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.
Prevention is when we reach the young person before they get involved in that type of lifestyle and let them know that God has a plan for their life. It can be the Church kid all the way to the one who hasn’t ever been involved in gangs for drugs.
Let me show you what I mean.
Raise your hand if you were involved in gangsterism and drug addiction, but now you are on fire for God.
Raise your hand if you were not ever involved in gangsterism or drug addiction, but you love God and you are on fire for God.
4. God can use young people now
Then once we reach the young person, we let them know that God has a plan for their life and He wants to use then now.
They don’t have to wait until they are older, but they can be used now.
When the G.A.N.G. came about in 1993 there was a generation called generation X.
The reason they called us the X generation is because they said that the X generation will not amount to anything. You put an X on something when you want to cross it out.
So one day at a World Conference in 1993 Pastor Sonny Jr. was preaching a message and he said we are not the X Generation, we are not the Next generation, but we are the Now Generation and that is how we came up with God’s Anointed Now Generation.
We believe that once a young person gives their life to God they can be used of God now.
They don’t have to wait until they are older. They don’t have to wait until they have all kinds of degrees, but God can use young people now.
Tell your neighbor “God can use you now.”
I thank God for the G.A.N.G. because when I gave my heart to Jesus it gave me a place to fit in.
The G.A.N.G allowed me to use my talents and gifts for the honor and glory of Jesus.
We were challenged to use our talents and gifts to reach out to more hurting young people.
We were challenged to use our talents and gifts at youth night.
We were challenged to use our talents and gifts to help build the Church.
We were challenged to be a good testimony in our generation.
(How many know using our talents and gifts are good, but if our testimony isn’t good people don’t want to hear what we have to say)
5. We are challenged to be a good testimony.
We can be the best rapper, we can be the best singer, we can be the best preacher, we can shout really good behind the bullhorn, but how many know if we are young people playing games with God our friends will not listen.
In the G.A.N.G. not only do we challenge young people to use their gifts, but we also challenge us to be a good testimony.
We challenge young people to not only live for God on Sunday or during youth night, but to be on fire for God 24/7.
See that doesn’t happen in youth groups.
Some youth groups just get together play a few games and say at least we are keeping the young people out of trouble.
Not so with the G.A.N.G. yes we like to have fun, but we also challenge young people to answer the call of God upon their lives.
We just got out of a meeting for Winter Retreat and we are already looking at a theme that has to do with young people being willing to answer the call of God.
How many know we have a lot of young people from the G.A.N.G. that are good examples and have answered the call of God.
- Let me just name a few pastors in our region that are from the G.A.N.G.
- Pastor Ryan in JoBurg is from the G.A.N.G.
- Pastor Nathan in Mitchell’s Plain is from the G.A.N.G.
- Pastor Louie in Pretoria is from the G.A.N.G.
- Pastor Danny and Sister Ilene are from the G.A.N.G.
- Not to mention others that are a part of the team in these cities that come from the G.A.N.G.
As I close I just want you to know that you are part of a youth ministry that is making a difference in our generation and God wants to use our lives to make that difference.
As we seen in this passage of scripture there was a need for someone to reach out to these young people.
Well so it is today. We need youth ministries and young people that are willing to reach out to hurting young people.
Young people that are directionless.
Young people that are hopeless.
Young people that are empty.
Young people who need Jesus.
Tonight, as we all stand. If you are here and you say I want to make my life count. I want to make a difference in my generation then I would love to pray for you.
I want to pray for some of the youth leaders.
Sometime as leaders we can get caught up in the work of youth ministry, the crowd of youth ministry and forget that we are called to make a difference in the lives of young people.
It may mean going to their house, going to their soccer game, going to their family outing, visiting them outside of youth night or even checking to see if they need anything.
We are God’s Anointed Now Generation. God has Anointed us Now to make a difference in our Generation.
