Teens

Today is the first day my home church starts Teens Ministry/Sunday Service (for Secondary 1 to Secondary 4 students). We have been praying for it as we long to see them growing spiritually since their young age and we would like them to be strong in Christ in the midst of challenges they face while studying here.

Here I just wanna share (meaning: copy & paste. hehe..) my reflection. This reflection is a requirement of the Field Education Placement (which I do in my home church). I decided to put it in as it is related to Teen Ministry that we just started. Enjoy reading!

1.    Write a brief description of an important, difficult, or rewarding event or personal encounter:

During one of the preparation meetings to start Teens Ministry, when we are trying to find out what are teens struggle with nowadays, Mr. PJ (a father of 2 teens) shared the concern of her daughter (YJ) who is studying in one of the public secondary school in Singapore. When the daughter went to Malaysia for a competition, she shared a room with another student. There’s one occasion where after YJ prayed, the roommate asked her whether she is a Christian. YJ answered yes. Then the roommate started to ask questions about Christian faith, such as why she believes in Jesus, who is Jesus, why she believes that Jesus is Lord, why she believes in what the Bible says. YJ couldn’t answer some of the questions and when she went home, he started to ask the same questions to her dad, Mr. PJ. During the meeting, we conclude that we would later have some sessions on apologetics with the teens.

Reflect on event or encounter described:

Mr. PJ’s sharing reminded me of the most common issues faced by some Indonesian Christian students who study in public secondary school here. Before they came to Singapore, most of them studied in Christian school, so generally their friends are all Christians. In Indonesia, it is compulsory for all citizens to subscribe to any of the official religion, so generally people believe in God, evil, heaven and hell. It is a different case for them in Singapore, particularly in public schools.  There are very few Christians. Almost all of their friends are either from other religion or atheists, free thinkers, and skeptics. Some of their friends do not believe that God exists and some others just do not care about faith or any spiritual matter.

            I was then remembered that last semester I shared about this issue with an Indonesian Ph.D. candidate in TTC who is a father of two teens studying in a public school. His teen children had the same issue and he recommended them some books to read. A couple of days later, I went to a Christian bookstore. I bought “The Case for Christ (Youth Edition)” and “The Case for Faith (Student Edition)” by Lee Strobel. I read it myself and after that I gave those books to Mr. PJ with the hope of helping his teen daughter to respond to questions on Christian faith or how to defend it.

What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

During my reflection for this particular question, I realized that my previous reflection and my respond to the situation were, in a sense, not so theological or spiritual. I had this notion that defending Christian faith is all about successfully answering all the questions that people ask.

            I was reminded to my own experience in dealing with my skeptic elder brother. During his teenage years, he stopped going to church. From 2000 (my conversion) to 2006  I would try to talk to him to believe in Jesus. In 2006 I came to Singapore to work and, being far from him made me realized that I couldn’t do anything much. I realized that all I had done before was more relying on my wisdom and my words, not God’s power. Since I was in Singapore, I started to pray a lot for him, pray that God’s power through the Holy Spirit would open his eyes to the truth (1 Cor 2:4-5, 10-11). Praise the Lord, he finally received Christ in 2009 when his boss shared the gospel to him.

            So, what would I do differently? In this case, what will I do next? I will emphasize to the teens that besides reading books and answering to their friends’ questions, they must pray for their friends, because it is God who changes heart, not our words. Besides praying, it is also important to live a Christlike life. People see our lives. Though we can successfully answer their questions about Christian faith, they won’t be convinced if we do not live it.


*Response from Field Education Coordinator at TTC (and definitely food for thought and for follow up):
Are there '2nd generation Christian' born-again? Have they experienced Christ's salvation and cleansing? That is, have they experienced God in a real way for them to testify Christ?