By Nic Cass
During our Youth Ministry Sunday on November 15, I presented a plan comprised of three aspects to accomplish our youth ministry vision, “equipping youth for life through the CROSS.” The three aspects of our youth ministry plan are study, gathering, and service. In December we took a deeper look at the aspect of study. This month we will be focusing on
the second aspect of our youth ministry plan, gathering.
Within the church we may often think of this as fellowship, but the reality is that outside the church, and especially among youth, the word fellowship doesn’t mean much. I’ve chosen the word gathering for this reason because its meaning is very apparent no matter what your background with a
church may be. Quite simply, the goal of gathering is to build relationships between youth, leaders, guests, and anyone else involved.
Gatherings can take on a great variety of forms, from an evening Christmas party to a week-long National Youth Gathering, both of which our youth here have participated in in the past and something to also look forward to in the future. No matter the scale of these gatherings, the goal is to develop relationships and have opportunities to share our lives with each other.
During his ministry, the apostle Paul travelled all around planting churches, and he shared this idea of gathering to build relationships when he wrote to the church in Thessalonica. He said, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us” (1 Thess. 2:8). When we gather, we begin to know the lives of others and we begin to care personally for them.
Knowing people’s lives provides an opportunity not just to share their lives and their burdens, but to share the Gospel of God. There is a quote that’s
originally credited to President Theodore Roosevelt you may have heard before that says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know
how much you care.” That is a reality in ministry. Gathering is a vital aspect of ministry because with it comes the opportunity to share lives, care for people, and build relationships. Building relationships and knowing people’s lives leads to opportunities to share what we know about our savior, Jesus Christ, and from there equip them for a life built on Jesus.