Young Speakers

Young Speakers

Jeremiah 20:9 (NIV1984) “But if I say, “I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire,  a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”

We heard one of our younger people preaching recently. This morning my wife came up with this scripture that sums up how we felt that he must have been feeling yesterday as he spoke. There was passion and zeal in our pulpit yesterday as four of our younger folk shared on David being a man after God’s own heart. They were all good but the last speaker was outstanding and had an anointing which the others just didn’t have. He was very obviously both fired up and on fire.

How many young people in your church are on fire for Jesus but are simply not allowed to do anything like this? I know it is hard for a pastor to surrender his pulpit to another and indeed some are contracted by their church board to speak a certain number of times a year. But how many are brave enough to actively develop the next group of leaders and speakers coming through their ranks?

This is what I mean when I urge churches to release their young people into the ministry the Lord has for them. Our pastor is totally secure in the Lord and when the Lord said to start to build a leadership team for tomorrow and to release new speakers and leaders – our pastor has done precisely that. I believe we have discovered a rare talent and anointing. The young man even spoke without any reference to notes as he admitted to us, he knew what he wanted to say and had prepared so well he didn’t even have the notes.

We are all but servants to one another. We plant seeds and water them and help them grow. Then, when our small harvest is ready we garner it in but we save some of the seed for planting next year’s crop so that there will be a harvest each year. That is our job as a church community – to water and grow our crop for harvest and also for next season’s seed. Our young people are the seed for our coming seasons and without them we have no more seed to plant out for a new harvest.

I thank God that our church is a nurturing and growing church. Yes our leadership team is relatively older but they are all keenly aware of the need for tomorrow’s leaders to be brought through into the position of leadership. We have a deep well of wisdom and experience with at least three “retired” church leaders and quite a few other older Christians available to pastor as a mentoring team. Pastor uses them all – he doesn’t knowingly let a single seed drop to the floor.

Your churches are all like that. How much mentoring talent do you have that is simply unused and therefore wasted? How much anointed young talent do you have that is ignored or suppressed and thereby wasted? No wonder so many churches are full of old folk but have very few young people to pass to baton on to.

Time to reconsider your inheritance and how you will pass it on to your grandchildren?