November 27, 2015
As many of you may know, I’m an “old” youth pastor at heart. Most of my ministry experience has focused on serving, discipling and raising up the next generation to give themselves fully to God’s Mission in this world. I’m guessing that part of my passion for the next generation grows out of my own experience as a young person and the impact that others had on my own journey in following Jesus. That might help explain why I was so excited when Pastor Tony Cargle of the Casey White Oak Church of God (MRC) invited me to participate in their first attempt to offer a teen mission conference: IGNITE 2015. The dream of IGNITE was birthed in Tony’s heart but was readily supported by his fellow pastors at Casey White Oak: Tom Toner and Justin Janney. As the plans began to take shape, they wisely invited a couple of sister churches to be involved which eventually led to the East Harrison Street Church of God becoming the host congregation (my home congregation). In the end, there were many, many folks who worked together to make this event such a great success! On November 14th between 70 and 80 people (young adults, their parents and/or youth leaders) gathered at East Harrison Street for IGNITE 2015. The entire day was focused on helping young people understand the opportunities to serve through short-term missions (like our ACTS Teams ministry - http://www.cggc.org/ministries/transformational-ministries/acts-teams) while encouraging them to take the next step in their own journey of following Jesus by putting their faith into action. There were four general sessions featuring Innovation (a youth worship band) and mostly young adults speaking to the group (they asked this “older” guy to wrap things up for the final session). There were also three breakout sessions that each focused on a different aspect of serving in short-term missions. | |
- It exposed young people to the opportunities for them to put their faith into action through serving in short-term missions. What a great challenge to serve others in Jesus’ name and an encouragement to use their gifts and talents to serve God in a meaningful way!
- It featured a lot of young adults teaching their peers. There were some adults like myself who were involved in the teaching segments, but it largely featured young adults speaking into the lives of their fellow young adults.
- It brought together individuals from 13 congregations from across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana all for the purpose of exploring what it looks like to serve Christ through missions. Young and old alike were challenged to put their faith into action and serve Christ through serving others.
I was so encouraged by what I witnessed during IGNITE. I don’t know how the Lord is going to use this moment in the lives of these young people, but I can’t help but think that years from now we will look back at this particular Saturday in November 2015 and be able to see the fruit that has been produced because people got a vision from God and choose to act in obedience and respond to His call. How do we raise up the next generation of servant leaders? I think events like IGNITE can be a great help in challenging young people to serve, giving them opportunities to use their gifts in leadership, and by encouraging them to put their faith into action and do something for the cause of Christ and His kingdom! Perhaps you and some local churches need to explore hosting your own effort to expose young people to what God is doing in the world and how he calls all of us to participate in that work? I would encourage you to reach out to my friends at Casey White Oak as I know they’d love to share what they learned through the process of putting this together. Perhaps you need to encourage a young adult in your circle of influence to take their next step in following Jesus by serving through some kind of short-term or cross cultural experience. |
Have a blessed Thanksgiving holiday and weekend!
Christ’s Peace,
Lance