Of fifty people that dedicate their lives to missions

Only three will ever reach the field.

One of those will leave the field before the first term is over.

One of those will not return for the second term.

Only one will return to the field for a second term.

I personally believe that if we were educating our young people properly we would not have such statistics!

Q. Why are these statistics true?

1. Lack of excitement from the churches in this country.

2. Lack of financial support.

3. Lack of commitment on the part of Christians.

4. Lack of evangelistic preaching and teaching in our churches.

5. Lack of proper missionary education in all levels of our church education.

6. Lack of missionary emphasis and teaching in our seminaries and colleges in all areas of ministry. The missions department is for missions people only. The pastoral department is for the pastoral people only. The pastoral major is seldom challenged with missions and as a result neither are our churches.

NOW LET US ZERO IN ON WHY ALL OF THIS IS GOING ON TODAY!

Q. Why is missions in such shape today?

1. The missionary education in all phases of the church be it local congregation or educational institutions has not been training those they are responsible for in the area of missions.

2. There is also a basic lack of desire of the general Christian public to commit themselves to God's program of evangelism. Those few that do commit themselves to world evangelism are often discouraged with the apathy that they run head long into.

Now that we have an idea why all of this is going on today the question is "How do we bring the message of missions to the young people in our churches?"

1. Get them saved. I really wonder the way many of the youth act if they are really Christians.

2. Get them to dedicate themselves to the Lord. If they are saved they quite often have never been confronted with a challenge to commit themselves to the Lord.

3. Teach them in the area of God's will for their life. Give them a Sunday school series on finding the Lord's will for their life.

4. Teach them that they have a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with not only their neighbor but with the world. A burden for lost souls is very much needed.

5. Begin to counterattack the baloney that they are soaking up on television.

Try to make them realize the problems that there are with television.

Commercials are pushing sex and looks at every turn. They are pushing materialism at every turn. They are pushing humanism at every turn. They are pushing women's lib at every turn. They are pushing "do your own thing" at every turn. They are pushing against the Christian home at every turn.

The same charges can be leveled at the shows that are on Television.

The cry used to be against the movies, but now we have all that in the home.

One of the independent stations in Salem, OR was running movies with frontal nudity during prime time hours. (This was in 1987)

The shows are showing lately that murder is okay as long as the guy deserves it.

6. Educating the parents to what the youth are getting in the public school system so that they can counter the wrong thinking when they bring it home.

7. Begin a missions education program within the church so that they are being trained in the direction that they need to go in the future.

YOUTH MISSIONS PROGRAM

Before you go any further you need to realize the youth will never surpass your own level of missions involvement and or support and excitement. Are you really missions minded enough? Maybe you need to get a jolt of excitement before you try to give one to your young people. Maybe you need to get on your knees before the Lord of the Harvest and ask Him to give you a proper burden for the lost and for the world before you venture to attempt a challenge to your young people.

1. First of all take the youth that you have through a quarter of seminars and classes on missions.

I'm sure there are some missionaries around that would love to drop by for a weekday time with the youth. Many have nothing to do between Sundays when they are out on the road and would enjoy having an opportunity to minister. Indeed, most missionaries have no opportunity to minister to the youth or the children of the churches they visit. They closed into an evening meeting where they share their ministry and share a little from the Word.

You might want to put them up for several days during which the youth could get together with him. Open the church facilities to the missionary and set up a meeting room so that the students can come and go as they wish.

You could plan several activities for those that could come.

You probably have someone in the church that is interested in missions that would love to work with you to help in any way they can.

This is where a questionnaire of interests, skills, hobbies etc. can come in handy. The pastoral staff or elder board should at some time give a questionnaire to the general church body asking for areas of likes and hobbies and areas in which they would like to minister. Then as new members are taken in ask them to fill out the same questionnaire. The results should then be made available to everyone so that if there is a need the proper person can be contacted.

Ask the pastor to give them a study or two on missions.

I'm sure that some of the larger mission boards could give you some further ideas. Several of the large missions have filmstrips and films available that give a missions emphasis.

2. Now that you have them somewhat introduced to missions you can have a steady but not heavy diet of missions and keep them up to date on what is going on in missions. Keep up on current events and as you hear of things of importance relay the information to the students. If they are knowledgeable about the world in which they live then when they hear of news events they can properly pray for workers and the lost of the different countries.

3. If you hear of a local Bible college having a missions conference write for a schedule and see if you can take some of your young people.

4. Have missionaries that are coming to your church anyway spend some time with the youth group. During Sunday school or possibly a social time after church in the afternoon. Make it a potluck for youth.

5. As you have Bible studies have them relate the passages to the world evangelism that we are to be involved in.

DO NOT BORE THEM WITH MISSIONS YET AS OPPORTUNITY APPEARS EXPOSE THEM!

6. When the church has a missions conference try to get the missions committee to include the youth in their plans.

If your church doesn't have a conference see if your youth could plan and produce a conference.

This could be tremendous experience for them. Some of the mission agencies would be glad to give ideas for setting up a conference. They may be willing to help in planning conferences and this would really excite the young people to do something of this magnitude for the older generation.

Be sure if this is planned that you try to encourage your pastor to stir the people up about missions so that they will want to come for the conference AS WELL as for the youth.

7. A missions trip would not be unheard of.

There are a number of Indian missions in this country that could help.

There are missionaries to Mormons, Muslims, Chinese etc. in the US and I'm sure they would like to get hold of some young people for a few days to show them their work and maybe even use them.

8. Contact several missions and ask if they have any workers with teenagers in the family in your area. Talking to a teenage missionary kid might just help them understand more about missions.

9. Acquire literature and books about missions and place them on a shelf and encourage them to read them. Many biographies are great reading for teens.

The book just out "From Jerusalem to Irianjia is a biographical history of missions and is tremendous reading. These books could be used as part of their devotional life. (Not to replace the Bible however.)

Magazines from missions will help. The Evangelical Alliance Mission has a magazine that is free and is published for college age young people. I would suspect Jrs and Srs in high school would enjoy it as well.

10. Writing to missionary children on the field would introduce them to life on the field.

11. There are cross-cultural games that will help the students understand Culture shock and cultural differences. One is called "BAFA BAFA". These are fairly expensive, yet the profit in challenged lives is worth it.

12. Find a missionary from a foreign country and have them pick up a monopoly game from their country. They have them for different countries and this might stir their interest.

13. Public Broadcast System has many good travel shows and histories of other countries. A VCR and TV would do lots.

14. Challenging them to get involved with missions on a personal basis with their money would be a real idea. Suggest a project for a missionary or have them write to workers and find their own project. Help them find ways of earning money for the project. Encourage them to give of their own money.

It would not be impossible for the youth group to take on some support of a missionary. They might get behind a fellow young person that is going out for summer ministry. Encourage them to support the person financially.

15. Involve them in evangelism in your own community. Try to get them to go out on the visitation teams. They can help pass out literature for the church or notes about special meetings at the church. A personal evangelism class would be good. Take them to evangelism conferences in the area.

16. Some misc. ideas that could be used.

Tapes from the field. Either video or audio. Encourage the missionary to share some of the real problems and needs of their fields and of their personal lives.

You might ask a missionary to create a display of coins, stamps, curios, maps etc. from his country so that it could be set up in the classroom for a few weeks.

Assign mission boards to the students for study. Have the students write to the boards for information and let them share their findings in class.

Assign countries for research and study. Encourage the student to write missionaries to find out the spiritual condition of the country. Allow them to find out that there is a lost world out there.

Have books available and possibly encourage book reports from the class.

Have reports from those involved in summer ministries that involve outreach. Camps, Five day clubs, Vacation Bible school etc.

Encourage the class to take on some support of a missionary or a special project that they could give and raise money for.

Create within the students a personal desire to pray for missionaries on the field. This will come when you expose the student to the missionary personally.

Ask that some mission agency higher ups speak to the students a time or two. The General Director would be ideal. This is a person of importance that the student would respect and listen to.

Most anything that would be of interest would help them learn and become excited about the Great Commission.