 Hi everyone, welcome back to the continuation of the youth ministry course. Thank you for joining. I hope you had a good break Okay, let's continue to chapter 2 In chapter 1 once again just to quickly recap we looked at who are the youth how the world defines and describes a look at the youth or younger generation and Finally we saw why does Why is it important to have a youth ministry in your church? Okay So from then move on into The youth ministry so from chapter 2 we will begin to look at the youth ministry aspect of it just a little bit of practical aspects of it, okay So second chapter title youth ministry with a vision Is it important to have a vision for Show we need vision for our lives, but But is it important To have a minister vision for the youth ministry in our context. Let's be very specific and If so, why do we need to have a vision? definitely Vision is very important for anything that is required in life Basically the reason You can never know where you're going You literally plan You are and where you want to go and what you will need along the way Thank you Right. Thank you. So you will not know where you are going and so therefore you will not be able to lead well, okay? Okay, I just again. This is a very fundamental simple question It's not a tricky question So why is vision important for ministry in our context? Why is vision important for youth ministry? I believe we are trying to lead the youth somewhere being being the leaders of youth We want to intend some values and then That's what we are trying to do even being a leader. So I think to lead them Towards Jesus up to Christ likeness what what is our vision? It really matters Okay, thank you Vision is essentially why we do what we do. Okay, it keeps us focused on the primary mission Or else it will be like blind leading the blind. Okay, fantastic Okay, it would be like blind leading the blind And what else why? Why is it why is it important? Please talk to me those Linden as a little Lee Rosalind subashish. Why is vision important? So what will happen to a ministry a youth ministry if it does not really have a vision? Say, you know, you have a youth ministry going on and then every Sunday or every Saturday Or every Wednesday whichever day you want to pick up Y'all are meeting you're having There's there's a minute. There's an event. There's a meeting called youth ministry So every week this is being going on for week up to week month after month year after year So There's something happening But Let's say that there is no vision How is how is that different? Faster you see with no vision. Mm-hmm. It is a Complicated to define the roles of people Especially in what is happening in a given organization for instance If we really don't know what the vision is Let's just even narrow it to a theme of the day for instance at church If you don't even have like a theme of the day for the preaching of what and what you find that people were there They will be making different dances some are dancing calypso other than dancing Culture others are dancing But if there is a vision people will know that we are supposed to focus on this and this is where we're going Without which it would hardly be Organized it will look like a hodgepodge if I may say sure colors. Yeah, thank you. Absolutely. Yeah Very clear Okay But as Zalatolli says it will not be successful and it will fade away in due season It will not be successful and it will fade away in due season Okay But it's still my question still remains. Okay, what about a youth ministry of a church That meets week after week month after month year after year You know, they've been doing things for they've been meeting Do you believe that those meetings can still happen if there is no vision? Do you believe or do you think that the youth meetings will can still happen if there if there is no vision so to speak Yes, it can still happen Okay, and so Then why is vision important? It's still happening. No Vision will give direction will give direction will give purpose to for for meeting It will give purpose for the meeting. Okay, it will give direction. Okay. Thank you This is wonderful. It's because I'm getting so many different answers for a simple fundamental question that we need to think about right because Yeah, I mean I've seen churches where meetings happen Week after week month after month year after year meetings happen That means there's something happening But There is no set vision That makes me ask why should there be vision? Okay, without vision, they will not know why they exist. Will you okay? All right, Jeffina, go ahead Yeah, I'm just sharing my my experience. I was part of like in my church We do meet like back in my homes and we do meet every week the youth meets we gather We speak on various topics But but we don't have any Specific vision or Yeah, we just don't know why we are gathering substance. We just come together Just pick up random things and whatever the youth leader they want to talk about It's not like they're not teaching from the Bible though. They do take the word they do teach from it But yeah, it just I think sometimes vision gives a motor for a youth to come and join You know some of the youth they just run away once the church is over Is because they just feel like it's a normal meeting that happens every every week They don't feel like there is a specific reason for them to join it So I think if you have a vision It will give them motor for the youth to join Okay, this is what I'm gonna learn. This is what we are trying to reach Maybe I should try this out Or else there is no definite motive for like I'm just saying from the perspective of the youth for them to come to just sit over there and And yeah, they have two days you'd have various things to do if not a youth meeting They there are so many options So just spend out their time and but I think if we have a vision if we let them know what we are really Trying to focus on or accomplish the reason and the values behind it might make them think And might make give them that no chill and decide to just join it Yeah, thank you. I think one what was One interesting thing is that you know Yes meetings happen and they're also teaching from the Bible so You know Teachings are happening from the Bible, you know biblical topics But Not not everybody necessarily knows the why And if someone if someone were to ask a person who's attending these youth meetings, but it does not did Which does not really have a vision so to speak If you were to ask that person as to hey, why are you going to this youth meeting? They would not necessarily know how to answer that question or they would not know why they're why the way they might answer this is You know, because I've been going to this for months for weeks. I'm part of this church You know setup happens before the youth meeting so, you know, I stay back for the youth meeting because I'm part of the setup team and so, you know You get what I'm saying. Okay, so we need to identify the needs of the youth and try to address those from a biblical context. Yeah so I Feel like there is there are more answers to this question among us that we can discuss We can have a separate group discussion like we do with youth meetings But I'm sure there are more some because I'd love to hear from all of you on this very fundamental simple question as Why is vision important? Because we can continue to do things without any vision in life So why is it important for in our context a vision important for youth ministry? And if you cannot answer if we or if you as leader Cannot answer this question or cannot come up with this and if this is not your first question That means you are in very serious trouble As a leader, okay All right, so youth meeting can still happen every week, but whether or not the youth is Getting benefited by it depends on their growth And also When we see the youth that was part of the group is now able to lead other youth With an example There we get an answer, right? So this current generation able to lead the next generation That will happen if their why is strong So if there is a vision we see more youth leaders standing in that group And if there is no vision then the youth leader will be the only person leading the group with no leaders standing So vision is important to raise leaders or else it will be only outgoing meeting only preaching. Okay All right Okay, so We are all wonderful people. We are good people god's children. We all understand the importance of vision right, I love this image of You know a ministry without a vision necessarily is it's like It's like running on a treadmill Right, uh, you know you're running. I mean there's some motion happening But there's really no momentum Right, there's no progress so to speak you're very much in the same place now We can be in the same place and we can get a lot of things done just like on the treadmill. You're running Um, you're sweating. Uh, you're losing some calories and all of that So work is getting done. But the question is is there progress? Is there growth? Happening right like what roslyn has just mentioned when the next generation comes Do they know what is happening and the purpose and why it's happening? Right or even the current generation if you were to pull a youth from a youth meeting and ask them Why are you attending this youth meeting? Do they have a strong answer to? uh To answer your question as to why okay, and so Uh Youth the vision is important. I think we've we've established that point very well And when I was appointed as the youth pastor at apc Um, I have I had zero experience of being a pastor let alone youth pastor and I had zero experience with full-time ministry um sort of speak and and And I didn't want anything to do with young people I had a heart for them. I loved them Uh, love is a strong word I had a heart for them for the young people Because somewhere I understood that okay, you know As a young person I was as I was rejected by the church I was labeled as a rebellious stubborn short short tempered All of those things and how I was not accepted for the person that I was I was very sad that okay the church did not see the dig take time To just understand me a little better and was very quick to label me and Sidelined me And so because of that those experiences I always had a heart for young people to Accept them as they are and not be quick to judge But it wasn't so big that I wanted to pastor them Uh, right, but when this opportunity came to lead the youth of all people's church Eventually I arrived at a point saying Okay, you know lord what next, uh, you know why? Uh, you know, what is the purpose what should be the purpose? Uh, what should be the vision? Uh, what is my role in it? Do I have a vision for young people? I have nothing I have zero experience as a pastor I I have zero experience as a youth pastor and I have no connection with the young people of the church because I had no connection So what do I do that was my question like, you know lord, what do I do? I have no idea Uh, you know, I think it's it's an awesome place to be at From the hindsight, you know at that time it was not great, but Was very overwhelming And so that question uh lead me to uh, you know to Okay, put a vision or a purpose of a youth ministry together Right and uh, again, I'm sharing these Uh, bits from my experience. Okay, and so We'll see what we can take away from this. Okay. I I I guys doing all right. Are you with me? Okay Okay, cool. Thanks So, um, I was led to two different verses from the bible when I when I had this question Um, so what should be the purpose? What should be the vision of the youth ministry thing? Now, where do we build? How do we build this? Where do we go from? Uh, the baton that was passed on to me. How do I take it and run? Uh, should I run in the same place? Or should I go forward and where do I go? How do I go? What should I do? How do we take how do we go on as a journey? You know as a team forward, um, so So Gordon is in grace and in his mercy and his wisdom. Um, you know He took me to these two scriptures Uh And which is the great commandment as we know it with matthew 22 37 40 Uh, you know some of the Pharisees or the teachers of the law asked Jesus What is the greatest commandment according to you? Jesus answered saying love the Lord you God with all your heart soul might and strength This is the first and greatest commandment And the second is like it love your neighbor as your self All all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments All the law and prophets now again remember this is during Jesus's time. There was no new testament Okay, and so uh, when he says all the law and the prophets now here, he's quoting the entire old testament Jesus is saying Everything hangs on these two commandments Uh from from the Torah to the writings and the prophets all of that is this the Fundamental point is love the Lord your God with all your heart soul might and strength And then love your neighbor as yourself. Okay, so that was verse one and then verse two which uh Uh, which is which is from matthew chapter 28 verse 19 and 20. We all know this which is the great suggestion Oh, sorry. It's a great commission. It's not a suggestion It says therefore Go and make disciples of all nations Uh baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age Okay, so um and then from these two key scriptures Uh, the what I would what I can call it as five different pillars or something, you know, kind of Stood out and it made sense to me. Right and and now again all of these points, uh Which have when I began to start studying about youth ministry, uh in general is And there are a lot of resources that was available. The internet was still big in 2018 Okay, if you google search, okay, what vision do I need to have for youth ministry? Uh, you will get everybody else's vision, right? And there are so many resources out there which was out there and uh, we still need to have wisdom and guidance from the holy spirit to Understand which would be the right one for your context. Okay, so It's one thing to have knowledge and it's another thing to have wisdom wisdom is how you apply the knowledge that you have So that's the basic thing distinction, isn't it? And so there was when I started researching about youth ministry You started on beginning to understand. Okay, how to lead the youth uh the vision and whatnot So from these two scriptures, uh, you know, there were these five things that stood out So love the lord your god with all your heart is can simply be translated as worship That's what worship is at the core of it is love Right why we worship? Uh, and all of that it boils down to that one word called love. So Loving the lord your god with all your heart soul mind and strength is worship Love your neighbor as yourself Is ministry that means to serve ministry at what is the core meaning of the word ministry is to be a cup bearer That's what it is right to serve Um, that's what a minister is supposed to do a call or call to do is to serve the people So the society Etc. Okay, and then Go and make disciples evangelism Go and make disciples share the good news And baptizing them that simply means bringing them in Okay, that is bring them into this fellowship And then doesn't stop there teaching them to obey that is discipleship Okay, so from these two scriptures, suddenly there was worship There was ministry. There was evangelism. There was fellowship and then there was discipleship and all of a sudden the why or My vision was gaining some clarity Okay, hey, all right Okay, so I understand this, you know this worship. There's uh ministry needs to happen evangelism Baptizing them fellowship needs to be there discipleship needs to be there. Okay And I was beginning to gain some clarity on this. Okay, let me just share an image Uh, let's just show as to why it's important to Have some sort of clarity or vision for youth ministry. So Okay, I hope you can all See this image. I'm just going to try and zoom in just a little bit if I can. Okay, there we go Okay, whoopsie. All right Three types of youth groups Of the many groups that there can be This one kind of made sense. So it is Every church every youth ministry of every church has a potential to be either one of these groups Okay, so on top you see the drop in center. Let me entertain you and then the bible focus So these are the three different types of youth groups any church can have. Okay Um, what are the aims? of it Plus one, uh, the drop in center is Get kids off the street give kids something to do Provide a safe environment. That is a drug and alcohol free social welfare focus council and skill young people culturally comfortable often fitness and sports Computer gaming lounging workshops. Okay example pc by c the local council Okay perceived as a hangout place Access point for services Why because you you what's the why there of the first group? Because you care about disadvantaged kids and don't want them to get up to mischief or miss life opportunities So there is an element of care In this first group, right? You care we care for them, right? Like we like we saw some time ago We need to care, but how it's perceived as it's perceived as the hangout place Right, um Okay, so let's move on to the next one. Let me entertain you kind of a group. What is its aim? Uh, a fun alternative for unhelpful social activities Get kids off the street provide a safe environment, uh, culturally comfortable a fun alternative Right often what what happens there is crazy games team nights 70s night what not, you know full-on disco nights retro nights Uh excursions constant excursions trips often trips movies movie night, etc, etc Movie nights are fine, but in my opinion, okay Uh, okay, so example blue light disco youth council activities student run Okay, you church your groups. Okay perceived as fun and games or cheap and lame Why because you like organizing and running events What's the why of the second group is we love organizing and we love running events camps constant camps every month on camp Okay, you want kids to have fun without drugs alcohol trouble or bad influence. So it's like a stark Opposite to the first group that we saw was it's not uh, it did not necessarily be very boring But now there's some fun activities Okay Finally we have the bible focused youth ministry group Okay So here what what are the aims? You teach and study the bible be a christian community Um, if possible, we uh, we'll look at we'll do a little bit of study on the word community itself later on So teach and study the bible be christian community Live out the values of jesus engage real life with real jesus counter cultural Okay, the bible based a bible focused youth group will be counter cultural. That means they are not influenced by the pop culture Of uh, of what's happening in and around. Okay, so often bible study groups and or talk. They have bible games Yes, there are bible games available Okay, uh After youth ministry runs on them guys so Sharing life with others lots of jesus of jesus Example church youth groups perceived as it can be perceived as boring or odd odd Um, oh youth group. I don't want to be part of it. You know, they talk too much about bible and jesus Um, it's not for me You know unattractive for outsiders churchy group um, why because So what's the why of the this bible focused group? Because you want kids to know and trust jesus and adopt his values Because you believe this can only happen by god's word You want kids to do life with jesus so, um I'm just gonna stop sharing that now um So, uh, it was very clear that okay, this image also in my initial days Help me that okay. Hey, you know, uh a certain youth group can be perceived as this Now that we can be a youth group and by the way, I have been part of The second the middle one and the third one um Which is extreme fun and it was just fun fun fun fun And fairly little of bible, uh, you know for the namesake of uh, you know, five minutes devotional and let's move on um, so I've been part of both of them. So This image was also very helpful in terms of how I need to have a vision for young people. Okay This is how the youth ministry at apc need to look at This is how it needs to be perceived as it has to be bible focused We're going to talk a lot about jesus to a lot of bible studies Um, you know group talks and whatnot and at the same time We're going to try and incorporate the fun element of it. There's nothing wrong in having fun, isn't it? um, so talk about cams games Yeah Movie night. We never did one but you know I wanted to have uh, I I can only imagine movie night. It was uh, it was a nice movie on forgiveness but um all of that helped me kind of uh, plan for the youth ministry and have a vision for a youth ministry at apc And uh with this five pillars so to speak was also very helpful like worship ministry evangelism fellowship and discipleship Right. Um, and so in your notes, you will see that uh, each point has sub points. They can worship You know, uh, you talk about celebrating god's presence honoring him with our lifestyles Praying hearing the word giving baptizing meditating communion, etc Ministry was about serving one another I think in uh, hebrews chapter 6 verse 10 it says we express our love to god and how we serve one another In in other words that when we serve each other, we are telling god that we love him Right and that's the second part of the commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. Isn't it? So meet meeting needs with love And encouraging our young people to serve in the church Okay, and there's a certain journey of how you would uh, you know disciple a young people, right? I'm just putting that in the chat section So if someone is new or if they are just graduating from children's church And coming into teen church scenes fellowship and then youth fellowship You know, we continue to teach them In the god's truth Isn't it we do continue to teach them about the foundations At the apc we have foundations. It addresses all all the foundational topics such as faith worship prayer Holy spirit, etc So we teach them about the foundational truths and then we teach them about the spiritual disciplines Uh, that's as a second as a second point in the discipleship journey is how to spend time in personal prayer regular in person and how to develop a discipline of spiritual life such as fasting Etc. And then what is very important is that you equip the individuals to serve You don't just teach them to come and sit warm the chairs and go But you tell them is like hey, there are so many of these volunteering teams that you can be part of You know, you can serve you can minister to one another Right as you love yourself. That's what ministry is all about. Isn't it? So, um You we teach the young people about worship we teach them about the importance of ministry about to serve And then it's also important that we teach them on evangelism Evangelism is another way how a church grows how a ministry Grows it is not enough that I tell them. Okay. I want you to share about Jesus in your schools in your colleges in your workplaces The next question is going to be the obvious one How do I share? Right and so you start planning a program or an event On how we can address that question. Okay. I want you to share about Jesus. Why Jesus and how you can Share about Jesus. Okay. So evangelism was another thing And then fellowship of course, uh, you know, we come together. We have fun food and fellowship That's the three famous f's. Isn't it? We have fun. We have food. We have fellowship That's also important and then finally discipleship. You're allowing them to Grow you're going on a journey so what we used to do as youth ministry is In the beginning of the year Once as a pastor as a leader, this was clear for me I began to meet with my core team you know, I had 12 to 15 Member core team who was helping me with the organizational aspect and the logistical part of its spiritual aspects of the youth ministry I began sharing these points with them Why it's important or we can talk about it in a later chapter is if you have a team It's important that you share your vision with the team and now once the team is understood your vision It becomes very easy for them to do what they are doing Are you with me? Right? And so once I had this down Uh, if I didn't want this vision to be secret And so every january we will have A youth meeting called youth connect Where we would have young people from all the locations apc had five has five locations Come and attend this meeting and it would be a time of sure You know, it's basically a vision casting meeting Right if you if you worked in a corporate, you know, you know that this is vision casting program or an event that happens Isn't it and so there was this vision casting meeting that would happen in january where all the youth would come and I will take them through All of these points This is the vision Of apc's youth ministry. This is the purpose and this is why we exist And so, you know, take them through these two verses great commandment great commission And uh, you know, these five pillars of worship ministry evangelism fellowship and discipleship Uh, and tell them, okay, this is what we are all about Another thing that we did in this meeting is I did not just present that. Okay, these are the five pillars and You know, I've also we also presented them The platforms that is available currently in the church that they can be part of So for example worship, uh, you know, we share with the young people saying, okay You can be part of the worship team There are worship nights that happen in church encourage them to come and be part of it where they can grow as worshipers And then ministry We present to them 19 different teams that serve to make one Sunday service happen. This is at apc Okay, um, so if you didn't know at apc, we have 19 different team volunteering teams Work together that make to make one Sunday happen From the car parking team to the children's team the children ministry to the youth ministry worship team setup team Etc etc ushering team All of that and you present to them say, okay, these are all the platforms that's available For you to minister to serve one another And not just to be so but to serve Right and then evangelism tell them that okay. There are these mission trips that happen Uh, you know where you can go out and uh, you know Minister to a new group of people and then there are these compass Sorry a group that goes on to these college campuses or school campuses where you can share about Jesus So you have a platform for evangelism and discipleship. There's this weekly school Weekend school of ministry that happens where you can go and be equipped. So You know, we're not just presenting that okay. There are these five pillars, you know, five things that we that's what we are All about it's not we're not just sharing that this is what's there But you are also presenting the platform that's available for them to be involved in five of these Categories so to speak. Okay, so it became very easy and once this was simple for me We had to come up with a purpose statement because why not Right and so if you look at the notes if you look at uh, you know We wanted to come up with a purpose statement. I'm at a bottom of page nine. I think If i'm not mistaken So the vision is kind of clear But to make it a little bit more simpler How can we make it it's it's still youth ministry, isn't it? We need to be a little bit exciting and catchy or trendy so to speak so We wanted to come up with a purpose statement The idea of this purpose statement Was to keep it simple to make keep it meaningful It should be action oriented. That means there has to be a call Right and it should be compelling so This is an exercise for you Uh, you know for yourself is uh, if you were leading a youth ministry What will be your vision? And you can come up with your own purpose statement and you can share it with me in the stream section. Okay, but With what we had how did we work this out? Are we started looking at alternate words or synonyms for all the five words that we have? Okay, so worship can be we can use the word exalt passion Offer, you know, this is just examples, right fellowship. You have enjoy encourage care evangelism. You have expose spread reach discipleship Synonyms are equip share develop ministries experience service serving etc. So we kind of Have filtered some of the synonym words for all those five Pillars and then we began to Make a purpose statement and uh And in the bottom of in page 10, you will see the words that are highlighted in red Is where we've managed to you know, bring in this aspect of worship fellowship evangelism discipleship and ministry Look at the scene Okay, so what was our final purpose statement apc youth ministry exists to equip and empower So you have uh discipleship You know mentioned that so you we exist to disciple young people instead of just saying disciple We're there to equip and empower to become true worshipers Right of jesus who love people That is ministry. Okay. Loving is what because you love your love your neighbor as yourself. So ministry so Love people and spread his love evangelism His love in the city of bangalore and the nation of india now It was not it was also very important that we come up with a purpose statement that is not alien to So foreign to the vision of our church It had to go in line right in most cases what happens in a church is that a church has its own vision And the youth ministry has its own vision that's going you know in another direction But that's not what we wanted to do we wanted to uh compliment or be coherent or cohesive With the vision of the church of vision of the senior pastor, right to be a salt and light in the city of bangalore Etc. And so just flip it up a little bit and say, okay apc's youth ministry exists to equip empower become true worshipers love jesus spread his love in the city of bangalore and the nation of india Okay, so that's what we came up with and that is the vision that uh, we ended up sharing with the core team And also with the rest of the youth and so Every youth of apc knew this is what we were about This is our vision This is who we are we're going to be bible focused And yet we're going to have fun and and what not right? We are going to be equipped in the area of worship evangelism ministry discipleship and fellowship Okay, um, so this is how we function at um apc now the youth ministry is Still looking the same But because we have a new youth pastor, but it's uh But they're growing in the same similar direction Okay, any thoughts or questions guys? I had one incredible team member who's uh part of this class and who's pasting a church in bangalore john paul Was an amazing youth leader. I should say okay. I guess uh You've understood it all So, uh, you know take what you want to from This chapter and make it your own and see how this can this will be helpful in your setting in your context to Having a vision and the importance of it. Okay. So if there are no questions, we can end this session right now And meet again next week. All right. Well, thank you for joining. Um, take care god bless you. I will see you again next week It's time