Equipping Our Young Adults
Joshua Lowe has been working with our Young Adults since the start of the year. He shares about this ministry and the ways that he has been encouraged and sees God at work.
At the beginning of this year, I made a transition from being the Ministry Worker for the Youth Ministry to that of the Young Adults (YA) Ministry.
Many of our church family have asked me how I have found the change in portfolio. For a start, it is always a joy and privilege to serve God’s people no matter the ministry. The change in ministries has not necessarily been easier or harder (ministry is always hard work!) — it has just been different.
In Youth Ministry, the target audience of this ministry was youth and we recognise that many have yet to make the decision to become Christians. The Youth Ministry is therefore an evangelistic ministry, and the leaders and I were primarily focused on evangelising the youth.
However, in the YA Ministry, although there are aspects of evangelism in the ministry (which I will cover later), I see my role more as equipping the members of Grace Baptist Church who are YAs aged 18-25 (give or take a few years). As such the focus is less towards urging non-Christians to believe and more towards equipping and growing Christians.
This ministry is just one of the ways the young people at Grace Baptist Church seek to grow in spiritual maturity. The YA Ministry is focused and intentional about training young people for a short season so that they can be equipped to bless and serve the larger church as they grow older in the next seasons of life.
So far, I have found that working with the YAs at GBC has been very encouraging! YAs probably have the most expendable time amongst all the demographics in church, and the YAs at GBC have been particularly hungry to learn and grow. It has been particularly joyful for me to see God’s Holy Spirit work in the lives of our young people.
Growing our YAs
So what exactly do we do in the Young Adults Ministry? How do we go about trying to grow our young adults in their faith?
There are four regular Initiatives in the ministry: Small Groups, Bible Study Training, Big Group and Campus Evangelism
Small Groups
Our YAs aim to meet twice a month in gendered small groups, each with a leader. These are like CGs for the rest of the church. Our YAs seek to gather around God’s Word for accountability and walking with one another in life.
Bible Study Training
Once a month, we also run a Bible study training on the second Saturday morning of every month. This seeks to equip our YAs to handle God’s Word well and train them in leading Bible studies. We want the participants to grow in confidence in leading studies and during the training, there is also a hands-on portion so that they can gain some practical experience.
Big Group
These also take place once a month, usually on the last Saturday of the month. This is a ministry-wide gathering and each session has a teaching time, followed by discussion in groups. At these sessions, we aim to answer key topics YA Christians may be struggling with. We seek to grow our YAs in maturity by helping them think through some of these important topics and apply God’s Word to it. Some of the topics we will be covering this year include:
Relationships: How to be a good friend
Sex and Same Sex Attraction
Gender – Biblical Manhood/Womanhood for YA and Singles
Dating for the YA
Work and Career
Time and Money
Campus Evangelism
One of the things our YAs have been trying out this year is Campus Evangelism. We aim to reach out to students on campus and have gospel conversations. In our conversations we seek to make sure the gospel is clearly communicated. We also try to follow up with those interested in further conversations.
Along with these regular events, some of the YAs are also planning a mission trip. Further details for this trip will be shared at various platforms (e.g. Prayer Meeting, Members’ Meeting, weekly enews), so please stay tuned for more details on this exciting mission trip!
So these are the things that we have been doing in the Young Adults Ministry. It is exciting isn’t it?
GBC members, if you are reading this article and are inspired, the YA ministry would love you to get involved regardless of your age. Please do not hesitate to reach out to myself or any of the other young adults in the ministry. There are a plethora of ways you can be involved, and our young adults need discipling just as much as any other demographic in church.
The young adults of the church are the future. They will be the ones to carry forward the message of the gospel, so we should be doing our best to invest in them!