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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Page 368

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

8. YOUNG PEOPLE’S WORK

(8-01)
Report of
Board for Young People’s Work

The purpose of this report of the Board for Young
People’s Work is:

1) To focus the attention of the membership of the
Synod on the great gift which God has given to
the church in our young people:

2) To grapple with the questions and challenges

which a ministry to this generation poses:

3) To clarify the character and direction of youth
ministry as viewed by the Board for Young Peo-
ple’s Work:

To enlist the support of all members of the Synod
in this mutual and important ministry:

To seek the will of the church’s Lord and to pro-
claim man’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ as the
church moves boldly into the future.

4)

Introduction: Questions Could Be the Answer

To many, youth ministry can be compared to mis-
sionary work in a foreign country. If there is such a
thing as “youth culture,” this culture is strange, alien,
and, to adults, often exasperating. How does one pro-
claim the Word in Christ in compelling and sustaining
terms to a generation which appears to speak another
language and to exemplify a different life style?

There is no easy answer to this question. Although
we confess that the Word of God does not change, yet
we must recognize that people are continually changed
and renewed by it. This power of the Word to renew
and to change often conflicts with our expectations
about young people. Why. we ask, do young people re-
spond differently to the Word? Why aren’t they content
to express their faith in the manner in which we have
expressed our faith?

Perhaps we should ask different questions. What is
God doing with youth? Why is He shaping them into
a generation which we have difficulty understanding
and appreciating? In short. the problem may not be
with our young but with our discernment of God’s pur-
poses for this generation.

The Board for Young People’s Work makes no pre-
tense of special insight, either into our young people or
into the purposes of God. But the Board for Young
People’s Work acknowledges that the sharing of the
Word of God with young people has led the board to
a renewed appreciation of the power of the Word and
its action in this generation.

I. Goals of Youth Ministry

A. To Proclaim Among Youth
This renewed appreciation is keenly exemplified as
the Board for Young People’s Work attempts “to pro-
claim among youth the presence, love, and power of

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God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, whose life,
death, and resurrection has redeemed all people.”
(Handbook, 7.61 a)

If ever there was a proclamation to elicit the alle-
giance of ou ‘ing people, it is the proclamation of the
saving ceed. tod in Jesus Christ. For if ever there
was a generation of young people who thirsted for a
proclamation rooted in deeds, it is this generation.

Young people are not content only to listen to reci-
tations of the Word of God. They seek to do what the
Word of God impels them to do.

This desire for action often frustrates adults. Often
the actions of young people appear to be ill-advised.
But this desire to act. this compulsion to do, may well
be an action of the E.., Spirit. If young people did not
desire to act, then we would certainly have to pose
questions about our pro.lamation.

This desire of our young people has led the Board
for Young People’s Work to a reassessment of the role
of young people in the church and in the world.

It is the young who often force the older people in
the church to find new words to explain the faith. It is
the young who often react against mere repetition in
handing on the tradition of the church. It is the young
who often compel, by their probing and unexpected
questions, the church to translate the history of God’s
dealings with men into new words and new acts. As
such, the young are also responsible for renewed under-
standings of the Word of God. understandings which
have given a new shape to the church in our time and
new meanings to the life lived in Christ.

The Board for Young People’s Work does not ask
why young people do not seem to understand God’s
Word in Christ. But the board considers the fact that
youth often understand the meaning and import of that
Word in new and renewing ways. Thus the Board for
Young People’s Work asks what God is doing in this
generation and, in the dialog between generations, that
He would lead all of us to a new understanding of His
Word and purpose, whereby we recognize anew that
Christ “is the Head of His body, the church: He is the
source of the body’s life: He is the firstborn Son who
was raised from death, in order that He alone might
have the first place in all things.” (Col. 1:18 TEV)

To recognize that Christ is first, that He is the source
of all life, is to understand that Christ calls and sustains
His body, the church. Generations do not create or
sustain the church. Rather it is Christ who through the
use of the means of grace in His church creates and
sustains generations. Thus we must always ask first
what Christ is doing with this generation, not what we
as adults wish to do with this generation.

These are more than a different set of questions.
They suggest an attitude toward the youth ministry and
toward youth which betokens a new understanding of
the role of youth in the church. To assume that youth
must remain quiet is to forfeit the new understanding