November 1931
B u s i n e s s
496
T h e
K i n g ' s
YOUTH and EVANGELISM . . . By ROY E. CREIGHTON, * Los Angeles, Calif.
As the world has multiplied its demand upon youth’s time and has placed more attractions in their path, the church has had less opportunity to reach them, and in many cases has lessened its efforts and program, believing it useless to compete with the school’s social program and the world’s amusements. Young people need specialists in their church as well as in their school life. We spend millions of dollars on their secular education, and then often give them only a nominal Christian, who, although he means well, is poorly equipped, to lead them in the things of God. The problem that confronts leaders of young people’s work today is not concerned so much with the youth themselves as it is with finding consecrated, efficient adult leaders, who love boys and girls, and who have the tact, ability, and willingness to sacrifice time and effort in order to lead them to Jesus Christ and a yielded life in Him. Biola in China T here are several reasons why it has not been possible to publish in T h e K ing ' s B u siness any detailed in formation concerning the Hunan Bible Institute, the China department of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. One reason is advanced in a letter from Dr. F. A. Keller, superintendent of the work in Hunan, written under date of August 25, 1931: “Mails are greatly delayed at present, owing to the worst floods that have been experienced in central China in sixty years. All streets in Hankow are deeply flooded, and have been for weeks. Storekeepers have moved their stocks to upper floors, people are living in the second floors of their homes, and all traffic is by boat. ; Dead bodies— human and animal—are floating about. An awful pesti lence is feared when the water drops. The Japanese are said to be sending all their women and children back to Japan.” What destruction, what sorrow, what grief these few words convey! May they be a call to earnest, continuing prayer on behalf of China and the loyal servants of Jesus Christ, who suffer and who labor there. Another letter from Dr. Keller, written on September 14, states: “Here in Hunan, war rumors are very bad, and it seems fairly certain that a heavy battle between the National Government and the Southern rebels will be fought within the next few days at Hengchow, about 160 miles south of Changsha. If this battle should be unfavorable to the Na tionalists, the next battle will likely be at Changsha. “We are just beginning the second week of our autumn Bible conference. God is giving great blessing, and we are praying and hoping that the conference may be finished and the delegates safely away before conditions here become seriously unsettled.”
h e question arises, “Can youth be reached today through evangelism?” The answer is that they are being reached, and that more of them could be reached if the gospel were preached to them fearlessly and fully. The youth of the world do not want to be flattered and catered to. They want the truth as it is in Christ. They really want to know how to be saved, and what the Bible teaches about the walk of the believer. Instructed, they will meet the challenge. It is true that young people will not accept a thing as true just because some one says it is. They want to know the why and the wherefore. Those who know Christ and are willing to take time to interest and deal with the youth of today will find that they can be won. The old-time gos pel is still “the power of God unto salvation to*fevery one that believeth.” Are young people themselves evangelistic? We be lieve that more young people are giving all of their spare time to the service of Christ and the church than at any time since the founding of the Christian church. P urposeful Y outh Last year, at the World’s Christian Endeavor Conven tion in Berlin, Germany, forty-two nations were repre sented, and the burden of the messages was that the only hope of the world lay in winning the youth of the world to Christ. At the International Convention held in San Fran cisco, Calif., in July of this year, there were 8,000 delegates present, representing every state in the Union. With such slogans as “Crusade for Christ”,and “For Christ and the Church,” these young people set as their goal the winning of a million other young people to Jesus Christ within the next two years. They voted also to increase the number of quiet hour comrades, tithers, and students of the life of Christ and missions. In this so-called jazz age, we hear of the terrible wick edness among young people. True, there is depravity, but young people are more sinned against than sinning. Many of them, raised in godless homes without the opportunity to know Christ, have not had a fair chance. In Sunday- school (if they went at all), they were perhaps taught cer tain morals; and, if they attended church, the formal ser vice or the message on social reform or general religion failed to interest them sufficiently to grip and hold them, and they drifted away without ever being brought face to face with their individual need of Jesus Christ. M odern P roblems R equire S pecialization The cry goes up, “Youth are different today.” In what way are they different ? They are boys and girls as others have been, descendants of Adam. They have the same natures. They hate. They love. They have doubts and fears, hopes and aspirations. They need saving just as much as any generation ever did. And they are just as worth while. The difference is in the times in which we live. If other generations had known the same problems, they would have been just as prone to go astray. *Los Angeles County Field Secretary of Christian Endeavor.
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