Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Assignment Complete
Having just handed in the final assignment for the certificate in youth ministry course I was doing, I thought i'd write a few lines here in reflection. Was weird last night at the dinner seeing everyone again and realising how well the group bonded and how much we all miss our wee monday night group. The final assignment involved analysing the current youth ministry setup in my church, and producing a purpose statement and structure to move the ministry with the youth forward. At first this was quite a daunting task, but I trust that God has directed my thoughts, and know that He will direct us forward in reaching the youth of our community.
I have personally found the course of huge benefit in guiding me firstly in my personal walk of faith, and also in the area of youthwork, and how we can reach out to this generation and ignite a genuine faith and passion for Christ lived out in their lives. Having completed the assignment, I feel that this is a structure and vision that our church could adopt and implement as we seek to reach this generation of young people, and feel that it should do so as a matter of urgency.
In our ministry we must present the never changing truth of a counter-cultural gospel in a format and language that is relevant and real to the culture of today. In doing so, we must look to Christ, the apostles, the missionaries, and the great communicators of previous generations and follow their example and attitude. It is our biblical mandate to pass on our faith to the next generation Psalm 78 vs. 1-4 so lets get back to doing it.