NASHVILLE (BP) – Young people are hungry to learn … and they will arrive at a viewpoint to see themselves and the world. It just depends on who takes the lead to teach them and what is allowed to fill that vacuum.
Shane Pruitt and Paul Worcester spoke on those principles and the weight that falls on parents and ministry leaders to fulfill a Gospel mandate of discipleship in their recent conversation with Lawrence Smith. Their conversation took place during the SBC Annual Meeting in Orlando as part of the Better Together series.
While teens, college students and young adults are the focus group, there is an even more key demographic to reach, Pruitt explained.
“Really, our target group [is] those Next Gen leaders,” said Pruitt, National Next Gen director for the North American Mission Board. “We want to impact those who are on the front lines of impacting the next generation. That’s the faithful local church youth pastor, local church college pastor, campus missionaries across the nation. Our job is to equip them, create resources for them, [coach] them, and we love it.”
Two resources addressing those needs have recently become available. “You Can’t Talk About That” is a free e-book by Pruitt that speaks on topics such as sex, gender and mental health. Pruitt also co-authored “Reaching Generation Alpha,” which focuses on those born since 2010.
Worcester, national collegiate director for NAMB, shared his observations on students eager to grow in their faith, specifically in the area of prayer.
“Not only are students coming to know Christ, the Christian students are more fired up than I’ve ever seen in my ministry [of] 20 years working with college students,” he said. “They’re fired up for prayer. They want a deep, passionate prayer life, and they want us ministry leaders to model that.”
That desire overflows into telling others about Jesus. For all the negatives about the COVID pandemic, the isolation led young people to confront the need for being around others.
“There are so many great Gospel [reports] of brand-new believers … sharing their faith with others,” said Worcester. “There’s this radical sense of evangelism, prayer [and] disciple-making that college students are more open to than ever.”
That data spells it out. Lifeway Research’s State of Discipleship report released last month shows that Gen Z church attenders are more active and faithful than Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers.
“We go hard and train students to reach their peers because the best person to reach a student is another student with the Gospel,” Worcester said.
Pruitt pointed out that “100 percent” of young people are being discipled.
“The question is, who or what is discipling them?” he asked, urging parents and church leaders not to hesitate in grabbing the wheel.
“The greatest influence in [a young person’s] life is not entertainers, not athletes, not social media. It’s their parents. I want to encourage parents [that] the best way to parent is out of the overflow of your own worship of Jesus. Be in the Word. Be Praying. Teach your kids, disciple them because they’re hungry for that.”
Furthermore, he encouraged churches to pour into those parents as disciple-makers.
“Children’s ministry [and] youth ministry in our church should be looked at more as family ministry. Parents, a lot of times, need to give ourselves more grace. … You don’t need to be the perfect parent, because there is no such thing. … Your kids don’t need you to be the perfect parent. They just need you to follow the one who is perfect, Jesus Christ.”
Watch the full interview below.
