Everyone is peddling fear. Spread it then leveraged it to promote personal agendas. This is the way “leaders” grab power these days. Well, while everyone else is fear mongering, here is a bit of hope.
There is an entire generation of Christ followers seeking knowledge so that they might help others enjoy a meaningful existence. I don’t know what your experience with 16-22 year old Christians has been, but they are aggressively pursuing answers to the most important questions in life: “Who am I?” – “Where did I come from?" – “What is a good life?” – “How can I help others find the good life?”. These young disciples are not content simply with an experience. They want a true experience. They want compelling reasons to believe that God exists and Jesus is the messiah. And more than just wanting this for themselves, they want this for their friends. They want to be trained to be articulate and respectful communicators of truth so that others may possess the abundant life found in following Jesus.
I had the privilege to spend the summer with such a group of young adults at Summit Ministries in both Colorado and Tennessee. And all I’ve got to say is, “Thank you Lord for raising up such a generation as this.” More than be grateful, though, we must respond to what God is doing and follow the Lord in His work. The older generations must awaken and cast aside fear and apathy and come along side these young adults on mission.
How do we do this? What do the younger generations need from the older generations? They need our wisdom and money. They need us to train them and fund their work. Now of course this certainly doesn't mean that the older generations aren’t to be in the field working themselves. And neither does it mean that younger generations can’t fund their own projects. But generally speaking, the older generations get to spend the passion of those younger while they spend our money. The young and old each have something that the other needs.
Adults, will you support the work of those young adults on mission? Will you train them? Will you make yourself available to them for support? Will you share your resources?
There are many ways for you to get involved. Seek them out. It is a joy to be involved in equipping the next generation. I am grateful to be part of an organization that is training and funding the work of young adults. Many of you know that along with pastoring, writing, and speaking, I’ve been working with my good friends Kevin Duffy and Blake Anderson to build a national grassroots high school worldview and apologetics ministry called Ratio Christi College Prep (RCCP). Well, it’s ready. For any adult that has the desire to train the next generation to know that God exists and be articulate and respectful defenders of this truth, RCCP needs you. And rather than explain fully in this article what that looks like, let me just invite you to reach out.
There are many ways to get involved with RCCP. We need management and logistics help. We need adults to start RCCP chapters (worldview and apologetics discipleship groups). We need speakers. We need writers. We need donors. We have more interest in RCCP than we can handle. There is much to be hopeful about. The Lord is doing something great. Let us respond in faith and obedience and follow Him in this good work.
For those interested, reach us at collegeprep@ratiochristi.org.
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Michael C. Sherrard is a pastor, the director of Ratio Christi College Prep, and the author of Relational Apologetics. Booking info and such can be found at michaelcsherrard.com.