Bud A.

Let me tell you about the best part of my job. It’s the opportunity to hear what is going on in the lives of kids. Let me tell you about the worst part of my job. It’s the opportunity to hear what is going on in the lives of kids. Since I supervise the staff in regards to their ministry activities, and I field phone calls where there is a request to find help for kids, I hear what we call “kid stories” everyday.

Of course the stories I love to hear are the ones where we see God at work in the life of a young person. It may be something seemingly trivial such as a mentor finally having a conversation with their student that lasted more than five minutes and got beyond one syllable answers on the part of the student. Or it may be as significant as a student that has been involved in a club for years, has been making one bad decision after another and has finally seen their sin for what it is, repented and made Jesus their Lord. The stories that are hard to hear are of course the ones where horrible things have happened to a young person either through evil being done to them or they have experienced the harsh consequences from poor choices of their own.

Just yesterday I heard three brutal stories; each one was a commentary on how parents were hurting their children. The first was where two children under five were being taken into state custody because the parents are nonfunctional due to drugs. The second is a rebellious teenager that is making poor life decisions due to past abuse and hypocrisy of her mom. And the third is a middle school student that found out after school that she must go live with relatives because her mom is emotionally unstable and dangerous. These are definitely examples of the worst part of my job.

But here is what I have learned; the stories that can be counted as “good”, each and every that I hear has two common elements. The first is that God has done something fantastic, and the second is that an adult was involved. At least with Youth for Christ it is the rule that the Lord uses adults to bring his love, hope, peace and even joy into the lives of kids. That is something worth getting involved in! Please look around and as an adult make an effort to engage in the lives of the next generation.

Recently we celebrated Palm Sunday. It was when Jesus’ followers praised him as he rode up to the city of Jerusalem. The crowds were enthusiastically looking forward to what they thought Jesus would do. Wow, what a triumphant moment.

But what happened next? As Jesus comes to a place that he can see the city… He weeps. He then talks about how the people didn’t understand, how God would judge the city and totally destroy it because they did not recognize the time of Christ’s visit.” Jesus cried because he knew the people were lost. The Savior was here and they missed it completely.

Kids in our community are no different, most are completely lost and have no idea there is a savior. They have never heard there is a way to be forgiven. They don’t trust anyone enough to listen.

Romans 10:14 says “How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” The question remains “Who will tell them”. Will you?… Will you consider mentoring a child?… You may be the voice the Lord uses to break through their unbelief. 

Do you remember General Colin L. Powell he was the military commander from the first war in Iraq. He has since founded an organization called America’s Promise - the Alliance for Youth.

Here is a quote from him recently:

All children need a laptop. Not a computer, but a human laptop. Moms, Dads, Grannies and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles - someone to hold them, read to them, teach them. Loved ones who will embrace them and pass on the experience, rituals and knowledge of a hundred previous generations. Loved ones who will pass to the next generation their expectations of them, their hopes, and their dreams.

I think this is so true; but for a variety of reasons we have lost this element of community from our culture. Our culture is not passing on experiences and knowledge from one generation to the next. Our society has bought into “pop culture”which says everything good and cool is new and older people are out of touch and have nothing to offer. And you know, older folks have agreed to back off and stay with their peers. The results are that kids are growing up with no foundation to build their lives on. They are making up the rules as they go along and it is not good.

We have got to turn this around. As adults we (Moms, Dads, Grannies and Grandpas, Aunts, Uncles and I’ll add Friends, Neighbors and Mentors) need to push into kids lives through love and kindness and share their stories. There is always some resistance at first because hurt kids don’t want to believe you care because they don’t want to be hurt again if you abandon them.

I believe this change must start in the Church and is really one of the most vital issues defining the future of the church today. Gods’ word tells us to pass on our faith from generation to generation. We see in Israel’s history of what happens when a generation drops the ball. The results aren’t pretty. If you are still taking air in and out and God has worked in your life you have a vital story to tell this next generation.

What is a legacy? One definition from Webster’s Dictionary is “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past”. Check out this great example of a spiritual legacy in the Bible.

Do you remember the story in the life of King Solomon where God appears to him in a dream and tells Solomon to ask for something God will give him? And we know that Solomon asked for wisdom and God made him the wisest person in all history.

Did you ever wonder what made Solomon decide to ask for wisdom? How did he know that he needed wisdom in the first place? Don’t most of us as young people think we know everything, how come he was different? I’ll tell you why. David his father passed on a spiritual legacy. In 1 Chronicles 22 we have a record of King David as he was preparing to pass his throne to Solomon. David first tells Solomon the plans God had for him that he was to build the temple. Then David proceeds to blessed Solomon and pray for him.

What is really interesting is in Psalm 72 we have this prayer or a similar one recorded by Solomon. Right from the start David asks the Lord to give discernment and wisdom to the king so that he may judge the people rightly. David communicates how vital Godly wisdom is to a good king. The prayer goes on with words of blessing and instruction. It encapsulates the hopes, dreams and advice a father desires for his son. In so doing David gave Solomon a very clear legacy; follow the Lord, build His temple, and govern the people wisely. Solomon treasured this prayer of his father. He remembered it and wrote it into the Psalms of Israel. These words set a course for Solomon to follow. He found security in knowing who he was and what he should do with his life.

So… we see Solomon was prepared to answer the question that the Lord asked him. He drew on his father’s legacy to understand his own life and needs. It was simple “dad says I need wisdom… I better ask for wisdom”

Do you realize we can be that necessary person that gives a spiritual legacy to a kid? Through Spiritual Mentoring we can leave a legacy that will prepare a young person to know what to say when God speaks to their heart.

At Youth for Christ we have a concept about sharing the gospel called 3 Story Evangelism. Your story, My story, and God’s Story.

If we care about a person enough to share the gospel with them. We should take the time to get to know who they are and what their life is like (That’s their story).

We then see areas of their story that overlap areas of our story. At that point we can use the most powerful tool of sharing the gospel. That is, our personal story of redemption (the way God worked in our life to bring us to repentance and salvation.

This is how we build a bridge between their story and God’s story.It’s by sharing how good God has been to us. It really is the best way to share God’s plan of salvation.If you have a “personal story of redemption” and the capacity to learn and care about another person’s story YOU can make an eternal difference. 

Give it a try?

To “imitate”. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as;

1. To follow as a pattern, model, or example
2. To be or appear like: resemble
3. To produce a copy of: reproduce

Does the idea of imitating feel positive or negative to you? I think to many of us, it is less than positive. Our culture puts a very high value on being unique, one of a kind, original. As individuals we don’t want to follow a model or be a copy of an original.

But do you realize we are designed to imitate? Think about it… How do you learn before you have any language… that’s right you imitate. Babies learn to smile and talk because we get in there faces and smile and talk. Do you realize that this learning method never disappears?

We are told at least 19 times in the New Testament to imitate or follow an example set before us. We are told to copy the behavior of God, Jesus, Paul, or the apostles. This is a pretty common theme.

I think we have forgotten how important imitating is to kids. We see it every day, kids imitating media icons… not the best models if you ask me. Kids very rarely want to be truly original, that is too risky. They want someone to follow; they want someone to guide them through the challenges of life. They want to be seen as an individual, but they develop by imitating. They don’t really realize this, but it is true.

The process of Christian discipleship in the context of church community should revolve around imitating. We should function off the principle that Paul expresses in 1 Cor. 11:1 “Imitate me as I imitate Christ”. So each of us as believers should be imitating Christ in our lives, and imitating more mature believers who are imitating Christ, and setting a good example for less mature believers to imitate.

Godly adults getting involved with kids as mentors, and giving those kids a good example of someone that loves God and follows his commands, being someone to imitate. This, I believe, is youth ministry in its purest form.

Who are you imitating and who is imitating you?… Think about it.

Striving to imitate to be worth imitating,

Bud Amundsen

Ministry Coordinator

The other day Brad said to me you have to hear what this coffee cup has on it. He then read this quote;

It’s relationships, not programs, that change children. A great program simply creates the environment for healthy relationships to form between adults and children. Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community.

– Bill Milliken - the author of a couple of books Tough Love and The Last Dropout.

Wow this guy has nailed our philosophy of ministry methodology on the head! It’s not programs but, a kid having a one-to-one relationship with a caring adult. I see such an opportunity in our community for the gospel to be shared with every kid if the adults that love the Lord are willing to connect with a kid or two. The kids are open to a relationship with someone that really cares about them, and that relationship is the best means by which the truth of the gospel can be shared. This is the very reason why our ministry efforts are now focused on partnering with churches to build mentoring teams with their adults and our kids so that the kids will hear the gospel and get connected to that church. Now that is good ministry!!