Youth in the Church Family

A recent article in the local Conference communiqué, which is received via e-mail by all church leaders, sounded an alarm about the state of the Youth in our churches, about the lack of youth in our churches.

The North American Division Young Adult Ministries Advisory is preparing for the Youth Summit in Dallas next weekend, and a special concern has been raised at the Fall Annual Council of our church, showing that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America is failing, along with many Protestant denominations, to retain a greater proportion of its young adults.

As the youth are leaving the church is “aging.” In society where median age is 37, the church, including un-baptised children in church families, is 58.

We don’t have to go far, or read many reports to see it right here, in our own home church – youth are going, or gone. They maybe around, but not committed to follow Christ, and are not interested in developing their spirituality. What do we do? How do we retain our youth? Where did we go wrong and missed value education in the past? Why are our young choosing the world, even if it hurts them, instead of the safety of Church haven? Are we a haven, a safe place for youth? Do we show them hope, peace, purpose in our lives? Do they have raw-models among church members for happy successful living? These and more questions are racing through my mind as we are entering into a year where our focus is on becoming an attractive church, where youth is cared for, families are in harmony, and community sees the Presence of God, His Kingdom in our midst.

The Conference Youth director, Cyril Millett, was interviewed this week about the future strategy and he admitted that the old approach of the “AY society… is antiquated… Is the AY society meeting their (youth) needs? Is it dealing with the issues that are truly of concern to them and their peers outside of church?”

At the same time there is a grass roots movement among our youth who do care about their walk with Christ. Even this weekend a group of 10+ College, University and high-school students are at Camp Frenda spiritual retreat, spending an entire weekend on Spiritual Formation.

We need to involve our youth from early age in all aspects of church life. And that’s not giving them a few verses to read Sabbath morning, but involving them in decision making, in renovation and repair work, in service, in every aspect of what we do as a church family. Why isn’t our youth with us at the work-bees, cleanups, outings, business meetings, prayer meetings? Some are. Yet we need to go beyond keeping the few that are already committed, and reach out to those that are lost.