LCWE - 10/01 update

Updates that struck me from two issue groups from October 1.

Issue Group #18
The evangelization and discipleship of children as a primary responsibility of and privilege for the church.
Why is it important?
The church is loosing ground in sharing the “Good News” with children:
- In England, during the 1990’s, the Church saw 1,000 children less each week in church programs.
- Only one in six children in church will remain in church by the age of 25.
- One-third of all the members of unreached people groups are under age 15.
- The majority of all believers receive Christ before age 15.

Action Plan
* Ask every Church - and every Issue Group at the Forum to put “Children” and “family” on their agenda.
* Ask Churches to empower children to share Christ with other children and with their families.
* Increase the use of technology – Internet, TV, Multimedia – to reach masses of children who cannot or will not enter a church.


Issue Group #23
Reaching the Youth Generation
Why is it important?
The Youth generation cannot be reached using traditional methods and approaches.
Action Plan
* Help youth workers to understand that the youth generation is attracted to, and shaped by, electronic media.
* Create evangelism tools that address the felt needs of this grouping:
Materialism, Loss of traditional values, Lack of meaning in life
* Launch evangelism efforts that address the needs of the millions of young people dying of AIDS.

Very interesting. Some pretty staggering numbers when they talk about children and reaching them. It's cool that they are addressing that issue.
Read more here

I like the way that they have come up with a list of action items. It is saying that the Forum is focused on getting busy and not just meeting to talk about a bunch of theory and concept. A few things come to mind about how the action items should be relevant to us. First, these should expose us to larger global issues around the issues groups. For instance, for Reaching the Youth Generation, do we really understand, as youthworkers in America, that there are millions of young people around the world, that are the same ages as the students we minister to, dying from AIDS. I don't think we do really understand. For the Forum to bring that up as a global issue that could potentially stop God's mission from reaching the youth generation, that should be pretty important to the average youthworker here in the US. Secondly, it should confirm our ministry. For instance, the action item about helping youthworkers understand electronic media... that is good. And we should all realize that we are dealing with a culture that is attracted to and shaped by a new stage of media. If you read the Forum notes and were surprised that media was an issue with your students... well, you know... Relevance to the culture is _________. Anyway, it will be exciting to hear about the rest of the Forum. I will continue to send reflections from the emails.