|
Thank you!
$200,000 Goal Achieved!
|
|
Six veteran youth leaders have shared Jesus' desire to reach and disciple every young person in the world for 40+ years. Last year these friends decided to get together and talk about how we might collaborate to reach out to 2.3 billion kids. At one point in our meeting I sat back and looked at us. Only one word came to mind -- "absurd!" We are too old and the numbers are too big! Yet passion and energy flowed from us as the "grumpy old men" prayed toward a Global Youth Ministry Movement. And then those prayers began to develop into a collaborative strategy.
|
|
Global Youth Coalition: Chris Davis, Benny Proffitt, Randy Smith, Roger Glidewell, Barry St. Clair, Brian Waters
|
|
Though our collaboration encouraged us, the reality of younger generation statistics staggered us! And I hope they will stagger you, too.
- 2.3 billion non-Christian young people (ages 10-29) live on this planet.
- Approximately 1.4 billion live in Asia, 500 million in Africa/Middle East, 300 million in the Americas, and 100 million in all of Europe.
- Within all churches in the United States, 1 youth leader serves 600 teens. That means 97% of youth ministry leaders worldwide live in the USA. Yet in the rest of the world only 1 youth leader serves every 120,000 teens.*
Staggering, yes, yet Jesus desires each one to be reached and discipled.
*Statistics from United Nations, World Health Organization, Frontier Mission, Gapminder Foundation in Sweden and Randy Smith, Youth Ministry International.
|
|
Global Youth Coalition Planning in Action |
|
These statistics fueled our group's fire! By the conclusion of our second meeting, this is what emerged.
Name: Global Youth Coalition
Mission: To initiate a global youth movement that will begin to reach and disciple the world's 2.3 billion 10-29 years old -- focusing on the least reached and most densely populated places.
Principles: Jesus focused--Prayer focused--Scripture believed--Church and Family based--Leadership developed--Disciples made--Evangelism engaged--Trainers trained to train others--Multiplying results
Values: Relationship, Leadership, Strategy, Partnership.
|
Global Collaboration Plan
|
|
Global Youth Leaders Meeting in Orlando
|
|
And then we poured more fuel on the fire when we had the opportunity to meet with 150 global youth leaders in Orlando in November. Our team talked with various groups of leaders who expressed interest in our team assisting them. This resulted in specific plans to train and resource leaders from India, Central Africa, China, and Nepal in 2017.
Our Global Youth Coalition has a lead person/ministry for each country initiative with all of the other ministries collaborating and contributing to the project.
India: Chris Davis, globalLead--Develop three training models in three cities each one 8-10 hours apart--Goa, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.
Uganda: Charles Juma, Reach Out Youth Solutions--Building on Reach Out's existing training, gather key Ugandan youth leaders to assess the state of youth and youth ministry in Uganda, agree on strategic plan, and create specific actions to move forward.
China: Randy Smith, Youth Ministry International--Building on the already existing training of YMI in two large cities. In the summer Global Youth Ministry will assist in conducting training in various provinces of China.
Nepal: Kim Bearden, Reach Out Youth Solutions--Build on, integrate, and expand the training ministries of Reach Out, globalLead, and YMI through our indigenous leaders in Nepal.
Converge Website: Randy Smith--Youth Ministry International--The website provides a place for global youth leaders to include either their own training or their need for training on the site. Already 23 ministries have applied to use the site. See more on trainingyouthleaders.org.
|
|
Chris Davis, Charles Juma, Randy Smith, Kim Bearden
|
|
For Reach Out, the collaboration with the Youth Ministry Coalition fits seamlessly into our ten year goals of...
30 new countries served 100,000 new leaders equipped 2,000,000 teens reached and discipled
Your gifts and prayers place you inside of this Youth Ministry Coalition that is taking steps to reach and discipled 2.3 billion young people. We thank you!
Jesus is Lord,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|