Sometimes adults think of youth as “so and so’s son or daughter” or of a demographic that we somehow need to attract and create programs for.
But the people we call “Youth” are a dynamic part of our church.
Recently we have seen three examples of their leadership and how they have contributed to our church and its mission. The list could go way beyond these three items, but here’s a taste of the contributions that they are always making…
1: Feeding the Poor…
Back in March, the Youth at the Trinity UMC in Clayton challenged our BLAST Youth group to raise 400 lbs of food for the Pitman Food Pantry. That goal was met within a few weeks! One month into the challenge we had raised over 800 lbs. We then raised the bar to One TON!
It was recently announced that this seemingly overambitious goal was met. Thanks to the leadership of our Youth, our church collected over 2000 lbs of food which was used to help stock the shelves of the Pitman Food Pantry, and then to feed the poor of our community.
Our church, Our Father’s House, and others donated the food, but it happened because of the energy and leadership of our Youth. And- because of this- people in other communities will be fed. Stay tuned for when BLAST issues its own challenge to another church’s youth group!
2: Stewards of our Tools…
Like any home or other organization, a church needs some basic tools to tend to its building and grounds. Since our building opened, we’ve been using tarps to store things like our snow blower, rakes, and shovels. They’ve been exposed to the elements and left unsecured. 
Yes- we need to funnel our resources towards spreading the Gospel and taking care of the needy. But in order to do that, we still need to take care of other rudimentary needs; such as clearing our sidewalk of snow and weeding our gardens. And we need tools to do that. If we don’t take care of these tools we’ll have to replace them, and that will take away from our resources to directly fulfill our church’s mission.
And so one of our Youth, an Eagle Scout candidate, took on the project of raising money to build a shed. Thanks to his leadership, the shed was constructed, installed, and painted. And now we are able to be better stewards of the tools and resources God has given us.
3: Stewards of our Building…
Our building is a tremendous resource. Not only do we use it for our own Sunday activities (worship and Sunday School), we use it throughout the week for a whole slate of ministries. And, our building serves as a community center, of sorts; Narcotics Anonymous, Scouts, NAMI, and even the fourth of July parade use our building and grounds. We host community concerts, blood drives, flu shots and even elections.
But it is a huge expense to care for our building. Many maintenance needs continually arise.
One of these is something as seemingly as simple as the lines on our parking lot. The building (and the lines painted on the parking lot) are now 8 years old. That period of time and all of the exposure to snow, rain, and sun has worn out the lines. They needed to be repainted, and it would have cost a lot of money to hire a professional company to do the work.
But thanks to the leadership of our Youth, the Youth of our church rolled up their sleeves and did the work themselves. It may seem to be only be lines painted on a parking lot, but because of our Youth other resources were freed up that will be used to tell people about Jesus and to help the needy.
God has given all of us- regardless of age- gifts that can be used to help build His kingdom.
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To learn more about our BLAST Youth group, Click Here.
