TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES
Thursday 21 February 2008 at 2:13 pmBeing available for parents of at-risk kids is crucial work. Don't deal with these kids and ignore the homes that they come from.
... Don't fool yourself into believing that your youth ministry can truly replace the family. It can't.
--Efrem Smith is senior pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota
i met Efrem Smith a conference in Philly several years ago. The rest of group was out touring Philly but I had stayed back for a meeting. After that meeting I had the chance to talk with Efrem Smith and Phil Jackson. I learned so much from these men about impacting at-risk communities.
A good friend had called me the other day with an idea of how to blend gathering into a chance to minister to family of the kids. We have to get our mindset on impacting the family. Do not get me wrong, we teach kids to reach them with the gospel, we teach youth to reach them with the gospel. We do not believe in using them as a stepping stone to reaching adults. Yet, if we really love these kids and youth then we we need to impact the family. Sure we run our youth groups and kids clubs with a “family atmosphere” but we can not try to be a replacement for the family. We need to make a strategic effort to be reaching the parents. The greatest thing we can do for our kids after leading them to salvation is to do all we can to help convert their homes into Christian Homes.
We all got out of our comfort zones when we start working in Mission Raleigh, but sometimes we just manage to form another comfort zone in our new calling. I still hold with what I have said for over a dozen years now, if you are comfortable you are not pursuing God's will in your life.
Let us not be content in reaching children. Let us not be content in reaching youth. Let us not be content in reaching adults. Let us strive to reach communities.
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. Jonah 3:10
Trackback link:Please enable javascript to generate a trackback url