The Ohio Independent Baptist, February 1965

oun An area of responsibility and opportunity By T. Wesley Bliss A church which does not ee teen– ager regularly trusting Christ as Saviour i deprived of much bles ing and a source of growth. A church with no youn,g people or youth pro– gram is failing in one of its greatest area of re ponsibility and oppor tunity. It should not be so that men willing to spend full time with young people are so hard to find. It might be that sure and trusted plans and methods have not been used to ohallen,ge young men looking to the ,mini try or some phase of Christian work. We have seen simple, time te ted and God-honored methods used to win teen-agers to Christ and we have found that unless a man sees fruit in a youth ministry he will oon be in another. More than Sunday School There is more to a youth ministry than Sunday School, Sunday evening youth meetings and an occasional party or get-together. Many remain convinced that young people on,ly res.pond to "Dynamic youth s·peaker " and certain frothy gospel choruses' ' to the neglect of proper doctrinal teaching, geared to youth. There cer– tainly is an area, properly executed, where we can produce a harp pro– gram plus produce well-rounded and well -taught young ,people, properly grounded in the "Word of Truth ." • We trust that young men 1n our school~ will catch the vision and re– spond to a de~perate need . From September 25 to 27 , 110 young people and the ir c oun e lor met for o ur Annual F all Youth Con– fer ence. PJans began by contacting the owners of amp Burton in Bur– ton, Ohio and m aking arrangement5 wi th them as to r egul ations, cos ts, medical insuran,ce and the many necessary details for s,uch a week end Co ts were agreed upon and date were set. Next wa a carefully planned chedule of promotion and prepara– tion of a brochure. The Conference sohedule commenced with an evening meeting Friday night followed by a nack time funspirat·ion and cabin devotions. We arose ·at 7 a.m. had grou,p devotions and a quiet time ,be– fore break-fast. The remainder of the morning included three seminars in– teDpersed with .free time for snack The a,f ternoon sports progra,m wa under the direction of one man. After supper came the evening meeting campfire .cabin devotions and lights out. Sunday ·morning con i ted of Sunday School, church, dinner and departure. Sunday morning gave u the preciou extra time needed to ca 1 p the piritual impact of the hort– but-full and eventful week-end. Semi– nar and meetings were geared in con– tent to ,build to a proper conclu ion. Value seen We ieel we accomplished that for which we prayed. To this day we can till ee strong evidence of the teach– ing and preaching mini try . Two per- on tru ted Chri t a Saviour and 35 fir t-time dedi,cation deci ion met after the Saturday evening meet– ing for a pecial e ion with the peaker. We had hoped to ee a deepening of Bible knowledge coupled with a renewed thir t to tudy the Word. The seminar wer e geared to give an wer and create a de ire to ge t into the Word . Bible doc trine wa taught with life and enthusia n1 while being given a prac tical ~pproach. Ottl winning wa taught . We a lso hoped to ee as a re ult of the week end , and expres ion o i loy- Rev. W sley Bliss is minister of youth and visitation at Cedar Hill Baptist Church, Cleveland Heights, 0 His work consists of d irecting the youth program up through the college age as well a s d irecting the visitation pro9rc1m. A grddudte of Bob Jones University and Temple Baptist The olo gical Seman.. ry , Chattanoogd, Tenn ., he was a club director with youth for Christ 1n Kan5a City c1nd Miami, Fla ., before go ing to ,. m nu I Baptist Church, Toledo, in Jan. 1961 as ass istant pastor nd then to Ceddr Hill last July. Th Rev. Mr. Bliss wrote the following arti cle on youth work at the request of Mr . Earl D. Un1baugh , Chri~tian Education Ed itor . THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST alty, time and energy to our youth program but most important, a com– mitment to the vital ta k of a tangible witne on the high sohool campu . To date, a a result of the combined impact of a week of umimer camp and the Fall Conference, have come the greatest hare of 32 alvat ion deci sions made 1 ince the econd week of July . These deci ion have been made throug.h r egular youth a~tivitie p]u a r egular function of our youth program de igned for the purpose of Bible study and oul winning. Ho.p– ing to add to the impact of the um– mer camp and Fall Conference, we cheduled a one-day Conference £or January 30 for the Senior High youth. A econd one i being cheduled for Jr. Higher in February . We tru t that the r eader of thi articl e will find some in piration and practical information that can be u ed to plan a imilar program. A a young man, Je u 'increa ed in wi - dom and ta ture and in favor with God and m an. " Luke 2 :52. Our young people are a acred t,ru t given to us to develop in all area of their live . Chri t et the ex– ample in the preceed ing verse where we learn H e grew and developed men– tally phy ically, oc ially and piritu- ally. Our young people will be to– morrow wha t they are becoming to– day, with or withou t our h elp. What are yoLt doing to help o r hinder thi educa tional proce that will contint1e, wha tever ) ' Otl choo e to do a·bot1t it? • T. WESLEY BLIS FEBRUARY , 1965 PAGE 7