One of the very Important ministry here at CLCBC is the The Youth Ministry because we desire that they become a shining Light, Youths of Exemplary Life- style and very importantly YOUTHS FOR CHRIST.

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them…. Ecc 12:1

This ministry is geared at fostering and experiencing a loving community by imbibing principles in our youths that will make them grow in spiritual things which in a great way will make them serve God joyfully.

We Create an environment in which youths are exposed to the gospel and broughtto the presence of Jesus Christ. Prepare, equip and release the youths for ministry in their congregations, their communities and in the world at large.

We understand that God deeply loves all youths. It is the appropriate response of the church to value and cherish youths. By God’s design, youths are relational beings.

The church’s appropriate response is to provide a relationally based youth ministry. The Holy Spirit is drawing and gifting youths for lifelong, personal relationships of devoted service to Jesus Christ.

We want to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in actively evangelizing and discipling youths. God is the Creator of families and often draws people to his Son working in and through families. We therefore desire to work with youths in partnership with their families wherever possible.

At CLCBC we impacts the YOUth world by

• Welcoming: Practicing radical hospitality to engage youth in relationships
• Relevant: Meeting youth where they are in their lives, in their language, modeling Christian living
  Integrated into the Life of the Church: Youth are visible, excited participants alongside their church family in a lifelong journey of faith.

The Journey to see our Youth becomes a shinig Light starts by

Examples of adults living a vibrant spiritual life – Study after study shows that parents are the #1 shapers of faith. More often than not, youths will model the very brand of faith they see their parents living.

In fact, research shows that the main cause of youths who went from high teenage religiousness to low religiousness is that their parents followed the same progression.

But it doesn’t stop with parents. Youths need to see other adults modeling important faith, too. At CLCBC we do so much to teach out adults to be crucial examples of living out a faith that is important.

It’s been said that discipleship is just as much caught as it is taught, and maybe more so. Your faith lived out is one of the most powerful things you can do to help students own an important faith.

Our Youths recognize authentic faith. Our lives impact our Youths as much if not more than our words.Also we teach them that for them to become YOUTH FOR CHRIST, they absolutely must take increasing ownership of their spiritual growth. We have to facilitate the transmission of increasing faith ownership.

What do I mean when I say students must own their faith?

They must become the drivers of their faith. There has to be a hand-off where the individual student becomes the person most concerned about their faith instead of their parents, grandparents, or youth leaders What do I mean by increasing faith ownership?

How do we help make this happen? First, we let them know that this is expected. We actually make it clear that this is the expectation. Show them in Scripture where this is the case. Second, we equip them with the skills they need to take greater ownership of their faith. I’ve written a book about this and I would love for you to check it out.

It’s called

NEXT: Growing A Faith That Lasts.

It’s a great resource for helping students take greater ownership of their faith. Finally, we can create environments where it’s OK to for students to ask questions of their faith, both questions about God and questions of God.

looking at the world our youths are growing up in is dramatically different from the one many adults experienced. We grew up in the modern age dominated by Enlightenment-era, scientific, linear thinking.

The world of the emerging generation is increasingly postmodern—a change with huge implications for how we evangelize youths and pass Spiritual messages to them. We often use the Principle of Process Evangelism.

Process evangelism is quite similar to the patterns used by Jesus with his disciples. He entered into their world, he identified with their pain and their broken condition, he devoted great amounts of time building his life into their lives, he committed himself to a process of evangelizing—not just an evangelistic event.

Process evangelism can be distilled down to four essentials:

1. Authenticity—we must be authentic and committed to Jesus Christ. The Christian life must be the core reality of our lives, not just an act.

2. Caring—we must demonstrate genuine care and unconditional love for the pre-Christian—regardless of their level of belief or lifestyle. This does not mean that we never confront sin, but we must always show love and acceptance of the individual, no matter what the sin.

3. Trust—we must demonstrate absolute integrity, truthfulness, loyalty, confidentiality and openness. Only after we have established a deep level of trust will we be able to share how the story of Jesus Christ has intersected with our life.

4. Transparency—we must be real and allow others to see the reality of our lives through our openness and vulnerability. We must admit our mistakes, confess our sin and tell the story of our pain and our problems so they can see God at work in our lives.

These Four essentials can only be acquired by Building relationships

For the first half of Jesus’ ministry, it seems that his primary focus was on building relationships—helping the disciples know and love him more and helping them know and love one another more. Jesus advanced this strategy by providing environments in which such loving relationships would grow and thrive.

In following Jesus’ disciple making patterns, we advocate the use of four associated tools useful for providing nurturing environments in which God works to grow love-filled, Christ-centered relationships.

We summarize these tools in the acronym C.A.N.S., which stands for community, adoration, nurture and serving.
Community (reaching in)

Jesus took a diverse group of followers and built them up by bringing them into a close-knit community where his disciples spent time with Jesus and together found fulfillment of three great needs: love, significance and belonging.

Young believers today find the same fulfillment in Christian community, where people worship, love and work together focused on Christ. Within a community of Jesus’ followers, they find that the loneliness that sin has produced in their lives begins to be replaced by the oneness that Jesus offers in his community of faith, the church.

Youth ministry seeks to be and thus provide a loving, close community where young believers find a place to belong. In a later article, we’ll discuss some of the details concerning how to build loving community within a youth group. We’ll also discuss what makes a congregation youth-friendly—a place where youths feel part of the community.

– Adoration (reaching up)

In the presence of his disciples, Jesus openly and apologetically worshiped the Father. In doing so, he modeled a life of adoration, openly expressing wonder, gratitude and trust toward God. When Jesus was revealed to the disciples as divine, they came to adore and worship him and, in turn, taught this adoration of Christ to others.

We seek to follow their pattern in our youth ministries. We seek to show young believers more of the majesty, beauty and holiness of God their Savior and model to them a lifestyle where God is so regarded and worshiped that he is glorified by our thoughts and actions.

The worship of God is the heart of youth ministry and in a later article, we’ll present ideas for advancing passionate worship in our youth groups.

– Nurture (reaching down)

Through his incarnation, God came down to us and lived in the flesh. Jesus was God in our midst as one who served. As a servant, he ministered to his followers. Through this personal presence, he offered direction and guidance for living and loving.

In youth ministry, we seek to minister to young followers the personal presence of Jesus. We do so by helping them follow the Holy Spirit, who brings Jesus, the living Word, into their lives in accordance with Holy Scriptures, the written Word.

Such nurture yields an abundant life in step with the Spirit. In a later article, we’ll discuss how parents, youth leaders and workers may cooperate with the Spirit in ministering God’s nurturing care to young followers of Jesus.

– Serving (reaching out)

Jesus also built up his believers by helping them serve others in his name—expressing love through personal contact and support of those outside the immediate group. In youth ministry, serving beyond the youth group is an essential part of helping young believers grow in their love for God and for people.

Such growth is seen as young believers begin to value others so much that they adjust their own lifestyle to express care for and meet the needs of others. In a later article, we’ll offer suggestions for teaching youths the value of such service.

It is our goal in youth ministry to build young believers in their love for God and for people. We do this by using the tools of community, adoration, nurture and serving. I encourage parents of youths to capitalize on these four tools in working with their children and teens.

Together we are participating with Christ as he advances the kingdom—one person reaching out to another; one generation reaching out to the next. There is no higher calling.

It’s a tough world. The devil, our fallen nature, a self-centered and materialistic culture, all are having a powerful effect on a vast segment of the population, and nowhere is this more evident than among young people.

As adults, our best intentions in working with youths are not good enough. Ultimately, the battle for the hearts, minds and souls of (young) people is spiritual. One thing I’ve learned in youth ministry is that I just don’t have the means to win that battle.

There is nothing I can do to ensure a young person will turn from the lures of this world and toward Jesus. But God can!

So one very great key to building to live an Exemplar Live is by PRAYER. And this we have made a part of us to Pray for our Youths till Christ be formed in them.