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:
I’ve recently joined Youth Ministry Exchange, a great website that describes itself as “an online community for youth ministry.” They have lots of articles, book reviews, and other things. I had heard of them before, but never really took the time to get involved in it until last week.
One of the best things about YMX is the forums. You can find so much great conversation going on over there about ministry and life in general. The great thing is it’s just average youth workers who are involved in the community, and there’s lots of great advice. So if you’ve ever wondered what youth workers do all day, go over there and check out all they have to offer.
I’d love to see something like this become of our Spanish website. We need a place to be able to hang out as youth workers and gain encouragement from others.
Wednesday in my Professional Orientation to Youth Ministry class, one of the students came in with a very heavy heart. He had spent the whole day before with one of the students in his ministry. My student was talking about the situation, and I could feel his heart for the guy in his youth group.
Much of what we teach in seminary is theory. There is a lot of information that passes between professor and student, but something that you can’t really teach in a classroom is what my student demonstrated yesterday in class. The compassion and burden for people is something that cannot be learned in the classroom. It is something that God gives you. When you hurt for those who are hurting, you are demonstrating a true characteristic of Christ.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Mexico City. For some reason, I can’t get it out of my head. There is an enormous need in this mega-city. Our job is to train youth workers for local churches. In the United States, there is a trained youth worker for every 600 young people. In the rest of the world, there is a trained youth worker for every 400,000 young people.
In order for Mexico City to have one youth worker for every 600 young people, there would have to be around 25,000 youth workers in this city. There aren’t even that many evangelical churches in Mexico City. The population of Mexico City is less than 2% Christian, and the young people of this country are in desperate need for role models, mentors, heroes, and leaders.
We’re off to a great start with the 9 students studying at the seminary to be youth ministers, but we need more workers. I believe that something great is going to happen in this city. We need youth ministers here in Mexico, and we need global youth workers from the United States who will help with this enormous job.
Our friends Tim and Annette Gulick, who lived and worked in Mexico for many years and run an incredibly helpful resource site for Spanish speaking youth workers, have recently moved to Argentina. They’ve gone there to help with a youth ministry institute that Youth Specialties is beginning.
They’ve been blogging about their experiences and their new life in Argentina, and anyone who’s interested in youth ministry in Latin America or global youth ministry should read what they’re doing down there.
Check out their blog here.
