Relate Blog

Someone once jokingly told me "just get them through high school alive!" in regards to being involved in Youth ministry. I had a little chuckle and admittedly there have been weeks where that line has popped into my mind as more of a reality than a joke, but a sad reality in our world is that the potential of the youth in our world is underrated. Instead of empowering them to be world changers now, many people often just hope they will get through high school without doing too much damage so that they can become "productive" members of our society.

Anyone in attendance of last weeks Wildfire - Building Forward - Foundations event would be hard-pressed to maintain that view. Here at Wildfire Youth we believe in the God potential of every youth - the potential to make an impact in their world today and to be an influence in their schools, their families, and their communities. As leaders, when we learned about the Building Forward campaign we weren't in the least worried about whether or not we would be able to get our youth involved because they have shown time and time again that they are committed to building the church to continue what God's doing in this city. All we needed to do was effectively tell them what was going on, which is why we organized this night.

The event kicked off with a few games that saw many of our youth struggling to complete seemingly simply tasks in front of a room full of their friends - an embarrassing necessity at any youth event! After spending some powerful time in worship, our youth were challenged by a powerful message from Pastor John, who reenforced their incredible potential not only for the future but also for today. After learning the details of the campaign and exactly how they would be involved, our youth stepped up in a big way and made giving commitments to the future of their church, extending their vision to the future generations to follow.

Personally, I've said to myself from the beginning of this campaign that I wasn't going to be surprised when our youth became involved because as I said, they are committed and passionate young people. I have to admit, however, a small degree of surprise at the size of some of our youth's giving commitments - commitments that challenge me to ask myself yet again "what can I sacrifice to build my church?". It was humbling to see how few youth currently had jobs, but how many were planning on picking up some sort of work in order to be involved in the campaign. 

Never tell me that my job is just to "just get them through high school alive", and never describe our youth as only "the future" - last week's event stands as ample evidence that these young people are not only the future, but stand as integral parts of our church TODAY.