Student Ministry July 2017
Dear Church Family,
In my last article letter I talked a lot about fighting sin by resting in the gospel. I truly believe that the gospel is the answer to all of life’s problems. When we rest in Christ’s saving grace and become more like Him as He matures us in life, we become much more capable to overcome all the curveballs that life throws us. That is what it means to “do all things through Christ who strengthens” us. But how do we grow in Christ? How do we mature? Colossians 1:28 says that we are to proclaim Christ so that people would mature in the faith. Paul then writes in Colossians 3:16 to tell us that we must let the word of Christ richly dwell in us. We can easily perceive that Paul sees Christian fellowship and personal growth to be directly connected to scripture. Where can you find the “word of Christ?” Where does one find the gospel in order to proclaim it? It is God’s word that is constantly pointing us to Christ and His salvation. We must be intimately acquainted with God’s word, because Jesus is its main character. When we read God’s word to see how it points us to the Savior, even in the Old Testament, we will come to understand elements of the gospel that we never thought of before. God uses His word to point us to Christ and grow us in our faith. So what does this have to do with students?
Well, if you’re an adult reading this, I hope you will ask yourself how this reality affects your time in the word. But it certainly has implications for students and children as well. I find it very interesting that much of today’s student ministry does not encourage students to read the Bible. Nor does much of it really involve teaching scripture to the students. There are actually ministries that rarely even read from the Bible during their “Bible Study” times. This is a disservice to God’s people. Fortunately, there are many people who have seen this and are reacting to the lack of Bible use in student ministry. But our spiritual maturity is not simply an issue of the use of the Bible at church. That does make a huge impact, but what is even more influential to our maturity is our personal times of reading and reflection of God’s word. This is absolutely essential to the development and continued growth of children, youth, and even adults. Parents should read Bible stories to their children and talk to them about Jesus at the youngest possible age. Children should be encouraged to read children’s Bible books as soon as they can read. Youth should be held accountable by their parents and friends to read the Bible and talk about how it points to Christ’s salvation and presence in their lives. Adults should be meeting with other adults to discuss what they have been reading and learning about the gospel from their personal times in the word. Imagine what God could do in our lives if we were devoting time for Him and His word daily!
But why am I writing about all of this again? Here’s why. I need to be reminded of these truths every day. I need to have someone remind me to be in God’s word. And I don’t think I’m alone. I think our students really need help to stay focused on God in the midst of the craziness summer. They need their friends, families, and random people to invest in them and push them to be studying God’s word. I can assure you that we are proclaiming Christ in our student ministry and church-wide programing, but what I need your help with is the day-to-day exhortation to look to Christ in His word. If you see a student you know, ask them how their Bible studies/quite times are going. Encourage them to keep at it or start back up if they haven’t been doing quite times lately. Sometimes all we need is a caring friend to make a suggestion for us to live obediently for Christ. I hope this will leave you encouraged to help others grow in Christ (and to grow yourself!) simply by getting together with God in the scriptures.
Sincerely,
Brian Van Doren