 Okay, welcome guys. We're going to start the course on youth ministry. So good to see you all. Good to have you all back. I hope you all are doing well. All right, okay. Before we just continue, can I, hey, can I quickly request either Dave or Prince to lead us in prayer? Someone? Thank you Lord, thank you that they have given us this time and this opportunity to come together, to give us the best we can learn from each other. And we pray for this fast process as we learn, we pray that we are not pastors. We have been, it is one of the first words that we need. Thank you. Awesome. Cool guys. Hi Aaron, hey Thomas, Kiran, good to see you guys. Good to see you. Okay, well we're going to start with the youth ministry. Of course, very good. It's kind of a little bit about the history and the importance of it. So let me just go ahead and share my screen. The reviewer with my words, okay. How is it now? Is the reviewer still there? Okay, I don't know. I didn't do anything different from the first class. Everything is as is. Is it better? Am I loud enough? Or is it too distracting? Is it the same for you as well? Prince, Thomas, Aaron. Okay, little noises there but not much disturbance we can hear. This is strange because I didn't have this problem with the first hour or two hours. Okay, sorry about the issues. Alright, thanks guys. Sorry for that. So in this course, this is, you know what I'm saying, the BC 313 Introduction to Youth Ministry. It's just an introduction in this course and in the time that we have, we'll just look at a few topics as an introductory topics, subjects that involves youth ministry. And we'll discuss why is youth ministry important and youth ministry with a vision. Identifying your audience, you know, who are the youth that you're administering to. That's what I mean when I say identifying your audience, okay. Youth ministry in the local church, some of the organizational aspects, challenges in youth ministry, understanding the youth culture, and how do we ignite passion among the youth, okay. So these are the few things that we will learn in this subject. And the book report will be, the final grading will be on this book called Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry for which I will share it for the PDF in the classroom section. You'll be able to go through that as well, okay. But I'll give you all the details of that as we go on. Okay, so why is youth ministry important? Why is youth ministry important? I just want to hear from you all, why do you think it's important before I go ahead and give some stats and numbers, you know, on the notes. I want to hear you tell me, why is youth ministry important? Speak, unmute and speak. Yeah, it's important because they are the future leaders. Okay, it's important because they are future leaders, okay. Hey Kiran, why is youth ministry important? Or is it not important? Yeah, so youth ministry is important because of other youth, they don't distract and go wrong way. And yeah, so. Okay. All right, they are the future leaders and they tend to go the wrong way so they need to be led in the right way. That's another reason why we need the youth ministry, okay. Thank you. And Prince. You can gather like... Sorry? Sorry, I lost you then. Actually, youth is important when they are in college. They can gather and do the ministry or share the word of God. Awesome, okay, yeah, wow, okay. Interesting, yeah, thank you for sharing that Prince. All right, I just want to question you, Dave. Dave or Thomas. I hope you're there, you can hear me. Why is youth ministry important? Well, in that age only so much of destructions and so many attractive things in the world. So that's where church has to focus on needs to get back, to help them relationship with the God. There's a lot of chance to go astray. So that's where we have to focus on the youth ministry. Okay, and so people who are not in the youth don't go astray. I'm just asking. It's not like that, but... There's no distractions or attractions. It's there in all the age, but in this age there's a lot of chance to fall into that. Yeah, I get what you're saying. I'm just teasing, okay. Yeah, thanks guys. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. And I always, you know, it's always good to hear your thoughts because if you're talking about a subject, I think the very important, at least in my opinion, it's always important to ask why, more than the what and the how and the where and when. And why is it important? And I think that kind of sets the tone for us to answer every other question a little better, right? So hence the question, why is youth ministry important? And all of you, what you've shared is absolutely right and spot on, right? But in addition, we see here, you know, we begin by asking who are the youth? We see youth ministry is important, and we begin by asking who are the youth? Okay, and here's what, you know, a few resources I have to say, the United Nations for strategic purposes defines youth as the persons between the ages of 15 and 24 without prejudice or to other definitions by member states, okay? So they define the youth category as 15 to 24. And the United Nations General Assembly defines youth as persons between ages of 15 to 24. The World Bank uses this term with reference to people between 15 and 25. The Common Wealth Youth Program refers to the young people as youngsters aged between 15 and 29. Most of the bishop conferences refer to youth as youngsters starting from 18 to 30, 35, okay? So, and you see this like a wide variety, or at least for the most of it, the stats at the age of 15. You can go on to 24, 25, 29, 30, and 35, you're a young adult, right? So, those are who some of these, some of the world organizations refer to as youth, right? So beyond all these definitions, youth are the most dynamic section of any society and most fascinating stage of life, right? It's the most, like you guys said, it's there's so much happening and there's so much of energy at that age, right? That's why it's so dynamic. And I didn't say that the potential is so much that they are like the future leaders, right? They can be shaped and formed in the future leaders of our country or any nation, right? They are the dynamic section of any society and the most fascinating stage of life. I am loving my youth. I hope you are loving it. I'm still 18, I'm just kidding. So when we think of youth, we think all of that is beautiful in life, such as fashion, sports, arts, media, technology, fun, adventure, relationships, idealism, creativity, create dreams, and the list can go on, isn't it? I mean, all of this and beyond, right? Relationships. And you can just take one of the subjects and just take, say for example, sports or arts. We can just elaborate and just see. We can do our own research on how many young people are attracted to sports. We have so many football clubs as beginning in our city that's encouraging not just young people, just children from the age of four and five, you know, and everybody wants to get into arts and different kinds of, you know, let's say arts is not just painting, but any form of art, like a dance or theater, et cetera, et cetera. It's so different now, isn't it? And it's like so vibrant and everybody's energetic and I want to be involved in so many things, right? So it's a fascinating stage in life and they are like a vibrant and a dynamic city, a section of the society or the country or community, right? But then let's understand them a little bit more. Who are these youth, okay? And some would say the swipe generation, okay? Multi-tasking, you know, 36 hour a day, a five minute attention span. There are so many such expressions, right, that describe for the youth today, right? Five minute attention span. I know most of you guys are young people, so please be attentive for more than five minutes, okay? In diverse avenues, the contemporary world attributes great significance to the youth, their life and their contributions to society in a technology-driven world. Children or youth mostly have the final say where problem-solving, gadget-buying and decision-making are concerned, okay? So just want to read this and elaborate. Youth and their trends are of great significance to the society and to the business sector, okay? That's okay, so youth and their trends are of great significance, right, to the society and the business sector, to religion and politics. Major industries observe youth trends to decide on what to manufacture. That's a lot, isn't it? It's huge, isn't it? While marketing organization constantly evolve new styles in youth marketing, consequently research on youth trends and perspectives has assumed great significance today. So all these great organizations, all these fashion industries, or whatever, digital marketing, and all of them are observing the trend among the young people, and based on what the trend is, so what the assumption or the understanding is, this industry sets the trend and the people follow, but that is not the case, right? It's amazing to know that the young people set the trend and the billion-dollar industries look at them to grow their businesses and do everything that they want to do. So that's another definition and description of who the youth are. As much as they are multitasking, they want to do a million things at the same time, they don't think that in a day there is 24 hours. There's always more than 24 hours for them in a day, et cetera, et cetera. And so now we're having understood who the youth are. The question arises, why focus on youth? We just understood that they set the trend and everybody else are watching them. They are the most dynamic section of the society. It's the most fascinating stage in life, the most vibrant and the most amazing parts, and there's so many things happening. So the question now comes, why focus on youth? So Dr. G.C. Manau, who is the Director General of Central Statistics Office of Indian Government, in his report in Youth in India 2017, says, youth is the most valuable segment of the population. The human resource potential of individuals not only gain maximum but also reaches its peak during period. Youth in reality represent the present of our country. Youth in reality represent the present of our country. Young men, young ones, when nourished properly can grow like a huge redwood tree, but if not controlled or neglected, can erupt like a volcano. No country can afford to ignore its youth. India is a youth nation in the sense that share of its youth in the total population, and this is from 2011, but another study was done in 2016 or 17. This percentage is almost doubled, guys. This percentage is almost doubled. Just to finish what he said, the youth of our nation are the trustees of prosperity. Youth is a huge reservoir of energy which needs to be tapped and harnessed intelligently for the development of the society. The changing demographic profile of the world has thrown a window of opportunity favoring India. The changing demographic profile of the world has thrown a window of opportunity favoring India. Why? Presently, India has the largest share of youth population in the world and will continue to hold so for the next 20 years. Isn't that amazing? To know that we, India, is the youngest country in the world. There's a huge population of our nation, other young people, and it's going to be like that for the next 20 years. It suddenly gives a different perspective as to why youth ministry is important, isn't it? Yes, yeah. And so the stats that's mentioned and everything that he's mentioned, it's like a wake-up call. There's so much potential here. We see that youth is the most generous time and so it's targeted by all. If approached well, this is the best time in a person's life to be molded for good or for bad. If approached well, this is the best time in a person's life to be molded for good or for bad. The enemy knows this, the devil knows this, that if he can get them young, he can do whatever he wants to do with them. Right? And so it's so important. Just building on the children's ministry, I'm sure Pastor Selina would have stressed on the importance of how precious they are. When you look at a sort of terrorist groups, how they brainwash little children and putting seeds into them of so much of hatred and anger and resentment into such innocent mind. Why? Because they know that their mind is so fragile and so precious that it can be molded to the way they want it to be molded. That's why it says for good or for bad. And so suddenly it increases, it raises this question of the importance of discipleship. What is the church doing? Is the church molding their youth the way they think, the way they live their lives? Is there a youth ministry that is kind of doing that? So youth are the best agents of change. They hold the key to the lifestyle of the world. And we saw that youths are the one, young people are the one that set the trends for all the other organizations to follow, isn't it? And it is a time of never ending newness and learning about themselves and the world around them. They possess a spontaneous zeal for values like love, unity, peace and justice. They are the real today and tomorrow. Our future leaders like Aaron says, political and religious priests and lighting are all among them. So that's the youth. If not molded properly, they can erupt like a volcano. It's the most precious and it can be dangerous at the same time, isn't it? So just a few questions. Coming back to our original question. Why do we need youth ministry? And everything that you said is right. You know the Jewish community, the Jews and their way they function, they take education very seriously in those days. Education in terms of educating them, it serves educating the children in the Torah. That's God's word for them. It's a first five books of Moses. And so here we see that 2000 years ago Jewish children had a clear path to adulthood that included youth ministry. So the locals in the world would hire a rabbi and this primary role was to educate those educating children. Check this out, starting at age of four or five, which is known as the Beth Shaffer. This standard, we have first grade, second grade, third grade. So in this grade called Beth Shaffer, starting at age four or five, children would love to read, write and memorize the Torah. And at age 10, having memorized the Torah, Mrs. Foster, at age 10, they are excited and they will have memorized the Torah. Are you able to follow the case? You know to know that they would know the inside out of the first five books of the Old Testament like that. So children would either spend more time at home learning the family trade or move to the path of the rabbi. So after a certain age, they are in that stage to 10 and there is another grade that they get into. More advanced way, so they need to learn more things of the Torah. So after a certain point, they get to make this decision. Do I continue studying to go on and become a rabbi or do I take on the family trade? We see that the disciples are fishermen. They took on the family trade. The father was James Peter, the father was a fisherman and they also found a family trade. Or there can be some of them in the society who would say I want to continue studying and becoming a rabbi. So either path led to an eventual acknowledgement of adulthood at the age of 30 for men. So the Jewish community saw the importance of educating the children from a very young age and all the way to the younger adulthood until they're 30, they had the option. And some of the scriptures says in Ecclesiastes 12-1 so remember also your Creator at the days of your youth before the evening days come and the years drawn near of which you will say I have no pleasure in them. Psalm 119, how can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your work? Ezekiel 16-20, yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant. Proverbs 22-6 says, train up your child in the way he should go even when he is old he will not depart from it. And now the word of the Lord came to me saying Jeremiah 148, before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you, I appointed you a prophet to the nations. I do not say I am only a youth for to all to whom I send you, you shall go and whatever I command you, you shall speak do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you, declare us to you. Right? Just, I mean, simple exercise, not it, but can you think of other individuals from the Bible who are young that God called in their young age? David, okay, yeah. He was still a boy, isn't he? God called him as man after God's own heart when he was still a boy. Yeah, who else? Who else do you think? Timothy, Joseph was a boy, I think, yeah. But he's showing a spoiler saying when God encountered Mary, who gave her mother Mary, she was only a teenage girl about between 13 and 15. Jeremiah is another example, right? So the point and another historian and scholars say that most of the disciples of Jesus except for Peter they were all in their teenagers and there is a valid explanation to that and we'll talk about that at a later point. But just consider that, right? If all the disciples of Jesus were all teenagers it's amazing to know that God chose a bunch of teenagers to change the world, isn't it? Right? How amazing is that? Okay, so the thing we're kind of establishing the foundation pretty clear and why we need the youth ministry and from the scriptures we see not just from the worldly perspective as we learned before that the importance in India being the young nation and all that, we see the scriptures stressing on the importance of youth and we can learn a little bit about the importance of molding a young mind from the Jewish community and how they stress on the importance of discipleship, okay? So having understood who the youth are why is it important to have youth ministry? Look at the role of the youth in today's church the role of the youth in today's church what is the role of the church today? Teaching young people in the church to grow in their relationship with the Lord prepares them to serve Christ in all they do as a result this nurtures the congregation and allows the church to flourish teaching young people in the church to grow in their relationship with the Lord prepares them to serve Christ in all they do This is seen many times in the Bible as God often used young people to do great things like his Timothy as Prince Jesper Timothy to pastor and lead an Ephesian church when he was a teenager Timothy 4.12 says don't let anyone look down on you because you are young That's an example for the believers in speech and conduct and love and faith and impurity That's an example Youth need guidance and support as they navigate through the most challenging part of their development and seek to grow in their work with Christ Christ-like leaders are needed to serve young members of the congregation and help them to reach their full potential So this is an exercise I did with some of my young people in church I asked them why is youth ministry important I asked them why is youth ministry important and this is some of the responses I got it says youth ministry helps to equip future leaders with sound practical biblical training encourage them to stay firm on course for Christ and empower them with everything that they need to carry the gospel out into the world equip, encourage, empower Youth ministry helps present biblical truth to young people in a relatable manner while addressing real issues that they face on a daily basis very different from those that adults children face it is in these years that they form core beliefs it also helps them form a community of young believers who can inspire and encourage one another So remember the question is why is youth ministry important setting the tone to build the next generation to do that you need to turn off Adelaide mode Sorry Young generation in church needs to know the right path and instead of all questions from the peers youth ministry is important to guide in the right direction and to make Christ relevant and gospel meaningful to youngsters so that they can have a relationship with God in their own way in the context of the world Okay So this is where we end Why is youth ministry important? You've given your answers and we see just a few important points mentioned here Okay So what I want to really do is stop presenting I want to continue with the next chapter and the next class on Monday but even if we just continue and pursue this course on youth ministry and we've just seen the facts and the importance of young people in youth in India and in every other country I want you to just pray and ask God what is your heart for the youth because as mentioned for the next 20 years India is going to be young a young nation and this is one part of the society it simply cannot be ignored So why is youth ministry important? because of the number of lives that are there at stake and if the church doesn't reach out to them if the church is not going to be the salt and light in the city, in your city and in this nation or who else is going to be if we don't influence the only organization should be influencing the youth of our nation on every aspect or every area it's a state for example it's a state of sex for the matter sex is God's idea he crescendos on that it's pure, it's supposed to be holy if the church doesn't talk about the topic every idea about sex the young people or teenagers are getting from is from the ads that they see so why is youth ministry important? in a church because if we don't we lose souls in millions and so in your time whenever you can ask God what is your heart for this young generation the foundation of my land wherever you are can you do that? so I just don't want this to be another course where we will learn practical things but then I want us to hear the heart of God so with that I just want to pause here and continue the second chapter in the next class it's like a proper flow okay are you guys all doing alright? it's a short class I know it's fine so I'll stop the recording