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Generally speaking young people today have far more things to keep their minds occupied, and have access to so much more. For example, say in the 19th century where it probably took at least 6 months for someone to publish a book, today a new web page is created every six seconds. Young people have so much more access to information which can be used in both a negative and positive way, but are our minds conditioned and ready for this vast amount of information and knowledge, can their minds readily process this information to which they have access to, or does it provide them with an excuse that they have so much doing today that they are unable to find the time to do what is necessary for their own personal upliftment and edification. Today, the spreading of God’s word has to “compete” with all that is happening around us and sometimes we may wonder or ask ourselves, “Where do we go from here?” how can we effective evangelise to the young people today. Is all this information trying to hide the fact that we all need to have that one on one relationship with God, or is it that we think that because we have so much more to do, within the same time, so we have no time or need for God. [1] “You can’t impact young people with the gospel unless they give you a slice of your precious most precious resource – time. And more and more, schools are suctioning almost all of kid’s free time with demanding after-school activities and study requirements University of Michigan researchers have found that young people are “allowed less free time that ever in recent history.” In the last 20 years, kids unscheduled time has dropped from 40% or their day to 20% The interests of Caymanian youths are so wide and varied and the information age keeps them so occupied, and seems so much more attractive than all else. Some of the primary interests of Caymanian youths today are spending time on the Internet, watching television, playing video games, interest in the opposite sex, cars (for the younger ones, what cars they would want when they begin working) Clothing. They also like to spend a lot of time going out, e.g. going to the Arcade, the cinema, teen discos, and parties. So how do we evangelise to these youths when they have so much activities to distract them. Evangelism may be defined as every Christian sharing the gospel with others. In light of all that has been said how do we share the gospel with our youths. I do belief that to effectively spread the gospel of Christ to the youths, we must take into consideration their interest. Evangelism should be done in a way that is that can grab their interest, and using things that they are interested in without compromising the gospel of Christ. Why? Well since we know what their interests are, then we should see how best we can use what they are interested in to make the gospel and a life in Christ just as fun filled and enjoyable as what is out there for them. Young people in general, just love to have fun; they want to feel needed, appreciated, loved. So the gospel should be presented in the way that can fulfill these needs. Since they love to play video games, then that could be a means of evangelism, that is video games that are designed with the message of Christ. These are available, however, because they are non-violent, then they are generally not popular with the young people. The internet has hundred of sites that are religious and our young people should be encouraged to view and introduced to these site. Since young people love to party, them “Jesus parties” are a good way to show them that a live in Christ is fun, the music played and these parties could be the main way of spreading the word. There are many movies, series; television shows that are filled with the message of Christ and youths need to be exposed to these. Young people need to feel a sense of belonging or being apart of something. If they don’t or can’t get this from the church or family then they obviously will look elsewhere no matter what. (see table 1) The activities that the church need to get involved with in order to evangelise to the youth must be in keeping with the times, without compromising the message. These activities must also be youth friendly. Many churches do have fulfilled activities that evangelise to the young people who in fact prefer such activates to secular ones. But what makes these do so well is that some of these youths are living a life that emulates the life that Christ want us to live. In doing so, they show others that, yes living a life in Christ is indeed fulfilling and exciting. One of the most positive ways of spreading the gospel is how we live out the gospel, do the adults portray the live of Christ in a positive manor that encourages the youths to want to live by. The word of Christ needs to be in our thought, our deeds our actions. There is the saying that “action speaks louder than words” which is indeed true. So, how we live out our lives should have persons asking “what is it that make you so different?” Young people need to be given the opportunity to serve and live out their lives. They need to be put in charge of things, they must be challenged to think, they must be given service opportunities. The information in the table below is taken from the group magazine (May/June 2001) Question asked was: If you were choosing a church how important would these thinks be?
Based on the results of the table, what they must be saying is that the want to feel as though they are apart of Christ. That they are welcomed and can find comfort in Christ and that they can have that sense of love and belonging. On the other hand the need for entertainment is the lowest as they can get entertainment anytime, anywhere, but they can’t get real anywhere, anytime. A lot can be achieved, but we must have a plan or a goal insight, what we do must be intentional and done because we realize the need and Christ has commissioned out to be evangelist that is spreading to gospel of Christ. Our approach to youth evangelism must be direct, that is we must know why we are doing what we are doing. It should be done in a way that allows trust and building up of relations. If a persons is considering or has accepted Christ, the opportunities for deepening this commitment must be provided. The gospel message must always be present in whatever activities we do, whether it be movies, parties games. Many times we make it seem as thought the bible is one large “boring” book to read. We must seek to make the bible come alive in the way we evangelise, they way we live should reflect what the bible teaches. We must make the bible exciting. One and one evangelism is important as this gives the opportunity to know the person and for a better understanding and to build a relationship, because in essence, what we should seek to have is a relationship with Christ. Peer evangelism is probably the most effective tool to youth evangelism and they usually face similar issues, so if the Christian youth can overcome the temptation, then this provides and example to those who have not yet accepted Christ. Youth evangelism takes on a whole new role, and must definitely be different from how we evangelise to adults. Their interest, behaviour, way of life, must be taken into consideration when building programmes that seeks to evangelise to them. They must see that a live in Christ has meaning and is rewarding, not only that, but a life that is most of all exciting. They must be challenged to become excited about their faith. They must see the Christian life being lived out in faith by present believers. We must not loose sight of evangelising to youth, we need to plan the seed, nurture it and allow God to make it grow. Despite the fact the there are changes taking place around us, and young people may have less time to do church activities, opportunities must be provided for them, they must not be seen as the future of the church, they are to be seen as apart of the church today. Get them involved; let them develop the understanding of the important role they can play today, not years down the line. This will keep them interested and help them to develop a meaningful relationship with Christ. We need to lead by example. Mark A. Jonas October 2001
[1] Group magazine Jan/Feb 2001 |
