it was great to meet with shearn again and also get to know other youth workers in the methodist church from around malaysia. had fruitful conversations and sharing. learnt lots from the other youth workers. as they share from their life, gratefulness overcomes me and i regret the times that i was ungrateful. as they share what happens in their churches, i realise that we are not alone in the quest to God in the youth ministry.
pastor herbert just returned from the missions area in sarawak. it was great to hear news and also how their experiences there changed the lives of the youths who visited.
what the speaker spoke about was encouraging but it can also be said to be discouraging. as he shared about what the bible teaches and later progresses on to how the world has become, it doesn't paint such a pretty picture. i'll just give a bit of some that was shared cause there's really lots to digest and pray over.
public schools are one of the main causes of todays youths. public schools were created to supply the age of industrialization with people that would agree with how the industrial system of working with efficiency. with that, the role that a father should have as a teacher to his children has been handed over to the schools. a one-on-one teaching with love and care, has been exchanged for a 1 teacher, that has no family obligations, teaching 40 students in a classroom.
and that system or mentality crept into the church as well. the spiritual role of a parent has been given to youth workers or youth teachers when it should be done by parents. the sending of the kids to sunday school like baby sitting services, wondering why the youths aren't changing or improving with the hourly lessons that we have with them once a week (compared to 30 hours in school a week) and many more. compared to the what God has taught, the Bible shows how parents are to be teaching their children and spending time with them, be it in the spiritual or education capacity.
of course, this is where we go, how in the world are we to change the system? its a mammoth task.... well, that's in our eyes. what about God's?
we too understand as not everyone has a healthy family. many families are broken. times are tough in KL and many a times, a dual-income family is needed to survive in this expensive world.
what was encouraging was that what he has shared was similar to the goals that God has put in me as a youth worker. through revelations in thoughts and speaking with others about things to focus on for the youths in the church.
it is relationships and not activities that matters. segregations of groups/services within a church is unhealthy. integration of people of all ages with each other is important; young to old and old to young. church is to be building horizontally with others and also vertically with God. be it a parent, teacher or a youth leader, being authentic is important to the youths. family is important and church work should not be a hindrance towards time with your family because the family is the first church that God has given us. i believe very much in this.
i'm sure there are many more. need more time to put more thought into it and digest. this is the part that needs prayer for wisdom and revelation. below is a photo of those of us youth workers who could make it for this retreat. do pray for us all.
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