Preparing Our Youth – Part 1

The church has faced and will continue to face many challenges until the Lord returns. It has been that way almost since the very foundation of the church itself. There may be challenges coming from outside the church and there may be challenges coming from within the church. We may face challenges of doctrine, challenges of fellowship or challenges of sin. But, one of the greatest challenges facing the church is the challenge of keeping our young folks faithful.

One of the ways that we can help is to get our young folks involved. Involvement means parents need to play a role and bring their children to bible class and to worship services at every single opportunity. Involvement also means participating in activities and events specifically designed for the youth. This means that we not only make sure that our youth are there but that the parents also help in any way possible. The upcoming Youth Rally in September is a great opportunity to get both parent and child involved. Even those adults whose children are already grown are needed to help out with many things. See John Allen if you can help in any way.

The church can also play a role by helping to prepare our young folks to serve the congregation in the various capacities. To that end we are going to initiate two new programs, the first of which will be covered in this weeks article. Next weeks article will look at the second program.

The first program is to expand our daily bible reading program to the children’s classes. Reading and studying our bible is a critical and necessary component of preparation and our young people are no exception. Even for the small children who cannot read, it is important to read the bible to them. We can all be encouraged to read daily when we hear and see our children reading the bible. It will be important for the parents, especially those whose children cannot yet read and write, to send with their child their daily bible reading stats including whether they were a daily reader and how many chapters were read. Daily bible reader sheets will be passed out to each student next week to help you record this information. Please be sure to return it with your child each week.

Long time Christians also need to read and study. Some of the greatest gospel preachers of old are said to have spent at least 4 hours a day in study of God’s word. Everyone is encouraged to read and study your bibles daily. We may find some wonderful changes occurring in our lives if we do. We also may find that the adults will be challenged to hear just how much our youth are reading and studying.

The most important thing is to be here and to bring your children. Three or four hours a week of being “at church” is not enough. We need to encourage our children to read and study and parents need to set the proper example at home. If has often been said that the church is only one generation away from apostasy.

Let’s make sure that it’s not this generation that proves that statement true.

Todd Hinson