Much study has been given through the years to the matter of successful work for our young people. No set of rules can be given for such work that will aid all laborers. The personality of the worker and the condition of the youth with whom he has to deal have much to do in determining the method best to be used. However, some general principles are worthy of review.
First, with reference to the preparation for and organization of such an effort. To be most successful, it must be intelligently directed toward a definite goal. It would be well for the minister, together with a group of the church officers, to review the church roll for the previous ten years to learn what has become of those youth who may have drifted away. It is essential that so far as possible the fathers and mothers be visited in order to learn the condition of the youth and their home life. Much will be gained by calling together the really converted youth of the church and organizing them into prayer bands and to act as helpers. Arrange for them to visit the young people whom you desire to win, and invite them personally to the meetings. Help these converted young people to work intelligently with you.
Next, with reference to our public ministry. Careful study should be given to the presentation of the gospel in a simple yet effective way, that the young people may have a real understanding of what it means to make a full surrender to God, to exercise faith, and to live the Christian life. The minister will do well, in such an effort, to deal with the practical problems of youth. We must recognize that the critical age from eleven to eighteen is one in which many children who have followed their parents in religious experience in relation to the church, are brought face to face with the problems of life and the attitudes of doubt in the world; and that they may be, as many other youth have been, tempted to revolt against the teaching of their elders.
It is essential, therefore, that ministers deal with such problems as the foundation of belief and the assured facts of the gospel, as well as such themes as the guesswork of evolution, the question of amusements, associations, and the life career. All these topics can well be dealt with in a doctrinal setting. That is to say, basic doctrines of the message should be reviewed in connection with this special effort, and the relationship of these practical problems to the great truths of the message should be studied. It is helpful sometimes to drill the young people on certain key sentences from the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy. Some workers are emotional in their presentation. Others are afraid of anything that borders on emotion. It is better to avoid both extremes.
As a general rule it is more effective for a minister to spend an entire week at one church than to spread his efforts over two or three places. It takes time for the young to become assured of a worker's real heart interest in them, and it requires adequate instruction for decisions to be made intelligently and on a firm foundation. Decisions hastily made are often very unstable.
Moreover, in our attitude toward the children and young people let us be careful never to assume superiority. We cannot successfully "preach down" to young people, or to anybody else, for that matter. The worker should cultivate a patient, sympathetic attitude. Youth is feeling the first flush of its reasoning powers at this critical age. It asks exasperating and penetrating questions. The worker must attempt, so far as he is able, to get youth's viewpoint. He must see life and its problems through the eyes, the hopes, the feelings, the ambitions, and the disappointments of youth. He should find a common ground of interest. Let him be genuinely friendly and interested in what youth has to say. Let the young unload their attitudes, and their ideas, and their burdens. Then they will be more ready to listen to advice and counsel.
And we should not forget the younger youth, the juniors. Often a boy longs for a handshake' and a hearty greeting, or an opportunity to say a word, which, if it is missed, gives him the impression that the worker is not interested in him.
But above all things we must be genuine. We should not attempt to preach or to assume attitudes dealing with youth or its problems in which we do not heartily believe and by which our own life is not guided. Youth, especially the children, are quick to perceive anything that savors of the professional or the insincere in the attitude of the worker.
Our youth are surrounded by a world of sin. Satan makes special efforts to divert them from the way of righteousness. They are confronted on every road and street with attractions to sin that their grandparents did not face. Their amusements have been commercialized. The gravitation toward city life and the consolidation of work into large industrial concerns, tend to make the world increasingly attractive to Adventist youth.
Added to all the other problems, is the present condition of unemployment. There is a real danger in this situation, for young people may feel that they are not needed or wanted, and thus be led to adopt attitudes fraught with danger to themselves and others.
As before stated, the age from eleven to eighteen is the decisive age. Many will be lost forever unless they are converted to Christianity during this critical period, and the seriousness of the situation is accentuated by the further fact that, according to the best estimates we have been able to make, 63 per cent of our young people over fifteen years of age have not been baptized. This problem presents a genuine challenge to the success of our ministry.
One immediate way in which we can give definite help to our youth will be through Missionary Volunteer Week, which comes this year March 11-18. This week designs to accomplish for our youth in the church what is achieved by special Weeks of Prayer in our schools.
The plan of the week is for the entire force of ministers to be engaged in a special effort for the youth for the week. The Autumn Council of 1932 passed an action earnestly recommending that this special season of devotion and decision be carried on throughout the entire field, and that conference committees, so far as possible, provide ministerial help for the churches. If a minister cannot be secured, the local church officers should be urged to conduct the week's services according to suggestions in the March number of the Church Officers' Gazette.
