the Sabbath.”
Which assertion do you stand behind? In the first comment you declare what can be done, but then in the second comment you assert that God has not defined what should and should not be done on the Sabbath. More importantly, we must understand that the Sabbath is to be shown to the world the specialness of the “ignored day”. The more our activities align with the activities of non-Sabbathkeepers, the specialness of the Sabbath declines proportionately. I will make the same analogy I made concerning the “Sunday Services” controversy at First SDA Church in Huntsville, Ala. When the people get out of their cars to worship on Sunday at 10:00AM, they may be having a “different type service” and may be evangelizing in the process; but no one knows what their intentions are, they just see a new, unfamiliar sight: “Seventh-day Adventists worshipping on Sunday”. They don’t know what our aims are and we don’t have the luxury of being able to explain it to every driver/passersby. They just see us worshipping on Sunday. The same with picking up garbage, gardening, etc.
Bro. Turner,
Most Adventist discussions of what is or is not “work” that violates the Sabbath are based on evaluations of specific activities and non-scriptural concepts where the example of Jesus shows us that He was focused on benefit and purpose. I found clarity on the topic when I studied what Jesus did on the Sabbath and matched that with the description in Isaiah, chapter 58 about what God wants us doing on the Sabbath. So instead of predicting how many drops of sweat you might shed, consider evaluating ministry opportunities using the following questions.
1. Is it part of my routine weekly activities? If yes, don’t do it.
2. Is it an urgent or critical need? If so, get moving.
3. Does it move my focus from serving myself to helping others? Consider doing it.
4. Does it give me a chance to share God’s love in some way? Seize the opportunity.
5. Will it improve the recipient’s life? Give it serious consideration.
Some of the greatest blessings I have ever received have come when I was drenched with sweat from working hard to help someone on the Sabbath and heard them praising God for the help they had received. It has happened enough times that I am no longer surprised when someone asks if I’m really an angel because they can hardly believe a human would do what my team has done for them.
Karin,
The “rest” the 4th commandment speaks of is not physical, but a change of focus in our activities away from the routine things we do to make a living the rest of the week. Isaiah, chapter 58 gives us concepts of what is acceptable to God on the Sabbath that includes far more than resting. Plus, in that chapter God gives a strong rebuke about how human concepts regarding how He should be worshipped are offensive to Him.
I couldn’t agree with you more that the opportunities to minister God’s love to the needs around us are multitude. If visiting the sick and aged is what God is calling you to do, then do it with all your might while recognizing that God calls different people to minister His love in a host of ways to which you are not called. There is a big, need-filled world out there waiting for a multitude of God’s people to love in a thousand ways you’ve probably never considered.
No, I probably wouldn’t go out planting trees or picking-up trash on the Sabbath, but at least the youth were given an opportunity to do something for others instead of being told to do nothing worthwhile. If doing that gets them thinking about what else they might do to help others on the Sabbath, then a huge problem is on the path to being solved because boredom from Sabbath legalism is a big driver pushing our youth out of the church.
Pardon me, please. How can you praise the Lord by taking each other to task of what should or should not be done on the Sabbath Day?? Is it not Pharisaical to do so?? Each Christian will spend the Sabbath as they are influenced by the Holy Spirit. It is not our role to criticize, but to offer encouragement to all, especially the younger members. Otherwise we further alienate these very sensitive and impressionable young people, who are leaving our Christian experience in flocks. In Jesus’s day, life was a harrowing tiring daily experience, 7 days a week, for all but the Elite, and it
was a blessing to the Jews. Today, in some countries of our world, most have 2-3 days off. Let’s praise our GOD seven days of the week, and build up His creation in UNITY, by not passing judgement on others.
Earl,
I think you are right. If you want to identify a Pharisee, note who is trying to limit the concept of what is permissible to do on the Sabbath.
I remember from my earliest youth being told that certain things couldn’t be done on the Sabbath and that list was very long where the list of what was permissible was very short. That isn’t what I find in the example of Jesus or the instructions about what God wants us to do that are listed in Isaiah, chapter 58. What I find in scripture are not specific prohibitions, but general guidelines and principles where we are to focus on our relationship with God and our families, including service to others that brings glory to God by lifting their life burdens and relieving their suffering.
Let each person serve in the way that God gives them opportunity. Instead of arguing about what is right or wrong to do on the Sabbath, we should be trusting God to show us what He wants us doing. I can tell you from my experience that those callings have been some of my most surprising and powerful ministry adventures.
Jesus performed miracles so people would see the love and power of God in action and want to follow Him. He calls on us to do the same so their hearts will be opened to the message we carry. Many more would listen and join the church if we first showed them God’s love and power.
Reading some of the comments here demonstrates the “love” some have toward fellow humans; but where is the “Love” towards Jesus Christ?
The Apostles met on the “first day of the week”, but what did they do on the Seventh?
“27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days.Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.” Ex. 16:22-30.
“15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” 1 John 2:15-17.
“40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”” Luke 10:38-42.
DD,
I think you have both asked the pertinent question and confused the answer with misconceptions about the Sabbath that ignores the clear instruction of Jesus. How does Jesus want us to honor Him and show our love for Him? Read John, chapters 13-16 where Jesus exhorts His disciples about continuing the ministry He had been doing. He was so serious that he plainly told them in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will do what I command.” If such a plain statement from Jesus doesn’t answer your question about how He wants us to express our love to Him, you won’t find an answer anywhere in the Bible. He did those works every day of the week, including on the Sabbath. So, why are you afraid to do those things on the Sabbath?
“57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” 59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” 61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” 62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”” Luke 9:57-62.
I think you are confusing spiritual matters with worldly needs. There are enough “dead people” serving the needs of those who are spiritually dead—and it’s all done with: “in the $ we trust”.
DD,
I agree with you that we have enough “dead people” ministering to the spiritually dead. They’re church members who think we should be preaching first instead of following the example of Jesus in ministering to the needs of people first.
The way Jesus drew the attention of people to spiritual matters was by ministering to their earthly needs first. If a person was hungry, He fed them. If they were ill, he healed them. If they were possessed by demons, He cast them out. By doing those things He improved their earthly living and demonstrated the power of a loving God. So you cannot separate the two. By focusing on exclusively what we think are a person’s spiritual needs we ignore the primary opportunities God gives us to minister His love and to open their hearts to the spiritual solutions He gives us to share.
By the way, God ALWAYS provides exactly what is needed to do what needs to be done when He tells me to get moving and minister to someone’s needs, but he almost never provides it until I’m going and seeing the need. Like this past Saturday night when my wife and I saw a young woman at a shopping center holding a sign saying “Homeless mother.” We had gone out to buy a $3 box of strawberries but soon were spending $200 to help her with groceries and clothes. Yesterday, God replaced that money several times over.
Jesus healed, fed and cast out demons, among other things, like, taught the people. Yes, that is correct. But did He sweep the floors of their houses, wash their cloths, etc?
We have myriads of instruction books on how to perform physical and worldly activities; but for what purpose were the Holy Scriptures written and given to us: To show people how to sweep floors, clean windows, wash vehicles, build houses, plant crops, etc?
You are right that we need the Holy Spirit within our hearts, to live according to the will of God. But the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make known to us Christ Jesus our savior; to renew our minds – to be born again.
Is Christ all about saving souls unto eternal life, or establishing a wonderful lifestyle for everyone to continue living on this earth without a care? “What does it profit a man if he saves the whole world, but loses his own soul?”
DD,
Please, keep learning about the Holy Spirit. But much more than that, allow the Holy Spirit to work in you and through you. Your last remarks tell me that you’re still at the “theology stage” with Him. Experiencing Him will transform you in ways you have never imagined and take you from merely focusing on eternal life into continuing the actual ministry of Jesus.
I want to encourage you to study in John, chapters 13-16, what Jesus shared with His disciples in the Upper Room after Judas left to betray Him. It is all about the ministry He wanted them doing and the relationship He would have with them in the Holy Spirit. Five different times He commands them to continue doing what He had been doing and in John 14:15 where He says “if you love me, keep my commandments” He isn’t talking about the Decalogue, but the commands He is giving them to continue His ministry. What was the ministry of Jesus? First and foremost, it was demonstrating the mighty power and awesome love of God by relieving their suffering and preaching/teaching was the LAST and least thing He did. Why? Because by that point the people loved Him so much that they willingly followed when He called them. If we ministered in that way we will see the church exploding with new growth.
William, I appreciate your encouraging words.
It was through reading the Gospels that I experienced the Love of God through His Spirit. No one came “demonstrating”, or “ministering” through their “good deeds”, God’s Love for me. No matter what man attempts to do, whether “preaching” the Gospel, or performing deeds of kindness toward others, unless God’s Spirit touches our hearts we can never know Jesus Christ; and man’s destiny is inevitable—death, without hope.
I can assure you I do have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We can’t experience this through people. It’s between Him and us, individually. I don’t see the Love of God through people; actually, what I do see are people with selfish minds, going about their self-centred, all-consuming lives.
Today, if someone performed a “good deed” for me, I would question their motives: are they promoting themselves, or someone else? I would like to ask them: What do you want?
Even the godless are known for their “good deeds”—what’s new?
DD,
I am truly sorry that you do not see the love of God in the good deeds of others and I can understand why because of some of the self-glorifying behaviors I have seen in professed followers of Jesus in the past. Yet it is by doing good works that God wants us to share His love and it shines through in a number of ways like doing for someone because they need help, you see it, you are moved with compassion to do something and you deliver with kindness and sympathy. Often in my experience it is not just what I do to help someone that touches their heart so much as sympathizing with them in their travails. Sharing a bit of “I’ve been in your shoes and God brought me through it” can go a long way to encourage someone who may be going through a much darker time than you perceive. A few times I’ve had someone tell me later (even years later) that they were considering ending their life until the encouragement I delivered gave them a ray of hope that started them on the path out of their darkness.
Ask God to show you how to minister His love to others and I promise you will be surprised by both the opportunities He gives you and how He leads you in touching them. You WILL be blessed!
A Christian youth mentoring program is a low-cost, highly effective tool for youth ministry in any setting. Colossians 1:28-29says, “We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me.” That should be all of the motivation we need to seriously consider implementing true discipleship and mentoring programs in our youth groups. By setting a positive example and sharing their time, knowledge, and experience, Christian youth mentors play an essential role in preparing our Nation’s youth for a bright future… at church, school, and at home, in the library and on the field, mentors lift our youth toward their goals and ambitions.
Christian youth mentors not only make a big impact in the lives of young students, they also play an important role in the professional world. Among youth, a famous study (PDF) (click here) of the Big Brother, Big Sister program showed that youth with mentors are:
• 46% less likely to begin using drugs
• 27% less likely to begin using alcohol
• 52% less likely to skip school
• 32% less likely to hit someone
• 37% less likely to lie to a parent
We need more Christian youth mentoring in the Adventist Church!
Sam,
I couldn’t agree more. The problem I see with mentoring programs is the shortage of mentors who actually live their faith to serve as role models for how to live your faith.