One of the things that I'm feeling really compelled about is to get young people preaching more often. Over the course of this and next year, my goal is to get more young voices proclaiming God's Word from pulpits. This past September, I incorporated the idea into my Fall Week of Prayer talks at Wisconsin Academy. The theme was "Do Something Brave," and I invited students that if they were brave enough to share their testimony with the church that Sabbath, I'd give them some of my sermon time. Two students accepted my invitation and stood in front of their peers and their entire congregation and spoke about the things God was doing in their lives.
This past weekend, I designed "The Table" young adult Sabbath to incorporate young voices--not only in lots of table discussions and opportunities for dialogue and feedback with conference officials--but also in that all of the spiritual messages were given by young adults. Three young adults--Dayanna Suazo, Kevin Wilkinson, Jr., and Josue Peralta--each preached on a parable of Jesus and what that parable means for them. This is a way to not only empower young adults with leadership opportunities, but also to put our money where our mouth is when we say things like: "young adults are leaders today, not tomorrow." If they are the leaders of today, we should empower them to lead today: and part of that is in proclaiming God's Word.
It is my goal to have two preaching Sabbaths for Pathfinders this coming Winter/Spring: one for English speakers (at church before the Conference PBE event on March 1), and one for Spanish speakers (TBA, possibly at the Southern Area Adventurer Fun Day, May 17). The first sermon I ever preached was as a Pathfinder, and I think it's an important component of letting this age group try out leadership roles: giving them the opportunity to be in the pulpit. So I'm excited to give our Pathfinders more opportunities, at Conference events, to preach the Word.
Everyone has to start somewhere. My first sermon wasn't the most compelling or exciting. I was nervous and probably fairly uninteresting. This is likely to be the case for many young preachers. We need to be ok with that. Even the best preachers had a few doozies, especially when they first started out. At this point, I have preached hundreds of sermons. Anyone can get good at something when given hundreds of opportunities. Are we giving our young people enough opportunities to preach that they not only realize they like doing it, but actually get good at it? Or are we encouraging them to hide it under a bushel, and letting pastors and elders preach Sabbath after Sabbath?
It is my encouragement to every church: start putting it into your yearly plans. Do you have young people in attendance? If so: when will you put them in the pulpit? How will you support them with listening and giving feedback, so that they can improve? You may just be surprised that you need to hear what it is that God wants to say through them. You may find that the next inspiring preachers of the Bible and the Adventist message are hiding right under our noses: God was just waiting for them to be given the chance to speak.
Pictures of our young preachers at The Table:
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