The Next 30 Years - Our Priorities
As we think about reaching more kids, I want to remind you of three key principles that we as YL staff and volunteers have agreed are vital to our ministries. These are the most important things we can concentrate on during these next years of Capernaum.
• Contact work with new high school kids,
• Proclaiming the gospel in a way that our friends can best process, and
• Walking with and discipling our friends as they grow in their relationship with Jesus.
Before we even talk about these 3 key principles, let’s talk about the ONE foundational relationship that must be nurtured to prepare us for everything else. Ruth Haley Barton says: “The best thing any of us have to bring to leadership is our own transformed selves.” So I ask you, are you being transformed? Are you spending time with Jesus each day. Just like an athlete takes time to prepare himself or herself mentally and physically for the race, so we need to be equipped and prepared for the events that are happening around us. God has arranged the events we will encounter as we go through our day, but if we are not adequately equipped and if we are not being transformed from our earthly selves, we will grow weary and lose heart. Spending time with Jesus will prepare us. Our first priority must be our desire for and need for Jesus.
• Contact work with new high school kids,
• Proclaiming the gospel in a way that our friends can best process, and
• Walking with and discipling our friends as they grow in their relationship with Jesus.
Before we even talk about these 3 key principles, let’s talk about the ONE foundational relationship that must be nurtured to prepare us for everything else. Ruth Haley Barton says: “The best thing any of us have to bring to leadership is our own transformed selves.” So I ask you, are you being transformed? Are you spending time with Jesus each day. Just like an athlete takes time to prepare himself or herself mentally and physically for the race, so we need to be equipped and prepared for the events that are happening around us. God has arranged the events we will encounter as we go through our day, but if we are not adequately equipped and if we are not being transformed from our earthly selves, we will grow weary and lose heart. Spending time with Jesus will prepare us. Our first priority must be our desire for and need for Jesus.
As we model our lives after His, we are called in Luke 14 to look for people who are lost by the highways and byways, in hidden places, to invite them to the banquet table with Jesus. This is what YL calls contact work. No matter where people have come from, how they learn, what their personalities are like or what their bodies look like… we are meeting young people who need a Savior. Kids whom God welcomes at His table, young people who are longing to hear that the God of the universe loves them.
We are to go out to where students with disabilities are and invite them to say yes. Yes to a friendship with us, yes to adventure, and ultimately yes to a relationship with Jesus.
Jesus is calling out to teens with disabilities around the world, and there are times that Jesus wants to use our voice and our hands and our feet. There is still plenty of room left at the table. He’s calling us to the roads, the country lanes and the inner city streets. He’s calling us to those hallways in the school that lead to the classrooms where no one else visits. God is not just calling us to easy kids. God is also calling us to the students that intimidate us. God is calling us to every area, every region, every road and alleyway because there is still room at the table.
God is calling us to Himself - to be transformed and encouraged by spending time with Him. And then God sends us out to meet new people, to invite them to the Banquet table.
When we meet our new friends and get to know their particular needs and learning styles, we must then take the principles of Young Life and adapt them in order to best meet our friends’ needs that they may experience the Gospel. What might need to be changed in order for our friends to best hear, or see or experience the Good News that Jesus loves them and longs to have a relationship with them? What questions are we asking ourselves to make sure that our presentation of the Gospel fits our audience? How have we adapted and contextualized our Gospel presentation for our friends with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities?
We must be committed in these next years of Capernaum to reaching new kids and more kids that we haven't yet found. We must be committed to being creative in our presentation of the Gospel and taking YL’s time honored truths and contextualizing them for our friends.
Finally, and this is something that is one of the most unique things that we in YL Capernaum are acting on, we believe that people with intellectual or developmental disabilities can grow in their faith. We are committed to walking with our friends as they study the Bible and as they identify their gifts and abilities and determine how best to use those gifts and abilities to glorify God.
This is a radical concept in a world where in many places our friends are only offered respite care so that their parents can worship in peace. We are saying, “We want more than that. We can learn more and serve better together. Our friends can lead the way in so many things, we don’t want to miss out.”
My prayer for YL Capernaum is that God will continue to draw us close and we will listen and run to Him. My prayer is that we will not allow ourselves to be too busy for God or to think that we can do anything on our own. I pray that we will continue to celebrate all of those whom God has brought to the table with us and we will continue to invite more people to sit at the table together. I pray that we will be lifelong learners and will enter into the world of our friends in order to best present the Good News in ways that make sense to them. And I pray that we will grow together in our faith, knowing that God’s desire is to transform us all.
We are to go out to where students with disabilities are and invite them to say yes. Yes to a friendship with us, yes to adventure, and ultimately yes to a relationship with Jesus.
Jesus is calling out to teens with disabilities around the world, and there are times that Jesus wants to use our voice and our hands and our feet. There is still plenty of room left at the table. He’s calling us to the roads, the country lanes and the inner city streets. He’s calling us to those hallways in the school that lead to the classrooms where no one else visits. God is not just calling us to easy kids. God is also calling us to the students that intimidate us. God is calling us to every area, every region, every road and alleyway because there is still room at the table.
God is calling us to Himself - to be transformed and encouraged by spending time with Him. And then God sends us out to meet new people, to invite them to the Banquet table.
When we meet our new friends and get to know their particular needs and learning styles, we must then take the principles of Young Life and adapt them in order to best meet our friends’ needs that they may experience the Gospel. What might need to be changed in order for our friends to best hear, or see or experience the Good News that Jesus loves them and longs to have a relationship with them? What questions are we asking ourselves to make sure that our presentation of the Gospel fits our audience? How have we adapted and contextualized our Gospel presentation for our friends with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities?
We must be committed in these next years of Capernaum to reaching new kids and more kids that we haven't yet found. We must be committed to being creative in our presentation of the Gospel and taking YL’s time honored truths and contextualizing them for our friends.
Finally, and this is something that is one of the most unique things that we in YL Capernaum are acting on, we believe that people with intellectual or developmental disabilities can grow in their faith. We are committed to walking with our friends as they study the Bible and as they identify their gifts and abilities and determine how best to use those gifts and abilities to glorify God.
This is a radical concept in a world where in many places our friends are only offered respite care so that their parents can worship in peace. We are saying, “We want more than that. We can learn more and serve better together. Our friends can lead the way in so many things, we don’t want to miss out.”
My prayer for YL Capernaum is that God will continue to draw us close and we will listen and run to Him. My prayer is that we will not allow ourselves to be too busy for God or to think that we can do anything on our own. I pray that we will continue to celebrate all of those whom God has brought to the table with us and we will continue to invite more people to sit at the table together. I pray that we will be lifelong learners and will enter into the world of our friends in order to best present the Good News in ways that make sense to them. And I pray that we will grow together in our faith, knowing that God’s desire is to transform us all.
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