Recently at one of our youth meetings, I had a conversation with one of the youth leaders about the necessity of mass events that we are doing for our youth. By God's great mercy, we had such an event at the beginning of the year, «United Sport Tournament», which took place on March 13 and was attended by 20 churches. The guest speaker was Ben Ito.
Ben spoke on the theme of «He Preached the Gospel», which was the emphasis of this gathering. In our services, we are focusing not only on the Christians but also on those who are unbelievers. Thanks to the sports competitions in volleyball and soccer, we are able to attract unbelieving youth and preach the Word of God to them. In this comfortable atmosphere, they have an opportunity to be exposed to the lives of Christians and hear their testimonies.
It was interesting to observe from the side how unbelievers who do not belong to any of the churches, set aside everything and carefully listen to the words of the preacher and participate in worshipping God. Of course, we are always inviting everyone present to other youth activities when they could be exposed to the truth of the Gospel once again and come to God who offers salvation.
The second big youth event was the «United Worship Night» which took place on April 17 at Slavic Baptist Church. Vasiliy Stupin, the pastor of the Good News church, was preaching on the theme of Idolatry. The topic choice was not selected at random. Vasiliy Stupin shared how important it was for the youth to properly worship our Lord, and that worshipping God includes not only church attendance and belonging to a Christian family. The Lord must always be at the center of our lives, have all of our attention and lives. Using the life of Solomon as an example, Vasiliy Stupin shared about what could happen in our lives if they are not structured around the right priorities, and our attention is shifted to something or someone else but is not focused on the Lord and our obedience to Him.
«United Worship Night» - is another reason to gather together, to worship our Lord through singing, to be filled by the pure Word of the Gospel, to have mutual fellowship, and to pray. This was another reason to invite the unbelieving youth and to testify to them about their God. After the main service, Second Slavic Church prepared dinner, games, and fellowship which was the perfect setting to share our impressions, pray for the needs of others, and just to be together in this informal atmosphere.
I would like to return to the question stated at the beginning of the article about the importance of having such events. The youth leader who asked the question gave an answer to it himself. He said: «I get it! Before, we were seemingly on our own. However, after such events, I realized that the youth is getting recharged. We understand that we are not alone, and we are many. While repeatedly attending these events, we understand that we are growing closer together, we can encourage one another, and pray together. We understand that we have unity in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we continue praying for it as the Lord Jesus Christ once did».
Petr Makletsov,
Association's Youth Ministry Leader
