There is a genuine revival taking place among the youth and young adults of my local church. Read that first sentence again, please. And again.<\/p>\n
This is not a hyperbole or exaggeration; it\u2019s the wonderful, God-glorifying truth. Let me tell you the story.<\/p>\n
ARISE held its first Australian program at the Kingscliff Church in early 2013, five years ago. Since that inaugural program, there has been an Australian ARISE program every year. These ARISE programs, based on our The Story<\/i> curriculum, last about 14 weeks. The first year we had 26 students, including several of our local church\u2019s young adults. Every year since 2013 the number of students has increased, until the last two years we\u2019ve reached our maximum capacity which is about 45 students.<\/p>\n
This year we had 44 and 23 of them were teenagers.<\/p>\n
Teenagers!<\/p>\n
This is coming at a time when the church is increasingly and desperately wrestling with the fact that we are losing many of our young people. Estimates vary, but the numbers are sobering and it sure looks like a large percentage of Adventist young people are walking away from the church and God.<\/p>\n
…we\u2019ve invested in discipling our young people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Church leaders, administrators, pastors, and parents are wringing their hands in confusion and sadness\u2014\u201cWhat can we do?\u201d I hope you\u2019ll forgive me for, perhaps, oversimplifying a bit, but I don\u2019t think this is a particularly difficult question to answer.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s why I say that. If you were to come to my local church, a church of between 300-400+ on Sabbath morning, you would see young people everywhere. Early teens, late teens, early twenties, mid-twenties, late twenties, etc. They are preaching (six of them just preached a joint sermon two Sabbaths ago), they are traveling overseas to hold evangelistic meetings (a group leaves in three weeks to the Philippines), they are feeding the homeless, they are speaking at their school chapels, they are attending youth-created, youth-focused programs called Friyay<\/i> every month, they are singing and playing music for church, they are leading out in youth Bible studies, and…<\/p>\n
they are attending ARISE.<\/p>\n
Not all of them, but many of them. This year, for example, we had seven of our local teenagers, all fresh graduates from high school, attend ARISE. And even for those who don\u2019t attend, because of other university plans, jobs, or long-planned travel, the vibe, urgency, and culture of ARISE rubs off on them. It\u2019s a beautiful thing to behold! I wish you could be here to see it.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve baptized dozens of our youth and young adults over the last couple years. These kids really love Jesus! They\u2019re coming to Sabbath School, reading their Bibles, ordering their lives and relationships after God\u2019s design and counsel, and so much more.<\/p>\n
Jesus has used ARISE to create a culture of revival and godliness among our youth and young adults. The secret to this phenomenon has been pretty simple: as a local church and local conference, we\u2019ve invested in discipling our young people. This involves teaching Scripture (in ARISE, sermons, Sabbath Schools, youth Bible studies, chapels, etc.), modeling what an authentic\u2014though not perfect or artificial\u2014Christian life looks like, and spending lots and lots of time with them.<\/p>\n
So, to summarize: truth, time, and trust.<\/p>\n
The truth <\/i>of Scripture; lots of time<\/i> spent together in various contexts and situations; the trust <\/i>that has developed between us and our young people over the years.<\/p>\n
Revival is just around the corner, if you put in the time<\/i>…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n