Consecrated youth can be God's finest gospel representatives before the world. There is a magnetic quality in youthful witness that attracts and inspires not only other youth but even older persons. Next time you have opportunity, watch the listeners in an MV Voice of Youth meeting or as a teen-ager leads out in an "Operation Fireside" Bible study. Watch their interest not only in the subject being presented but in the youthful speakers. Whenever I have watched thus I am always fascinated, and I am reassured that consecrated youth are effective spokesmen for the gospel.
In Cali, Colombia, two junior youth, twelve and thirteen years of age, were among the Voice of Youth speakers. The attendance was good at all the meetings, but when those junior youth were announced, a packed house was assured. Was it the novelty that attracted the crowd? Maybe. Yet people tell us that the messages those boys presented were among the finest they had ever heard. The direct results are significant, for more than fifty persons are enrolled in the baptismal classes and at least four already have been baptized.
The Church Is a Training School
The local church, and specifically the Young People's Missionary Volunteer Society within the church, is the first training ground for the future ministerial and lay leaders of the church. Many of us can recall that our first public speaking experience was in an MV Society or in the youth department of the Sabbath school. Not a few church leaders have told me: "The first time I prayed in public was in the MV Society" or "My first real responsibility was in the JMV Society."
The Church Molds the Attitudes of its Youth
Professional training for church leadership is given in our colleges and the Theological Seminary, but the first and probably most lasting mold on a youth's attitudes toward the church and its work is made by the predominant atmosphere and missionary temperature of his local church. The molding and development of all church members, especially of youth, is inevitable and continuous. All phases of the church program contribute to it. Unfortunately, this training may be negative owing to negligence, even as it may be positive as a result of careful and spiritual planning. Mental concepts as to how the MV Society, the Sabbath school, or even the church itself should be organized and conducted are developed in the minds of members, and especially of youth as they consciously and subconsciously observe from day to day, week to week, and month to month. A well-balanced, missionary-minded church will produce just that type of membership. Conversely, an unbalanced, "hoppy type" program or a church with a limited sense of mission for Christian witnessing will produce members and youth of its own mold.
The Church Molds Its Own Future
Do you ever mentally classify a church as a "live" church? If so, I am sure it is a church with a positive missionary program and its youth growing into active service. Then there is the other kind, the "dead" church, where no program is acceptable and very little is ever done to make a spiritual impact on the community. Probably there are few youth, if any at all. Often I can "feel" the spirit of a church before ever stepping through its doors. What an inspiration is the "live" church! How depressing the "dead"!
What interests us especially, though, is that the same spirit seems to characterize a church from one year to the next, even from one generation to the next. Why? Because the attitudes, working plans, and witness of today's church mold and influence the attitudes, planning, and witnessing of its future generations of members—its youth. The effect of continually enjoying sermons, MV programs, Sabbath school lessons, rallies, and spiritual revivals without the corresponding response in service and witness to the community and the world is deadening. The vivifying effect of an active church is marvelous!
The Church Leaders Set the Mold
We began by saying that consecrated youth can be God's finest gospel representatives. As church leaders it is our duty and privilege to give them the opportunity to become just that. While the responsibility of developing the youth rests on the whole church, we ministers can help to ensure a church spirit and a missionary program that provides the right type of training to develop all members, and especially the youth, as effective gospel witnesses. Young people, for example, should not only serve within the church but should share their faith without. They should not be content only to develop better MV Society programs or to perfect internal organizations and activities but should seek to shine out in effective evangelistic activities. This principle applies to all age groups, but is particularly important for youth, because of their tremendous capacity for present enthusiasm and future service.
Five Essentials of Youth Missionary Endeavor
There are many factors in developing an effective Share Your Faith program for youth. At least five elements are essential in the development of such a program. They are: (1) A challenging Share Your Faith project, (2) provision of "tools" suited to the youth who will use them, (3) careful preparation and training of all participating individuals, (4) proper preliminary contacts with the individuals or areas to be reached, (5) constant adult support, guidance, and counsel.
1. A challenging Share Your Faith project. Such a project can and should be a part of the over-all church missionary program. But ideally it should be a special project for which the MV Society or a group of societies in an area are responsible. Youth responds enthusiastically to the challenge of a task that needs doing and is its own. This was a powerful factor in the great call to Outpost Evangelism that went out from the Pan-American Youth Congress in 1953. From that meeting thousands of young people spread out across the Americas. The appeal to go to the outposts, to the crossroads, the solitary places, and the unevangelized suburbs and villages sparked a tremendous missionary movement among Adventist youth. In the Inter-American Division the response to this call reached its height during the Golden Anniversary of Missionary Volunteers in 1957, when in one year a total of 728 outposts were established and held by Missionary Volunteers, all in areas where the Advent message had not been preached before. More than 3,400 young people participated directly, many thousands of others indirectly. The total number of baptisms during 1957 from this project alone was 1,814, which contributed greatly to the grand total of 5,031 "golden" youth baptized as a result of all Share Your Faith projects during the Golden Anniversary of Missionary Volunteers. This report points to the fact that youth will make an outstanding response to an outstanding challenge—something new, something daring, something that is their own. Many new Sabbath schools, companies, and even churches now dot the Inter-American landscape as a result of the call to man the outposts!
One of our finest MV outpost stories came out of Guanajuato, Mexico. Guanajuato is the birthplace of Mexican liberty, but it is also a fortress of religious conservatism. Yet between 1954 and 1957 it became the birthplace of the first Seventh-day Adventist church in the central highlands of Mexico. Why? Because the Guanajuato MV outpost became a challenging missionary project for the 10,000 MV's in the Mexican Union. It fired their imagination and gave them a vision of a great need. All societies contributed at least one offering a month. A small group of youth went in first and made a survey. A larger group followed and enrolled hundreds in the Bible correspondence course. A few months later money from the MV offerings supported a missionary couple for a month. Next, the conference sent a worker. Now a church of more than twenty members and several Sabbath schools are organized where four years ago there was not a single Seventh-day Adventist.
Guanajuato was only one of hundreds of outposts. It was more spectacular than most, but the principle of a missionary challenge that fires youthful imagination is the same whether the project chosen is large or small.
2. Provision of "tools" suited to the youth who will use them. Young people usually do not have much formal evangelistic training and they need the proper "tools" to help them in Share Your Faith evangelism, whether it be in public efforts, Bible studies, or personal visiting. Until recently there was nothing specific to offer them besides a few instruction manuals prepared for more mature lay workers. Nothing really met the needs of enthusiastic, willing young people of relatively little experience. Today the Missionary Volunteer Department has sent to the world field special material that has been tried and tested for a number of years. This has been adapted for use in various language areas and thus has been placed in the hands of our young people as the "tools" and the "building plans" for effective presentations in public evangelism. A new plan with special instructions for the presentation of Bible studies by youth groups is now available in the Operation Fireside plan developed by the Southern Union and with which we are already experimenting in the Inter-American Division.
Experience has proved that when these special plans are used and carefully followed they produce outstanding results. One Voice of Youth story from Mexico will illustrate this. The young people from the Villahermosa MV Society returned from the Golden Anniversary Youth Congress eager to begin a Voice of Youth effort. Their enthusiasm was met by pessimism on the part of some in the church. The idea was declared impossible. Major problem: No young men in the society! Only sefioritas! Yet, as the girls studied the Voice of Youth Guidebook they discovered nothing that would keep them from presenting a complete Voice of Youth effort—even without the young men. So step by step they began following the instructions: organization of committees, distribution of responsibility, spiritual revival meetings, promotion and announcement of the meetings, rehearsal and practice periods. It looked a little presumptuous, of course, but on the opening night their courage was rewarded. More than five hundred people packed the church to hear the Voice of Youth girls present their message! Never before had a Seventh-day Adventist meeting in that city attracted so many listeners. At first some said that the novelty of hearing young women speak attracted the crowds. But the crowds kept coming. Throughout the series the Sunday night attendance was never less than 350 to 400. At its close more than fifty persons joined the baptismal class.
The success of these girls proves that success can be had by following carefully the instructions provided in the Voice of Youth Guidebook. The Operation Fireside plan for home Bible studies provides similar guidance for that phase of Share Your Faith endeavor.
3. Careful preparation and training of all participating individuals. Before any Share Your Faith project is launched, the spiritual preparation of the youth must be planned. We must never ask unconverted youth to stand before others to preach or teach the message. Personal spiritual revival and an atmosphere of prayer, consecration, and humility are indispensable. Such spiritual preparation benefits the whole church, as well as the youth. Definite guidance for developing a spiritual revival is included in the instructions for these special Share Your Faith endeavors.
Practical preparation is needed, too, especially by those who participate publicly in an effort or present the Bible study topics in the home. Careful practice and rehearsal ensure a tone of authority in the presentations and give confidence to the young people themselves. The two junior youth who participated in the Voice of Youth effort in Cali, Colombia, were successful because they rehearsed carefully before each presentation.
Please note, though, that in their case the rehearsal and preparation features enjoyed the powerful incentive of active participation. This is a successful combination that has not always been used. I recall a time when we offered lengthy courses of preparation for young people who wanted to preach or give Bible studies. These sometimes took weeks and even months. As time went by, enthusiasm would often wane. Too often these courses became an end in themselves. Later there was a swing the other way. Youth were encouraged to go out and do what they could with whatever preparation they had. Our motto was: "Begin where you are with what you have." It is a good motto, but can be greatly strengthened by adding: "but keep improving what you have."
It has been found that careful preparation with rehearsal periods can parallel good presentations in public and in homes. The presentations give purpose to the training and preparation periods. Both the Voice of Youth and the Operation Fireside plans are admirably suited to this combination. I have been witness to the results as I have heard youth speak for Christ in many different countries. I can assure you it is a thrill!
4. Proper preliminary contacts with the areas or individuals to be reached. Whatever means may be used by young people to share their faith, much success can be assured through preliminary contacts with those who will be the objects of the missionary effort. One of the finest means is the Friendship Team, in which young people organize themselves for the purpose of showing Christian friendship toward those who need help and spiritual encouragement. Friendship Teams are very effective in connection with spiritual revivals in preparation for Share Your Faith projects. It is wonderful to watch the spiritual growth and the success of young people who work for others in this way. During a youth revival conducted by Elder Minchin in Puerto Rico we noticed fourteen-year-old Adelita. She was a friendship "team" of one. The first evening she brought her friend Carmen with her and sat right near the front. On the second evening she brought Carmen and one other girlfriend. Each succeeding evening one more friend would be added to Adelita's row of girls. It was fascinating to watch her own joy as she added them one by one to her special row. We found that she not only sat with them but visited them in their homes and went to get them each evening. But besides bringing them to the meeting she did her best to bring them to Jesus. When it came time for a call we would see Adelita encouraging one or another to make her decision. By the end of the revival meetings, of the eight friends she had brought, all had stood for Christ and at least three decided to be baptized. It was beautiful! That is the true spirit of the Friendship Team.
The same principle with a different emphasis is used by the visitation teams that go out to make new acquaintances in an outpost or an area where Bible studies, cottage meetings, or a Voice of Youth effort will be held. Teams of young people can make friends and find openings for the gospel in surprisingly few visits. During 1958 the Missionary Volunteers of the Pacific Mexico Mission chose as their conference MV outpost the city of La Paz at the southern tip of the Lower California peninsula. It was the only state capital in their mission with not a single Seventh-day Adventist. Two MV's, Joel Salazar, 19, and Arturo Vazquez, 20, were chosen as a Friendship Team to go as MV representatives for ten days to that beautiful city. Their day-by-day report is one of the greatest Share Your Faith stories to come out of Mexico in the past few years. Their boat trip over and back and their expenses while there were paid by the offerings of all the MV Societies in the mission. Ten precious days were spent making friends—with people who had previously bought books from colporteurs, with Voice of Prophecy interests, and with many new people. When the ten days ended, seven families were interested in belonging to the Adventist Church. Many of the new friends wept as the boat left carrying those two MV evangelists away. Their short visit will be followed with a full-fledged Voice of Youth series as soon as the MV Societies have funds to send their missionaries across the waters again.
This was a conference-wide project, but on a smaller scale the same work of preparation can be done with any group chosen for a missionary project. It is an effective plan for opening new territory or for reaching the yet unopened hearts of men and women.
5. Constant adult support, guidance, and counsel. Young people should take the initiative, leading out in Share Your Faith projects such as we have mentioned. But to give stability to the planning and to gain the positive support of the church, adult support and mature counsel is needed. Often such leadership is found among the older young people of the church. Other times young-hearted adults dedicate themselves to guiding the youth, not to become the "stars" themselves but to help youth to lead and become effective speakers, Bible instructors, song leaders, narrators, masters of ceremony, announcers, ushers, et cetera. If we were to present a summary of the most successful Voice of Youth efforts held in the Inter-American Division during 1958, it would show that almost without exception they have enjoyed the counsel and steady leadership of some older youth or adult. There are exceptions, but by contrast the Share Your Faith projects that have been less than successful show a lack of consistent, consecrated, mature leadership.
This adult guidance is indispensable and is especially needed during the rehearsal and planning periods. It urges and inspires youth to do their very best, always, whether in public meetings or in home Bible study groups. We again apply the point made earlier—that training can be negative as well as positive. When youth carry out their missionary projects without proper thought and planning, they may be considered active. They may even obtain limited results. But the weakness of such a program will be seen, if not immediately, in the future years of service for their church.
Careful training and Christian guidance can lead youth to heights of success they could never have attained otherwise. Such guidance will strengthen and enhance their witness, not only for the immediate purpose but also for the future. It is one of the finest investments we can make today to ensure able, consecrated leadership for our church tomorrow.
As we near the end new plans and new methods will without a doubt be put into the hands of our young men and women. They will be new, but basically they will have the same objective—to carry the Advent message to all the world in this generation. If they inspire young people to action for God, they will almost certainly incorporate the same principles that call forth our youth to service today.
In the mission field as in the homeland, Adventist youth should stand out as witnesses to the Christian faith. God charges us with the sacred duty of leading them into service, constantly urging and teaching them to attain to their highest capabilities, helping them to be satisfied with nothing less than the best in their service for God and His church. The consecrated youth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church can be God's finest gospel representatives before the world.
