tony sheng || mobilizing students for missions

Great challenge/encouragement from a youthworker here.
Key points include:

- "We have to grasp that, in this post-modern world, young people are far more engaged by people who 'do' the truth, rather than those who assert it."
Right on. I think thats all a part of true discipleship. Youth ministry has primarily been about youth group meetings, not neccessarily living your faith out. And I think when we talk about reaching the world for Christ, true missions, young people have missed out, because we don't talk about it, and we certainly, in most cases, don't model being a disciple, around town, much less around the world.

- "Imagine a small church where there is no youth leader and no youth meetings, just a handful of teenagers who help lead the Sunday School during the Sunday service."
I think that's it. What I love about GCC so much is that our ministry is leader-driven, student-led. Meaning students are up front as much as possible with leaders behind the scenes, doing that empowerment, encouraging, challenging. It really also fits in with the whole 'indigenous' leader idea that people in missions have been talking about of late.

- "We need to start telling these stories again, inspiring and challenging our young people with the rich resources of our Christian history."
This is something that I think I should focus on too. People LOVE to hear a good story. Chris Curtis, the guy that wrote this, said that he watched 52 movies in the year 2003, all for the purpose of looking at the whole story. Wow.

- Some final questions Chris asks:
1. What is more important in my youth work, what I achieve or who I am becoming?
2. What gets more of my attention and energy: the youth programme or the young people?
3. Am I prepared to admit to young people there is a dark side to my life?
4. Am I prepared to risk failure or do I play it safe?
I love question #1. In order to win students to Christ these days, we have to be authentic. A well run youth night with great games and a pretty good talk doesn't do it anymore, nor should it.