Education For Young Generations in The Church

2016

Moloney (1993) says “two thousand years ago in Israel, the man who is God incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, led his followers into a life-giving relationship with himself and his divine Father, and was executed for being a revolutionary. Raised from the dead, he charged his followers to make disciples throughout the world, promising that he would be with them and equip them for their missions with his Holy Spirit”. The New Testament presents the essential witness and teaching of Jesus’ first emissaries, the Apostles, who proclaimed his truth with his authority. The faith of Christians today, as in every age, is shaped and defined by this apostolic account of Jesus Christ. According to the speech delivered by Pope John Paul (2000) he said that, “within a century of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Christian congregations could be found from Spain to Persia, and from North Africa to Britain. By this time, the catechumenate for would-be Christians (from the Greek katecheo: “to instruct” – a period of 1-3 years’ instruction leading to baptism at Easter) had become an established Christian practice. This pattern of Christian disciple-making continued for some centuries before falling into disuse, as nominal Christianity increasingly became a universal aspect of Western culture. The Reformation era saw a vigorous renewal of catechesis (instruction within the catechumenate) for both adults and children among both Protestants and Roman Catholics. But catechesis has been in serious decline since the eighteenth century, and much of the discipline of discipling has been abandoned altogether in today’s churches. The catechism (a text used for instruction of Christian disciples) is designed as a resource manual for the renewal of Anglican catechetical practice. It presents the essential building blocks of classic catechetical instruction: the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments (the Decalogue). To these is added an initial section especially intended for those with no prior knowledge of the Gospel. Each section is presented in a question-and-answer form that became standard in the sixteenth-century because of its proven effectiveness. Each section is also set out with its practical implications, together with biblical references and also includes teaching notes for catechists (instructors). The catechism attempts to be a missional means by which God may bring about both conversion to Christ and formation in Christ. This vision of comprehensive usefulness has been before the minds of the Church Fathers and the Liturgist. In one respect, this catechism breaks new ground for Anglicans. The historic Catechism in the English Book of Common Prayer is brief, and specifically designed to prepare young people for confirmation and church membership. However, the project work was intended to research into the impact of the catechetical lessons on the participation of the youth in the life of the Church.

Diligentia: Journal of Theology and Christian Education, 2022

This study aims to see to what extent the church has an interest in building a youth community through discipleship. The method used in this research is descriptive research method. Collecting data by distributing questionnaires and making descriptions, descriptions in a systematic, factual, and accurate way about the facts, characteristics, and relationships between the phenomena being investigated. Based on the findings of the questionnaire distributed through google form, about the church's interest in building youth communities through discipleship: 1) not all churches have an interest in discipleship, 2) lack of leaders, affects the church's interest in making discipleship programs, 3) lack of discipleship materials affect the implementation discipleship, 4) the limitations of the leader to convey discipleship materials creatively and not monotonously.

Proceedings of the 6th Batusangkar International Conference, BIC 2021, 11 - 12 October, 2021, Batusangkar-West Sumatra, Indonesia, 2022

The church has a responsibility to humans (congregation) spiritually and physically. Ideally, the church is an educational center for the community because the church teaches, fosters, and assists the assembly from birth to the elderly (from children to the elderly). This discussion provides an understanding that Christian religious education in the church is the center of education for the congregation. This study uses a literature review method, namely the data obtained from theories in various journals and books related to this discussion. This study aims to provide an understanding and awareness to the church that the church in carrying out its role is not just lecturing on Sundays. Still, there must be a program that must be implemented to form the congregation spiritually and physically. The church teaches, educates, and accompanies the congregation for spiritual life; it is also crucial for physical energy.

2017

Time and again, the phrase ‘The youth are our future church has been in the air across the universe. As perceived, this is an encouragement and hope statement for the youth in churches but on honest grounds, a lot of hidden unintended consequences and hidden meaning is wrapped in the same package with this phrase. This may be interpreted to mean that the present matters less. In essence, it is not within the ability of the adolescents to envision themselves as grownups as it appears to them that that the perception of time as compared to age is two worlds apart. For illustration, a ten years old adolescent considers ten years as a lifetime and to them, a vague context is registered on the future concept which means an indefinite time length. Therefore, when church leaders say that the youths are the future, they are failing to stamp a reference point as to when the future will become a reality in the present. This therefore leaves the youths at crossroads as to what their present ro...

American Journal of Arts and Human Science

The purpose of this study is to discover how spiritual formation in Bocaue transforms the lives of the youth and how it strengthens their faith in God. Anchored in this study are John Fisher’s Four Domains of Spirituality, Health, and Well-Being and Soren Kierkegaard’s Three Stages of Life. The study was qualitative-phenomenological research with semi-structured interviews and purposive sampling. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and significant statements were chosen. These were categorized into theme clusters in order to get the emergent themes. The emergent themes reflected in the interviews were: Assimilation of Spiritual Formation, Justification of Spiritual Engagement, Before-and-After of Spiritual Engagement, and the Experiences in the Youth Ministry. The significant statements were carefully analyzed and categorized into themes. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) The youth sees the youth ministry and the spiritual formation as a platform for them to change for ...

The paper examines the formation of youth Christian communities in the light of John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles laici (61). The document calls for the adequate formation of the people of God in specific, the laity or non-ordained in the missionary evangelization of the Church, that is, the life and mission of the Church and society. Of this group is the youth, a significant portion of the people of God. The paper aims to suggest a model of the basic Christian community known in Ibadan as Renew Process in the solid formation of the youth as a new way of being Church, both for the spiritual growth of the youth themselves as well as the network of communities in which the live. The Pastoral Spiral Circle theological method of analysis was used. Findings reveal the pivotal role of the priest in the revival of this new way of being Church, noting that if the zeal of the priest turns to apathy, little can be achieved. Another finding shows that the laity are ever ready to assist the clergy in a collaborative way in carrying out this mission. In all of this, the absence of Youth section of the Renew Process as Basic Christian Community. Results show that the work of evangelization is a collaborative effort in a co-responsible way. There is the need to form youth members of the renew process as BCC. One element of Christian formation is financial resource, which requires a rethink. The paper ends by calling for a renewed appreciation of the youth as an indelible invaluable group in carrying out missionary evangelization. In so doing, they need to be empowered spiritually with the skills necessary to not only cooperate but also become active agents of spiritual transformation of their peers and their society.

IJMRAP, 2024

The researcher's motivation for writing this paper stemmed from her observation of the current state of youth involvement in the church. Recognizing the need for action, they aim to encourage greater participation among young members to foster more active engagement within the church community. The researcher employed a descriptivequalitative study design. The respondents were 8 youths and 8 parents. The researcher designed the interview guide questionnaire, had experts validate and approve it, and conducted face-to-face interviews using gadgets to record the interviewee's responses. This study aimed to describe the youth's role and impact in their local church in Masiag Bagumbayan Sultan Kudarat. The church community views youth's roles in Our Lady of Guadalupe Masiag Parish as multifaceted. They see themselves as servers, attending to the needs of others and the Church community; helpers, providing assistance and support; role models, embodying the values and principles of their faith; supporters, offering encouragement and assistance; teachers, sharing their knowledge and understanding of faith; servants, serving others; and participants, engaging in various Church activities. Furthermore, the impact of youth involvement in the church influences both the youth themselves and the church community, contributing to their empowerment and engagement. The researcher acknowledged the significant role and impact of youth in the church. While many youths are actively involved in both internal and external church activities, a limited number of members participate in various ministries and attend regularly. The results of this study suggest the following recommendations, utilizing the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework: The study recommends empowering the youth through a) youth leadership development and b) community service programs.

2014

Mentoring as a supportive pedagogy in theological training This article contends that theological training supported by effective mentoring can contribute to the shaping of theology students in terms of their spiritual growth, character development and ministry formation. It is further argued that mentoring as a supportive pedagogy needs to be an essential element of theological education. Subsequently, guidelines for making mentoring an effective pedagogy in theological training are proposed. A lot has been written about mentoring; however this article focuses on the use of mentoring as a supportive pedagogy in denominational seminaries as a means of fostering the holistic development of theology students.