“Welcome to my seminar. I am glad that you have been able to join me on this momentous occasion. I am professor Williams and I am on the cusp of publishing my latest finding. The results have been astonishing and could not come at a better time. What started as a simple experiment has led me to years and years of research. I have had many colleagues join me in this project and they have been instrumental in gathering the necessary data to come to such a conclusion. I have been doing research for many years and I have finally been able to share my findings.”
54 leaders of the children’s ministry team made their way out of their home on a Saturday morning to attend a training session at Calvary AG.
Question: Why? Weren’t there thousands of other things on their to do lists? Who would give up half of their Saturday to spend it in church?
Answer: 54 people that care about the spiritual development of children.
In reality, I’m not a professor but that day pretending to be Professor Williams helped me speak about the importance and urgency of reaching children with the message of Jesus’s love and forgiveness. The United States is the third largest unreached nation and perhaps one of the toughest mission fields. It is said that people in third world nations flock to Jesus because they don’t have money or health insurance. With that being said, reaching people in the United States becomes even more difficult. Only 4% of teenagers (Millenials) identify themselves with any form of Christianity. That is down from 65% just 4 generations ago (GI & Silent Generation). If we don’t reach this population of children what is going to happen to this nation if they continue to go unreached.
Our most valuable resource to reach the lost with the gospel are people just like the 54 who attended the Saturday morning training. With the right amount of training and encouragement we can see a shift in our spiritual culture, beginning with the children.
Jesus said, “A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40
Jesus needed his disciples to help him, to learn from him, and to eventually become the leaders after he had gone away. As disciples of Jesus, we are doing what Jesus himself did on earth. How awesome is that?
Every mission has God as the initiator,
The summer started in Appalachia where I partnered with Pastor TJ Wolfe from Warwick AG. We trained and prepared a team to go into Oak Hill West Virginia where we did street ministry and then held a three day evangelistic outreach for the children in that area. Over 26 children invited Jesus into their lives that week.
Next I headed to Dallas Pennsylvania where I spent a week at Camp Orchard Hill as the guest speaker. Using “Deeply Rooted” as the theme, I challenged the campers to evaluate their personal relationship with Jesus and to grow deeper in their faith. 76 children gave their hearts to Jesus and many others fell deeper in love with Him. When testimonies were shared one girl stood up and said, “Before coming to camp I really didn’t know Jesus and didn’t care but today I want everyone to know that I know Him and want to live for Him forever.” One of the boys stood and shared, “Now I know that Jesus will provide for me and I don‚Äôt need to worry about things.” The most touching was a girl that said, “I’ve learned that I can still have happiness even though my dad just died.” There are children here in the United States that are hurting and need the hope and love that only Jesus gives.
The summer was rounded off with five more weeks of kids camp and then I headed to Keyser WV with a team from 1st AG in Harrisonburg VA led by Trevor Whetzel. We had been invited to participate in a city wide outreach and minister to the children. All of our efforts were rewarded with 24 children making decisions to follow Jesus.
