Do you or someone you know need training in how to mentor young adults? Graceworks will be running an event to do this on November 23. (Details below.) There has been a chorus of calls to mentor the upcoming generations. But what is the best way to empower them? Large gatherings are good at exciting people for significant change, but for young adults to experience significant change, they need two things.
First, they need relevant Bible teaching. The Bible is God’s main tool to shape lives because He speaks through His Word. But young people need more than just Bible content. They need to know how the Word of God answers the concrete questions of their life stage and how it answers the pressing questions of the day. In an internet world they are constantly bombarded by diverse opinions and world views. They need help in seeing how the Word speaks to the existential questions they are grappling with. In the long run, they need to learn the whole counsel of God. This is an ongoing journey of learning. But they need help to connect the Word with life in the present.
Second, young adults need relational shaping. They need spiritual friends and mentors who will walk with them as they seek to follow Christ. Mentors help model what a life of faithfulness looks like. Mentors provide safe spaces to process the concrete questions young adults face in their everyday world. And mentors hold the young adults accountable to live out their faith and encourage them when that gets costly. Therefore, young adults need mentors who will know them personally.
So much of Christian education is still instruction. But the young adult no longer needs the church for information. They can access the best instruction and the best instructors online. What they need are spiritual mentors who will walk with them, who get to know them personally, and who will share their lives with them. Personal ministry is not mass production. It will take time and effort. But changing lives is Jesus’s method. He may have preached to the masses, but He spent personal time with the twelve disciples and extra time with Peter, James, and John. This may look very inefficient by today’s standards, but it started a movement that changed the world.
The world is changing rapidly. We need to challenge and empower young adults to understand and embrace their potential for the Kingdom. In fact, we believe that to face the challenges of the day we need young and old to work together and to learn from each other. We think mentoring young adults is an important way for this to happen.
Come join us on November 23,
9.30am till 12noon.