Every once in a while, there are people who come along who have a great vision to reach the world. They are the people who begin movements. If you get a chance to work with people who have great vision, you shouldn’t let that opportunity slip away.
This week, we are visiting with Randy and Lynn Smith. Randy is the founder and president of Youth Ministry International. We’ve been hanging out, talking about current ministry, and also dreaming a little about the future. They are people with great vision.
Sunday, Randy was invited by Daniel Jimenez, the director of the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary, to speak at AME Baptist Church, both in the service and in the Sunday School hour.
Wednesday, he’ll be speaking in my youth ministry class, inspiring this generation of Mexican youth workers to reach, disciple, and care for young people. Randy is a great guy with great vision, and Lynn has shared the vision during their 42 years of marriage.
It’s going to be a good week with him and Lynn.
The mission statement for Youth Ministry International is “To train national youth workers for existing local churches within the people groups of the world”…
I’m all about training youth workers. It’s my job. It’s my passion. I love spending time with them and sharing in their successes. I’m absolutely sure that what YMI does as a ministry is what God has called me to do as a person.
However, I think our real purpose is to impact the next generation. My personal mission statement is to “magnify the cross of Christ to the next generation for the benefit of all nations.” That means to make Jesus bigger to the young people of the world. I want Him to increase in glory and fame throughout the generations of the world.
The mission statement of YMI, in my opinion, falls under the “How we do it” category. How do I go about doing what I feel God has called me to do with my life? I do it by training youth workers for local churches. It’s not having more youth workers that is important to me (although that is a means to the end). It’s having more impact on young people that’s important.
As I write this, I am looking at some numbers from a recent survey I took of my youth ministry students at the seminary. There are at least 100 people being impacted by the ministry in Mexico alone. This doesn’t count the numbers of people being impacted by our Cuba initiative (more on that later).
Every student that is trained at the seminary represents at least 10 other people who are being impacted. And that number will only increase in the future as they have more time to develop and grow their ministries.
I’m excited to think about the impact that my students are having. I believe they are going to change the world. I told them that today. They are already having an impact in the lives of young people throughout Mexico.
By the way, here they are:
