CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background to The Study
How great and profitable would it have been if the energy, time and resources invested in adult revival are spent on catching them young for the Lord? Many churches spend so much money on adult related programmers, with the aim to reaching them with the gospel of Christ which is good but would have been better if they have been reached at their earlier ages; when they were younger, either as children or Teenagers.[1]
Both parents and the church do not see any big deal in ministering to the Teens. Many church policy makers do not understand the need to catch them young and help them to know Christ ultimately and grow in the Lord nor regard it as church responsibility.
It is discovered that the cry for moral failures, decadence, ephebophilia, immorality lies and lots more is on the high side in the society. The current attitudes and behaviors of Teenagers are becoming alarming and even destructive. The reason for all these is the neglect of the teenagers by the parents and the church. The church is only concerned and interested in gigantic building while the Teens place of place of worship will be the last to be considered, that’s even if they will consider it at all. Only few churches have organised and meaningful teens church or ministry.
The child in homes, churches, street today are the same almost everywhere. The world has stylishly crept into the church, instead of the church influencing the world. This is a shame to the neglect of the ministry. But now is the time we need to wake up to the responsibility as a church and pull out all the children from the snares of the pit of hell.
Esther Ayandokun in her book said
She realized that training of children is better handled by both parent to bring out fruitful results she said her three children trained by her and her husband are better behaved than the only one she single handedly trained when her husband was abroad for six years, when he was on study leave. It took more efforts, prayer and discipline before the boy could conform to what they want him to be. The issue now if as a trained minister she had encountered such difficulty, what about numerous others who do not have parents to guide them nor go to church.[2]
Even in some cases, some women who belong to the church are the ones who take the pain of taking their children to the church while the fathers are less concern about the children and show non challant attitudes not in the spiritual matters but even in the general upkeep of their children. Because Jesus died for every single person living on earth including teenagers, the church must be committed to the spiritual transformation of these young people and catch them; so they could be useful instrument in the hand of God. This implies we have more need for more church based programmes to strengthen the parents in raising their wards and the church follow-up with well meaning spiritual programmes covering relationship with Christ, worship, Evangelism, discipline stewardship, community service for teens.
Everyone need to embrace ministering to the teenagers as a priority, the young ones should receive more of our focus, see their spiritual development as our primary focus and get the motivation to act by relocating our resources to the ministering of the young, ones, so that more of them would be translated into his marvelous light and his kingdom. I am of the opinion that more minister of the gospel should take the ministering to the young ones as very important.