NEED IN 12 HOURS or LESS

Read my classmate post. Think and write your thoughts and feelings about his post. (1 page)

                                              Classmate’s Post 

While living in a small rural Utah town for a year I was assigned to be the youth education director. As I walked the hallways, sat in class, and discussed classes with teachers I kept hearing the same complaints. The students were disengaged. The teachers felt like they were always in competition with phones, fellow youth in class, and sheer lack of attention.

           At the same time, I read a short story of a young man growing up in Europe. At the age of five he was asked to work in the mine opening and closing gates for the small carts along the track. The boys would sit in the mine in complete darkness for 12 hours a day. They could light their candle twice a day to walk into the mine and a couple minutes to each lunch. They estimated that thousands of children of the same age sat in the mines for eleven and a half hours in the dark.

           I am not advocating for child labor. However, I came to realize that our expectations for the children was exceptionally low. The teachers did their best to serve honey type lessons, amuse, and entertain the children. It included treats, videos, music, and almost theatrical teaching.

           What I learned and what is exceptionally taught in the chapter is that our youth need to be challenged. In relation to teenagers, the first step to take is begin looking and treating the youth more like adults. Likewise, even the younger youth need to begin their progression into adulthood. Heaven knows that our current culture creates teaches our youth be become perpetual youth.

           When we teach our children and youth to become respectful function adults we will “So that they will mature in their faith and not be “tossed by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming” (Eph 4:14).”[1] As adults, parents, teachers, and ministers this needs to be our goal. To raise and teach our children to be integral parts of the church congregation.

           How is this accomplished? Well, the first part is to help youth discover their foundation in the Word of God. When the youth allow Jesus Christ to enter their heart through the Word then He can help them build their foundation. The important thing to remember is that the teacher can do this! This is not an impossible task. Teachers are called to serve and teach through the Bible and can be successful.

           Why is it important for the teachers, ministers, parents, and congregation to teach the youth? According to Yount, “Current research supports the need to be effective in our reaching/ teaching/discipling of youth because nearly half of all Americans who receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior do so by age 13 (43 percent). Two-thirds (64 percent) will accept Jesus before their eighteenth birthday and 77 percent by their twenty-first birthday.” If we do not teach our youth before their 21st birthday then less than “one out of four (23 percent) will accept Jesus Christ.”1

           As stated above I believe that our youth are capable of so much more. As we changed our teaching methods and began feeding the youth more meat in the lessons the youths over all demeanor changed. They began asking deep questions. A desire to really know Jesus Christ began to grow. Do not get me wrong. The youth did not become 100% adults and behave with respect and perfection.

           Instead, the youth went through phases. At times they were on a role and things were going great. Then, the class would plateau, and the teacher would have to rekindle the fire. Yount describes this as “Youth live on an emotional elevator caught between two floors: below them is childish dependence and above them is adult interdependence.” 

           Our youth are ready and desiring more. I hope that I will continue being ready to prepare youth in the congregation for their entry into the Gospel.