Son of the King

OK, just to clarify were I’m going on this topic, I have to tell you where I heard it. Yesterday, Friday, I attended a Youth Leadership conference in the city of Caaguazu. Today I attended a Youth conference. The speaker at both events was Dr. Jeffrey de Leon (PhD) from Miami and he definitely has a most interesting way of portraying how a Youth ministry can be better “managed” nowadays. Here’s what I have learned:

First of all, let’s dispense with the title of “Youth Ministry” if it keeps the youth from feeling welcome. It’s may not seem important to us, but to someone that turns around at the word “ministry”, it can be quite important.

Let’s get rid of the whole idea of having OUR church that includes OUR christian principles, language and mannerisms. Let’s be what Jesus intended us to be, a BODY! The churches make up the body of Christ, as do it’s members. What do we do when someone in church sins? Do we send them home and tell them to give up their membership? That would be like taking a knife and cutting off your finger because it was hurting and swollen. That’s stupid. Rather let’s help heal the wound, the person that has sinned, that has brought shame to himself. Let’s act like the body we are. If the finger hurts, you can feel it. Being sensitive to the hurts and needs within the body is something every church needs to learn.

OK, now back to youth. Give them leading responsibilities. Jesus gave responsibilities to his immature followers. Take Judas, Jesus trusted him as a treasurer. If that 15-year old is interested in leading worship, let him lead worship. If someone appears to have good entertaining skills with her choreography, let her do it. Giving the youth responsibilities, giving them the power to lead, will help them mature and grow a LOT more than if the Youth leaders go nuts coming up with ideas try to entertain them. With time it will become less awkward and more and more people will get involved and if the Lord is behind it, as well as the prayers of the prayer warriors then “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

There is alot of goodness within all of us, that’s what Hollywood keeps telling us. We just have to let it out. And all that rubbish about looking within yourself to find answers, it won’t help. Your the one who’s confused…

OK, so why all the emphasis on teaching Youth to lead? You tell me how all the big wars would have been faught without them, and the revolutions and different movements… Hitler trained Youth to fight, it was mostly young people that made the ruccus in the states in the 60’s, most of the army’s of the world are made up of a great percentage of people under 20.

Now to the point of preaching. Why do we have the leaders on a stage behind a pulpit preaching “at” the congregation? How many sermons can you name right now, by name, that you have heard this year? Jesus didn’t put himself on a stand, he washed his disciples feet and taught them on a whole lot more personal level that can ever be accomplished from behind a pulpit. I’m not condemning the pulpit or anything, just think about it… Let’s not let the titles of “Pastor”, “Deacon”, “Reverend” and others come between the teachers and the students. Again, let’s look at what the ultimate teacher did when he was on this earth as a human being.

Let’s get past the idea that the pulpit is a “medium”. TV, the Internet, movies and radio are “mediums”, the pulpit just ain’t. You know why? I quote “The medium has become the message”. TV isn’t just a bunch of shows, it’s a message, it doesn’t just transmit the thoughts of the writers and producers, the thing in itself is a message. The pulpit isn’t a medium because it doesn’t transmit the message, we are just hiding behind it. This is kinda hard to wrap you mind around and I don’t fully understand it myself. I’m not condemning and of the things mentioned, as almost anything, they can be used for good and bad.

Our faith doesn’t validate the Bible. I don’t know were some of us have gotten the idea, but it doesn’t. Just because I believe that it’s true doesn’t make it true. Jesus’ resurection does though. That in itself encompases the whole bible, it validates it, because of all the prophesies and things that were fullfilled through Jesus, especially the resurection. An example of this concept is that the Bible is like a lion, we don’t need to defend it, it’ll defent itself.

How many times do we condemn things saying they come from Satan? Some music styles, tattoos, piercings, movies, TV, Internet, some books… They do not belong to the devil, he never owned them. Let’s stop giving to him what does not belong to him. Those are all human ways of expresing themselves. Not Satans way.

Young people are having a hard time deciding what is good and bad. Some don’t even know the difference. As leaders, we are responsible to give them the tools they need to find out (to differentiate) for themselves what is right and wrong. This applies to so many things, from music to lifestyles.

Did you know that the definition of “tolerance” has changed over the years? It used to mean “to bear”. That meant, I could sit beside a homosexual and tolerate him, meaning bearing but not accepting his choice. Today, tolerance means to accept the beliefs, lyfestyle, etc. Jesus wasn’t tolerant by any of the above definitions. He didn’t “bear” or “accept” the lifestyles of the “sinners” he met. He told the woman that had commited adultery to “go and sin no more”.

Let’s get to know the auther behind the Bible. It wasn’t Paul, Moses, John or any of the writer. They were the writers, but not the authers, same as with this Blog. God is the auther, he is behind the Bible. Let’s not just read the Bible, let’s read “between the lines” to get to know Jesus.

Think about it…