We see that in Moses’ generation, God preserved the Youth (Joshua and Caleb), who later after the death of Moses managed to enter the Promised Land with all the children of Israel and Joshua being their leader. We have come to understand that it is a huge and big challenge for every ministry, church or in any generation to raise the ‘Successors’.
It takes the hand of God with our cooperation with Him as Leaders to raise, train, equip and delegate or pass-on the mandate to the next young generation who will be responsible leaders and do the assignment as we could have done it ourselves or even do it better than those who passed it on to them.
However, we see in Joshua’s time, who was a great leader, who feared and served God faithfully, but when it came to raising and passing-on to the next generation, Joshua failed it. If a great and a faithful leader like Joshua, whose character and life was an example in his day, could fail the test of raising and passing-on what God had vested upon his life, then it is possible for each and every one of us to fall in the same trap. (Joshua 24:31).
The saddest part of the story is that the children of Israel served the Lord only in the days of Joshua when he was still alive and together with them, but when he died, they strayed and served or worshiped other gods, just because the great leader called Joshua failed to raise and impact the young generation.
As The Light to Nations Ministry, the Lord has laid it as a burden in our hearts to cooperate with God as we endeavor to raise the awareness to call upon ministries, churches to think and put much emphasis about raising, training, equipping the young generation for them to be able to serve the next generation.
We are living today in a modern sophisticated world where evil storms and winds are blowing hard, taking and diverting many young people away from their creator. So, it is our responsibility as leaders to uniquely and specifically think and plan of how we can impact the youth for Christ and for them to be in the right position to take it on to the next generation.
There are three major areas which the Lord has shown me over the last few years that i have been in ministry concerning our young people; where they need to be taught, trained and guided most.
a) They need to be taught about their Destiny in Christ Jesus.
b) They need to be taught about their Identity in Christ Jesus.
c) They need also to be taught about their Purpose of existence.
As a ministry, we are called to counter the crisis in our young people by giving a significant and tangible contribution in the body of Christ as we impact the young generation with Godly morals and values through God’s word while the lord is preparing his church as the bride for His second coming. God has laid it as a burden in our hearts to give a tangible contribution and to leave a legacy for the next generation.
We also feel very strongly that we are responsible to teach, train and entrust to others what God has faithfully given to us. (1Timothy 4:6-15, 2Timothy 2:1-5). Lastly but not the least; we cannot have good and perfect families, churches, Nations of tomorrow when we neglect this noble assignment of raising, training and engaging the young people now. (Proverbs 22:6)