Before I start getting into writing this article, let me explain something. On Sunday nights we have youth services when the adults are in the sanctuary praying, which starts at 5:30p.m. Well, before we actually start the worship service, we spend some time and pray. After we’ve prayed for a little bit, we sing some songs and have a regular church service. Once it’s over, we go into the sanctuary and have regular church with the adults.
A couple weeks ago (12/13/09), I was lying on a pew face down praying and stopped praying for a minute. All was quiet, but wait! That’s not how it’s supposed to be! I laid there for another minute not praying and heard some adult voices praying, yet I was in a youth service and youth pre-service prayer. A couple of seconds went by and I heard something that wasn’t what I wanted to hear! The noise I heard was ever so loud that I’m surprised I didn’t hear it before, but yet that’s not what I had been listening for. After a little bit I finally recognized what I was hearing, this noise that I heard was people’s feet scraping the floor. You could have mistaken them for robots since they weren’t making any noise out of their mouth.
I thought to myself, “This can’t really be happening. I’m hearing this incorrectly.” And I didn’t want to look up because I feared that it was true. I finally did after a second or two, and my mind and heart was deeply saddened. I thought “My Lord, what is it going to take for all of us youth to bind together and have awesome pre-service prayer?!” I went back to praying and starting asking God what it would take for us to all to be in one mind with one accord, in unity and be on fire for him. While praying, I wondered if it would take us having a visiting young person in a regular church service for us to get on fire. It so happened that we had a visitor that was a young person (with her family), and I’m sad to say that we didn’t get on fire, nor did any of the girls pray with her.
I wrote down the thought “What Will It Take” and let it pass over me. Well, then December 18th, 19th, and 20th, I was talking with someone from Louisiana; somehow, it was brought up about the youth in that person’s church. This person told me about their church youth group and how they are all bound together and close. I found out that they weren’t like that a while back, but something happened and now they are close. When I heard the story, it worried me because I don’t want this to happen to my church’s youth group, but if it’s God’s will then it’s His will.
This person’s church youth group used to have a good amount of young people, but not all of them were into church. Yeah, they might have been going to church, but if a young person is going to last, they need to be into church. I was told by this young person that they had about half of their church leave this past year (2009) and because of that the young people are all close. This person said to me, “ever since half of our youth group split up, the remainder of us are sticking together like glue and we keep each other up”. When I read that, I was amazed and thought to myself, “Wow!!.. I wonder what it will take for my church’s youth group to become close like that…”
So, I now present you the reader with some questions that I wish you would answer in your mind and then if you want to, email me the answers that you have come up with. What will it take for the youth to be on fire for God? Why did I hear feet scraping the floor, instead of voices lifted up in prayer? What activities can be done to get young people involved in church and love church? Why do young people wait on pastor’s to ask them to do something instead of asking their pastor what they can do?
This article has been heavy on my heart for a while now, and I pray that I was able to express in words what I really wanted to say. It’s been burning in me so much, that I doubt I did a good job of expressing it.
God Bless,
Bradley Hilton
