Why Do They Come??
Wednesday 12 November 2008 at 11:55 am Tuesday was an interesting day for me. I was leaving the State Convention in Greensboro hoping to make it back to catch a bit of Raleigh North Youth Nite, when I receive an e-mail letting me know the teacher of the class had a work Crisis and could I cover him at Youth Nite. I told him I would somehow and then the amazing day started. God parted the traffic on I-40 like the Red Sea and I made it through the RTP in record time. I made such good time that I was able to have dinner with the wifey at Panera. We are teaching through the book of Mark, but I really didn’t have enough time to prepare so I just decided to share 1 John 4:19 , “We love because he first loved us.” The youth knows that we love them but I wanted to get them to understand where our love originates. I did several things to get them to listen. I played Alabaster Box by CiCi Winans, yeah I know its old school but it fit the lesson well. It was not as much a lesson as me sharing my heart with them. I wanted them know that we were not there to just help them make good choices, they hear that from everyone, we wanted them to make the greatest choice. It was a good time.One interesting part was I gave them all an index card and told them to write why they came to Youth Nite. I told them not answer “Jesus, God, Moses” but to be honest. That there was not a bad reason to attend, so just tell the truth. The results of the 15 youth were: One said to see Scotty (I had made a joke that if they were honest it was to see and be seen with scottyb) William accused me of planting that one. Four said for the snacks. Six said to hang out with friends. One said to hang out with friends and “I need Jesus in my life”. One said it is the only time I can be with just other teens and not have to watch my sisters. One said, “I come here for God and to get away from my mom’s boyfriend.”
I was so grateful that they felt comfortable enough to be honest. Listen, we are reaching into the enemy’s camp for these youth and we can’t fool ourselves to think they are coming for bible study. We can’t expect them to come and behave like believers because they ARE NOT BELIEVERS. We just want them to come! Just like Rick Warren states in his book The Purpose Drive Church, “Evangelism is usually a process of repeated exposure to the Good News.” May God help us to be faithful to providing “repeated exposure to the Good News.”
