 Hi everyone, welcome back. Hope you got something to refresh yourself, water, coffee, chai. Alright, let's continue discussing what we were discussing. Some of the challenges that the youth are facing in the last session, we discussed both the challenges that the youth pastors are experiencing, youth ministers, youth leaders, and then we began to look at some of the challenges that the youth of this generation, of this DNA, are experiencing. We began with mental health and loneliness and the number of choices that's available and with time. And some of the more challenges that we all are aware of is, say, sexuality, sexual purity in society where pressure and temptation exists and identity. We can just talk about that, sexuality and identity or sexual identity slash sexual purity, etc. We are living in a day and age where media is just teaching or the culture is kind of portrayed where sex has no consequence and it requires no commitment. Sex before marriage is fine, having multiple sexual partners is fine and starting at a very young age is absolutely fine because that's the idea it's been portrayed. And I say media, mainstream media, I'm talking about every stream of media from movies, etc. Movies are one of the big things, but yes, it's not the only thing. I'm talking about identity. You know, again, the loneliness is kind of birthed out of this place saying self-birth is not there or insecurity. Everything is based on looks and so sexuality, identity and absence of a father figure. The point is more so in the North American continent and it might not be entirely accurate to every other demographic but that is a very real point. The absence of a father figure or a broken family can be relatable in a multicultural context. Negative media influence, right? To be worthwhile, you must be beautiful and avoid pain and pursue pleasure at all costs. You have one life, go to whatever you want to do, right? And yeah, as I mentioned, sex is a recreational pursuit. There's no consequences and everybody does it so no big deal. It's a recreational pursuit. There is no consequences and because there's no consequences that leads to young people advocating for a pro-choice. That's the big debate now. One of the big debates now is pro-choice versus pro-life. And so because they think that there are no consequences or there should be no consequences in pursuit of recreational sex or casual sex or multiple sexual partners, they say it's my body, my choice, whatever, blah, blah. So that's another challenge there. And these are all very real challenges, right? And then violence and vengeance, money brings happiness. This constant pursuit of just the dependence of technology like we've spoken already, right? So these are all the challenges. Now, challenges is a good starting place for us to know how we can approach and minister to young people because knowing the challenges alone is not enough. Let me be very clear, okay? We can know their challenges and continue to ignore them completely and continue to live our own lives or continue to ignore their challenges completely and then just teach what you want to teach. I don't care what the young people are going through. I'm not going to address any of their challenges or their issues. I'm just going to teach what I think and feel is important, right? And so I'm talking about the posture of it. It's important that we teach that you instill what you feel is important, but then I'm talking about the posture of the heart and how you approach administering young people, right? So knowing their challenge is not enough. It's a good starting place. It's a good starting point. But then that's where the actual journey begins is that as ministers, we must, you know, carefully work on, okay, what can we do now? How can I serve my young people well, okay? So how you're going to go about doing that is up to you. I'm not going to say this is how you have to do it, but then nevertheless, I have mentioned a few topics that you can consider doing in your youth ministry, okay? These are some of the topics that I have done with the young people and we continue to do as well. So based on their challenges, some of them are, for example, identity. There is a resource APC publication called Who We Are in Christ that you can use, but there are a lot more resources online. Foundations, just based foundations. It talks about business foundation on prayer, faith, worship, et cetera. No gossip I think is a good one. Sexual purity. These are some of the topics, guys, overcoming and just as the overcoming can be subdivided into so many subcategories or sub topics like overcoming depression, overcoming anxiety can be a topic for another Sunday and overcoming fear, overcoming addictions, temptations, emotions that destroy like anger. That's what I mean by that, right? And overcoming peer pressure, et cetera, intimacy with God, worship as a lifestyle, salvation, baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can begin to add in a little bit of doctrinal theological stuff as well because it's important that we equip our young people while we address the challenges that they are facing going through. We also give them the tools and to make them, their foundations stronger. And that's why we talk about baptism of the Holy Spirit, basics of apologetics. How can they defend their faith in the marketplaces, in their colleges, in their offices, et cetera? Loving relationships, fulfilling God's purposes. And there's so much more, guys. I've just listed down a few things, okay? This is just to give you an idea of the topics that you can cover. Okay, so that is chapter five and I hope that was helpful. We are going to continue to... I want to paint this as like one big chapter, even chapter six, understanding youth culture. Because now that we've understood their challenges, remember understanding their challenges or knowing their challenges is just a starting place. But we're going to go just a little deeper in chapter six. When we say this generation, we've heard about the millennials. Now, millennials can be generation X, Y and Z are considered as millennials, more so with generation Y and generation Z. After Gen Z, we have generation Alpha. That's where we're at as a world, as a society. That's where we're at. Gen Alpha. But let's take a moment to understand and try different generations from the early 20th century. Okay, so now generations are typically defined in the 15-year brackets. That's how they do it. I've done it. But let's take a look at it. Okay, so the first generation we are going to look at are known as builders or traditionalists or also known as the silent generation. This generation of builders, they were born pre-1945. The silent generation where they sacrificed their needs and those for their families. This is the generation that went into fight in the Great Wall who endured the British rule in India, colonization and all of that. In the North American continent, this is the generation that endured great depression. The great depression that happened in the late 20s, 1920s and it was very bad. This is the generation that witnessed World War I and World War II. They've given up a lot. They've sacrificed a lot in this generation. Then the generation that comes after that are called as either boomers or popularly called as boomers but they were known as the baby boomers. This generation were the children of the silent generation. Everybody was born between 1946 and 1964. Now they embraced consumerism. We have to remember there was a little bit of a boom that was happening after the war and Great Depression and what not. India is free, British have gone back to their region, country and so there's a growth economically as well, politically and all of that. Slowly countries are beginning to do well. Economies are growing. The children of the silent generation embraced consumerism. They began to pursue money and things and in excess they were not satisfied. That is the baby boomers or the booming generation. Then we have the generation X, all those who were born between 1965 and 1979 and then generation Y where the millennials come in between 1980 and 2001. That's the gen Y. They've given them 20 years. It's cooler. Then we have the generation Z, gen Z, post-millennials. It's born post-2001, 2001 onwards. Now, why is this important for us to understand is that for the first time in history, for the first time in history, we have some of them, we have some of them from the silent generation who are still alive and then we have, if not some or most of them from the boomers generation who are still alive and then we have a lot from generation X who are still alive and generation Y who are still alive and then we have gen Z. For the first time in history, we have five generations that is kind of co-existing in the society, in the churches, in the communities. Now, why is that big? Because all of these five generations want to be heard. Are you with me? All of these five generations, they want to be heard. They want to express themselves. They want to be listened to, right? And this is pretty big, guys. It's not a joke. It's a very serious thing to consider. And among all of this, among all these noises, we as youth ministers are trying to reach a certain group. You know, that could be generation Y or generation Z, gen Y, gen Z, millennials. And so we are going to intentionally kind of learn just a little bit more about millennials because they are the current existing young people, the youth of our generation, right? And gen Y, gen Z, and gen Alpha. Just to know how do they live? How do they get here? Where will their parts take them? What does their faith look like and all of that? Because I have mentioned the youth are changing. This generation, among the five generations, they want to be heard. They want to voice their opinions, et cetera, right? They are changing socially. They are changing intellectually because of the abundance of knowledge or information that is available, right? Just 15 years ago, 20 years ago, I couldn't Google core charts. Right. If we have to learn lyrics for any song that we liked, CD player or cassettes, if any of you remember cassette tape recorders, revined, revined, revined, revined until that film comes out of the cassette, put a pencil inside that and start revinding it. That's how we revined it, you know, if it is working and listen closely to the song lyrics and with their accents and try to write their lyrics down and all of that and try to learn the song, try to get the right chords and all of that. But now you can just Google the whole thing, right? I'm just saying that, you know, intellectually, because of the availability of information at how easily it is accessible is changing young people. Intellectually as well, intellectually as well, emotionally, morally and spiritually, they are changing, right? They're constantly looking for answers like, okay, who am I? Who are my friends? Where am I going? What are going to be my life choices? Et cetera, et cetera, right? Because there are so much of outside influences that's shaping all their values. What's causing them to change? From their peers, the colleagues, et cetera, et cetera, right? And out of all of that, some of the trends that's affecting the young people this day and age, some of the trends that are affecting us, I've mentioned a few in the notes you see is secularization. Okay, and this is a very real trend. What's happening is in secularization, you know, religion and religious values associated with it disappear from the culture. So there is no accountability for anything related to morality, right? I'm talking, I'm not necessarily only about Christian, I'm just talking about religion in general. I'm talking about the secularization from its perspective, what it is doing to the communities and societies, right? Religion, all the values associated with it is gone. Gender revolution, I don't need to say more. It's becoming more fluid. Genders are fluid. It's no longer just male and female. There are, every day the numbers keep increasing on the number of genders that there can be from 40-odd to 70-odd genders and binary, which was male and female, it's become non-binary, right? Anybody can wake up one day and say that, okay, today a man can wake up and say, okay, today I identify as a five-year-old kid, so I'm going to dress up like a five-year-old kid. Today an adult man can wake up and say, I feel like a woman, so I'm going to identify myself as a woman and I expect everybody to identify me, address me as a woman. It's a very scary trend, securization, gender revolution, privatization and pluralization and all of this. I mean, we can go through it. I'm just going to go through them. You can look into it in more detail. Technology revolution, we are aware of where we are and the impact that technology has had. Not necessarily bad because we have to remember, right? Technology got us through COVID, okay? Without technology, churches wouldn't have continued to meet during COVID. It helped us. So all of this is not to paint a picture and say, okay, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad, this is bad. No, it's just being misused or manipulated, I should say. And all of this, all of the above is kind of linked with hyperindividualism. It's all about me. You see the stark difference from silent generation pre-1945 that gave up their lives, that sacrificed everything to in this day and age that it's all about me, how I feel, how I look. I will wear what I think is right. Why should I care about others' values, et cetera, et cetera? Hyper, it's not just individualism, it's hyperindividualism. And any points or remarks that's made against a certain individual in this category is very easily offended, right? And because of that, they're not going to come to church. They're not going to come to this youth meeting or whatnot. Are you guys all with me? Yeah, are you following? There's a study that says by 2030, 75% of the millennials will represent global workforce. This is scary number, 75% of millennials around the world will represent global workforce. How many of them will represent your church? In Judges chapter 2 verse 10, it says, after that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. We've read that scripture in the previous classes. We owe to the next generation an encounter with God. Among all of these noises of the world, what is the church doing? How can we actively engage the young people? Is the question that we all need to answer on a regular basis? How can we use the very thing that is impacting them negatively to have a positive impact? How can I use technology and social media to have a positive impact on that? Because we need to realize that technology is the new Sunday. We learned that during COVID. So impacting millennials with good use of technology and social media and relational leadership. This is huge because the young people of this day and age no longer recognize or acknowledge authoritarian leadership style. That worked in a certain day and age. I've just put an image taken from John Maxwell's one of the books called The Five Levels of Leadership. If there are 100 books in the world on leadership, John Maxwell has written 90 of them. Any topic on leadership, I think he's just covered it. He writes something very interesting on leadership on relational leadership. I'd like to take us through it. First one at the very bottom. We have position and base leadership. People follow you because they have to. You're a leader. They will follow you because you have the title called leader. If they have to salute you, they will salute your rank and not the person, so to speak. That's the positional leadership. Then you have the permission. The second level is people follow you because they want to. There's a sudden shift. They follow you because there's something about you that draws them to you. They will follow you because they want to. The third level of leadership is production-based. Results are seen. People now follow because of what you have done for the organization. The leader, you have paid some price. There are sacrifices that you have made. They want to acknowledge that. This person walks the talk seriously. They are sacrificing themselves for the betterment of the organization. That's the kind of person I want to follow. That's the person who is there first and leaves the building last. People follow because of what you have done for the organization. Then there's the fourth level of people-development-reproduction. People follow because of what you have done for them. Now it gets a little bit more personal. It's not just they follow you because for the organization, which is general, but now you're taking it up a notch by saying, they want to follow you because you've done something for that individual personally. Finally, the fifth level of leadership is people follow because of who you are and what you represent. There comes a place in leadership where they will no longer follow you for what you have done for them or what you have done for the organization, but it comes a time in leadership that they will follow you simply because of the person that you are, for your character, for your values, for integrity, and what you represent. I believe that this is the kind of leadership that young people are looking for in this day and age is that they really don't care how much you know until they know how much you care for them. If you're still interested in this topic of leadership, one of the books that's impacted me, it's not a Christian book, it's called Turn the Ship Around. I've mentioned it in the notes. Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet, who is now a retired captain of the US Navy. It's a beautiful book that you have to read and just one of the quotes there, it says, leadership should mean giving control rather than taking control and creating leaders rather than forging followers. I agree with the first half of it, for the most of it, but then he goes on to say creating leaders rather than forging followers. It's important that we have followers as well. I did a session on being a good follower in one of our mentoring classes, mentoring hours, but it is important that a good leader or a leader in training will always be a good follower, so that goes without saying. But that's a good book, it's a good read. I would recommend that for you to get it if you can. How can we impact millennials or the young generation of this day and age, good use of technology and social media, relational leadership, build a rapport with them, get to know them, spend time with them, go for a coffee with them, et cetera, et cetera. And remember the conversations that you have with them. For example, if my last conversation with, this is just an example, if my last conversation with, say, John was on the exam that he was about to write, remember that the next time you meet him and say, hey, how did that exam go? Or it could be anything. The last conversation could be, I was going through something bad or an interview, et cetera. Don't forget to follow up and say, how did the interview go, how did the exam go, how are you feeling today, et cetera. All of that is relational leadership, which is very, very important. Because in this day and age, people will not respond to authoritarian, they might, but because they simply have to. And in addition, have a dynamic youth events, youth programs for young people that will impact, have a solid impact, have a review meeting, have ask questions like, okay, what was good about this youth meeting? What was bad about this youth meeting? What was missing in this youth meeting? Or was there any element of this youth meeting that was confusing to the young people? Is it in the material or was it the topic? Or was it a communication? For example, it was not communicated. Where are we going to meet? When are we going to meet, et cetera? Was there any confusion in the building up to the event, et cetera, et cetera. And so these were the four questions that I would kind of do with the core team. Okay, was there anything good about this? What went well? What were the wins? What went wrong? What did not work, et cetera. Having a good review meeting with your team constantly will help you a plan for a more dynamic events. Okay, this is, I'm talking only about events. And have a solid depth in spiritual leadership, et cetera, et cetera. Are you all with me so far? Any questions? Because I feel like I've been talking too much. Is it making sense? Okay, thank you so much. Okay, this is coming down to the 6.4 at the bottom of page 29. How do young people commit to being part of a community? Consistency was a big discussion, isn't it? So how do we get young people committed to being part of a community? How can there be some consistency? So there are two things in building people who are committed to a community is one is culture. Culture is huge, right? You want to set a culture. You want to see a culture for your ministry, whatever that may be. Because again, the culture that you are creating is the culture that you will allow. Okay, again, if you do not set the culture for your youth ministry, it will be set for you. If you as a leader are allowing a culture of gossip, that's the culture that is being set, because you as a leader are not confronting or addressing that. At the same time, on the other side of the coin, if you are setting a culture of honor, that's what will be seen, right? Everybody who steps in will know, hey, in this youth ministry of so-and-so church, everybody is honored. And because that's the culture, right? And again, culture always will be set. The culture that you are creating is the culture that you allow as a leader. It flows from the top, okay? So this was some of the points that I would share with the core team and the young people as to the culture that we are going after as youth ministry at APC. So what was the first thing is, come as you are. Okay, nobody is going to be, we have to make very clear that, okay, it doesn't matter who's coming in, they are welcome as they are. It doesn't matter, you know, where they've been, what they've done, how many tattoos they have, how many piercings they've got, their looks should not matter. What they've done should not matter. But they come as they are, but they don't leave the same. They, you know, they encountered Jesus, right? And so come as you are. There needs to be a culture of encouragement. No constant ridicule or criticize, you know, too much of criticizing that happens or insults that's thrown around or efficiency five, it says, right? You know, don't let loose talks, you know, be among you. So, but instead of that, let there be a culture of encouragement. Okay, and then knowing the why, why are we doing what we are doing? And so if you as a leader, one know why you're doing what you're doing and then if your core team knows why you are doing what, you know, what they're doing, and then if the young people understands and sees the why, there is a culture of consistency that's being built. Okay, they will, they will submit to that. Okay, I see what they are doing. I see why they are doing what they are doing. And I, you know, I'm come in agreement with that. I understand that. And so there's, you know, consistency that's being built. And that leads to commitment eventually. All right, so first thing is culture. We can dwell on talk about this all day, but it's, but culture is important guys. Okay, the culture that is being set or being created is the culture that you allow. And so be careful as a leader, as a pastor of what culture is being set in your ministry, in your church. And secondly, finally is community, right? What is the difference between a community or a group of people? This is a question, by the way. What is the difference between a community and a random group of people? Come on guys. What is the difference between community and just a group? Okay, Jeffyna says, I believe the community takes care of each other while the group is just a group. Okay, there is union and community. Yes, and what about the group? There's no union? Not necessarily. Not necessarily, okay. Abu, can we hear you? Community comprises of groups, different comprises of groups of people with different ideologies, different mentality, ethnicity, different ideas. But a group is a set of people that have the same idea, the same goals, the same focus, the same plan. So it's clear. Okay, thank you. All right, yeah. I think Subashish says something interesting. A community have a mission. They have an objective, a purpose as a team or as a group of people. While a group of people can, it could just be a get-together. Okay, we are just meeting for a barbecue and we're just going to have a nice time there. That's not necessarily an objective. The only objective could be, okay, we're going to meet for a barbecue. But there's no mission or a vision per se, right? Like Rosalind is saying, like-minded people build community and a group is only people who don't know why they have come. I'm sure they know why they have come. They've come to have a good time or whatnot. But I think what differentiates is that a community has a vision. They have an objective. They have a purpose, like a very clear, which lasts longer versus a group can, they'll be done after whatever they got together to do. So that's the difference between a community and a group. But what should a Christian community look like? I've mentioned a few scriptures in your notes. From Romans 12 to Matthew 18, where two or three I gather together as my followers, I am there among them. Hebrews 10 verse 24 and 25 says, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good work. Let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. So you see that from the previous section, from the previous points, we looked at come as you are, encourage one another, having a clear idea of the why, et cetera, is all kind of clearly laid out in Hebrews 10. Let us not neglect our meeting together, but encourage one another, motivate one another in acts of love and good works. In multiple scriptures in Proverbs 11, 15 and 24, we see that where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. So it's saying that in Christian community should be like a multitude of counselors where people find safety. So why is community is important? It's simply because we were created to be relational. We are not designed to be alone. Yes, we are not designed to be alone. God said it is not good for men to be alone. So boom, community is birthed there. We are created to be relational. And secondly, or finally, God loves people. We as a church cannot say, I love Jesus and not love people. God loves people. And so it's what we kind of look at, and we all know the love chapter from 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient, love is kind, et cetera, et cetera. And if you have your notes with you, if you have your PDF with you, there's an image with the simple addition there. Do you all see that? Yes? Okay, so tell me what you see. That's a test for you guys. Everybody's looking at the notes, right? Okay, guys, so there's a test over there on the PDF for you all. What do you see? Is Jefina the only one who's looking at the PDF? It's not a tricky question. I'm sure it's not a difficult test. Okay, we have page 32. Can I get the... Yes, sir. Yeah, yes. Okay, I'll even share the screen. Okay, there you go. Is this fine? Okay, so what do you see? Yeah. This is a simple test, right? So this has been done so many times. And the answer that we get is what you would normally say is that, okay, the third one is wrong, one is wrong, one is wrong, one is wrong, one is wrong, one is wrong. But, you know, no one has ever said there are three right answers. So the point is, except for JP now, who remembers this. You know, the point here is, again, you know, it's very easy for us to find fault, right? It's very easy to... That seems very natural for us to find mistakes, but it takes... You know, somehow the mistakes blinds us from seeing three right things in a person trying to draw a parallel, right? And so that's how a Christian community should be is like, you know, so full of love that we accept people, but at the same time we equip them to build a better life, like the life that Jesus has commanded us to live, right? And there are more points and scriptures given about how we can be a Christ-centered community. Right? So guys, that's pretty much about it for youth ministry in general is... That's the kind of conclusion is... I want to leave us with just this one point is, as a leader, as a pastor of the ministry, if you're asking this question about how we can ignite passion among young people, and the answer is very simple. Like, they want to see how passionate you are for Jesus. What are your choice of words when you describe Him, when you define Jesus, when you talk about Jesus? So what is the language? What kind of words are you using to describe Him, and define how passionate are you? And so if you want to see passionate young people in your church, it all begins with you. That's a simple answer to that question. How do we ignite passion among young people? It begins with you. Are you willing to set yourself on fire or be on fire for Jesus? Because fire cannot be ignored and will not be ignored. And when young people see that you are authentic and that you are genuine, that you are genuinely burning with zeal and passion for Jesus, they will be filled with passion for Him. Okay. So I hope this course has been helpful. As I mentioned, this is just an introduction to youth ministry. We looked at who the young people are, through the organizational aspect of it, and some of the challenges that ministers and young people face this generation and how we can impact them. Okay. Any thoughts, anything that you want to share? Okay, if not, today will be the last class. We will not have classes from the following week. Please continue to work on your assignments and submit them before the deadline date. All right. Thank you all for joining. Once again, I hope you've learned something from this course. God bless you. See you around.