Is There A Need For Youth Ministry

The Need for Youth Ministry

II Kings 2:23

He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up by the way, some youths came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him, "Go up, you baldy. Go up, you baldhead."

II Kings 2:24

He looked behind him and saw them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Two female bears came out of the woods, and mauled forty-two of those youths.

Here in this passage of scripture we even see back in the bible days that there was a need for youth ministry.

The Bible says that some youths came and made fun of the Man of God. In the next verse we see that some bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them.

There are a few things that I would like to point out tonight and then I will be done.

1- There was a need for youth ministry

How many know that in the world we live in today, there is a huge need for youth ministries?

Notice a didn’t say there is a need for youth groups, but there is a need for youth ministries.

See there is a huge difference between a youth group and a youth ministry.

Usually in a Youth Group there is a group of young people that gather together one day of the week to hang out, have fun and see each other. The youth leader may or may not spend time with the young people outside of this group.

In a Youth Ministry there is a gathering of young people who want to find out God’s purpose and plan for their lives and pursue it. They have a night where the youth come together to be in the Presence of God and get their needs met. The youth pastor and youth leaders make it a goal to spend time with the young people outside of the youth night. Such as go to their houses, go to their matrics, sports activities and even visit their house.

What we need today are youth ministries that are making an impact in the lives of young people.

According to churchleadership.org did you know that 80 to 85% of people who become Christians do so between the ages of 14 and 18. Not only that but young people who are involved in regular spiritual growth keep their faith past college and university.

In this passage of scripture, we see there was a need for a youth ministry.

The bible says some youths came out and made fun of the man of God.

I wander if there had been a thriving youth ministry would these young people had come out and still made fun of the man of God.

I wander if there had been a youth pastor or youth leader that had a burden for these hurting young people would they have been in the situation they were in?

I wander if there had been someone who said these young people need Jesus and I want to rise up and make a difference in my generation would they not have been mauled by these bears?

Welll we don’t know, but we do know that there is a need to reach hurting young people in our generation today.

There are young people are hurting. There are young people that have no direction. There are young people who need a role model. There are young people who need Jesus.

42 young people – How many know that is a lot of young people. That sounds like the size of a youth ministry to me.

So, I guess we can ask the same question today.

Are there any young people that are willing to rise up and say I see the need in my generation and I want to make a difference?

2. That is why we have the G.A.N.G. God’s Anointed Now Generation

That is why we have God’s Anointed Now Generation. The G.A.N.G. was birthed out of a need to reach hurting young people.

Not only young people in the world, but also young people in the House of God.

Don’t get me wrong yes, we have been called to reach the gang member, drug addict, the runaway and the party animal, but the G.A.N.G. has also been called to reach the Church kid.

The one that has been brought up in Church.

The one that knows about God, but doesn’t have a relationship with Him.

The one whose parents come to Church, but they don’t.

The one that comes to church because they must, but they are far from God.

The G.A.N.G. has been called to make a difference in their lives.

3. The G.A.N.G. is twofold.

We do intervention and we do prevention.

Intervention is when we go and reach out to the ones that are involved in drug addiction, gangsterism, the party life and things they shouldn’t be involved in.