Pastor’s Ponderings—June 2025

To the church of God as found at Marion Salem Church, called to be saints together with those in every place who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: You are miracles of God’s grace and mercy!

At our congregational meeting I asked everyone in attendance to share 1 dream and 1 concern. For reference on page two of the newsletter are all those responses. I’ve highlighted several of them with an asterisk. When it comes to dreams, the majority of dreams revolved around our children and youth, 14 out of 27. Similarly, the concerns 8 out of 23 were focused on young people. Ad Council reviewed these and we believe it is confirmation from the Holy Spirit that we have a consensus in our congregation to seriously focus on ministry among young people. Yet, it is more than just saying youth ministry is a dream or concern— words will do precious little. We need action – which is the direction that the rest of this article will be taking.

First off, take a look at the results of a study on kids AFTER they become adults. It is more important to focus on why the 25% stayed—that’s where we can make an impact and change the future of our congregation and the children and youth in our community. Their first reason for why the 25% stayed is that their family ate dinner together 5/7 times a week. I would encourage this. It is vitally important that the family share meals together and conversation. Make this a priority.

Secondly, the family served in a ministry together. They did not solely receive ministry together – they were servants in ministry. I believe the focus here is on younger children who need parental guidance while serving in the church. We need to learn to delete the word volunteer from our language. We are servants of Christ and this must be modeled. Parents serving with their children.

Third, had a weekly spiritual experience in the home. Do you sing Christian music together? Read the Bible or discuss spiritual matters outside of Sundays? Do you pray together? Discipleship is caught, not taught.

The church acts as a resource for the first three. It’s up to the family to make these a priority and do them. The next two call on the congregation to be intentional about student ministry.

The fourth is entrust youth with responsibility in ministry. I can speak a lot about this one—from being placed in charge of my own youth group with a team of adult chaperones to the disciplinary inclusion of youth in leadership positions like Trustees and SPRC. This is more than acolytes and ushers; it’s like Karla’s leadership with the livestream and cameras. We can certainly include youth on our committees, training them to take on those tasks in the future. Continued on next page ==>

The final piece that impacted the 25% is they had a relationship with an adult outside of family that was faith-focused. The most effective that I have seen this is through a prayer partner program. Starting by 6th grade, youth are partnered with spiritually-mature adults in the congregation. There are quarterly gatherings of the entire ministry, regular check-ins throughout the year, and for confirmation students the partner joins them for classes as a mentor. I have known these relationships to last decades beyond youth and lead to spiritual growth for both adults and youth. Are there about a dozen adults willing to take this on?

To boil it down the action steps mean: intentional focus on youth, sacrificing our time/resources/wants/needs for youth, and remaining involved in ministry with young families long after our own children have grown. An intentional focus on young people means not programming them OUT of church life,. It means including them as a priority. I suspect we know what sacrifice is yet the question is are we willing to let go of things we hold dear for the opportunity to minister to young people? Friends, that means taking a risk on change like Rhema Academy. We will still be able to do ALL current Church ministries with Rhema. It will only be slightly different. Finally, servants of Christ don’t retire—no matter how old you are. It simply means you have more experience to share. Such experience is a testimony to Christ’s work in your life which He has given you to give to others.

Blessings,

Jason