I had nearly forgotten about the encounter when later in the week I was talking with Jimmy. “Did you hear about Uncle Billy?” he asked me. “My dad found him dead in his bed this morning. He’d been dead about four days.” I cannot adequately describe the emotions that trembled in my viscera. I had doubtless been the last person Uncle Billy had talked with before departing this world. God obviously desired to get Uncle Billy’s attention at a crucial moment and decided to use a boy to do it.
It seems that one’s youth does not limit one’s participation in God’s Kingdom. I was fourteen. Jesus was even younger when he confounded the elders in the temple. “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young,” the apostle Paul told his young disciple Timothy, “but set an example for the believers…” (1Tim 4:12) God can and does use young people to accomplish His purposes, often mightily. To affirm the capacities of young believers, to ignite their imaginations as change agents in their world – this is a vitally important ministry of the church.
RELATED: Are You Called to Youth Ministry?
Adolescence is a decisive time in life. It is the time when most of us begin a conscious search for meaning and purpose – something to believe in. It is a moment when our sensitivities are unusually susceptible to spiritual influences – a moment to be taken very seriously by the influencers in our lives. When the church assumes responsibility for this sobering task, not only must role models be trustworthy but the message must be trustworthy as well. Nothing is more hurtful to the faith of young believers than to discover that they have been deceived by the ones in whom they have placed their trust.
The Importance of Integrity in Youth Ministry
That’s why the issue of integrity is so important when it comes to marketing mission trips and service projects. For young people to be told that the sandwiches and blankets they are handing out to the homeless on the street will keep these men from starving and freezing, only to later discover that these gifts are actually being misused to support destructive lifestyles – such a revelation can turn innocence into cynicism. Far better to be candid and discuss up front the risks as well as the potential benefits of service. To promote an image of helpless children in rags whose hopes are riding on suitcases (or containers) full of clothes that Americans have in abundance, only to find out that these gifts actually destroy local businesses, create unemployment, and intensify poverty – such misrepresentation can be deeply damaging to the development of young faith. Far better to explore together best practices and devise methods of exchange that have the potential for lasting benefit. Some realities may be tough to explain, and may lack the emotional appeal of “rescuing the perishing” but it is far easier to deal up front with truth than repair the damage done by deception.
There is no doubt that young people can be powerfully used by God. Youthful optimism, un-jaded by life’s failures and disappointments, is a gift to be nurtured. But it also needs the tempering of wisdom and maturity. And that comes from trustworthy guides seasoned in their own faith-walk, committed to high standards of honesty and integrity.
