Determining Youth Involvement in Rwanda Pentecostal Church Activities with Reference to Tyazo Parish ()
1. Background
Young people are increasingly identifying as “spiritual, but not religious”. In the literature, religion is increasingly conceptualized as an organized socio-cultural-historical system, and spirituality as an individual’s personal quest for meaning, satisfaction, and wisdom. For instance, a widely used definition of religion is: … an organized system of beliefs, practices, rituals, and symbols that serve: 1) to facilitate individuals’ closeness to the sacred or transcendent other (i.e., God, higher power, ultimate truth) and 2) to bring about an understanding of an individual’s relationship and responsibility to others living together in community (Koenig et al., 2001: p. 18). From this perspective, religiousness refers to the extent to which an individual has a relationship with a particular institutionalized religion’s approach to ultimate reality. This relationship occurs through affiliation with an organized religion, participation in its prescribed rituals and practices, and reflection or embrace of its espoused beliefs. Religious development would then entail the qualitative change and growth in the engagement and in understanding of the religious community and its rituals, creeds, sacred texts, and beliefs.
In contrast, Koenig et al. (2001) defined spirituality as “a personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life, about meaning, and about relationship to the sacred or transcendent, which may (or may not) lead to or arise from the development of religious rituals and the formation of community” (p. 18). This conception aligns with the view of personal religiousness or spirituality as a “search for the sacred” in which the sacred is an individual’s concept of God, the divine, and transcendent reality, as well as other aspects of life that take on divine character or are imbued with divine-like qualities, such as transcendence, immanence, boundlessness, and intimacy (Pargament et al., 2013). It is also consistent with definitions from the field of youth development that emphasize a capacity for self-transcendence and goals of awareness, connectedness, meaning, purpose, and contribution (Benson et al., 2012; Good, Willoughby, & Busseri, 2011).
Religious involvement or religiosity refers to the degree of participation in or adherence to the beliefs and practices of an organized religion. Spirituality is from the Latin spiritualitas, which means “breath” (Ellison, 1991). It is a broader concept than religion and is primarily a dynamic, personal, and experiential process. Features of spirituality include quest for meaning and purpose, transcendence (i.e., the sense that being human is more than simple material existence), connectedness (e.g., with others, nature, or the divine), and values (e.g., love, compassion, and justice) (Emblen, 1992).
The mission of the Youth Ministry within the church is to establish a foundation for building Christian character, morals, values and behaviors in young people by using creative and innovative methods to excite, inspire, capture and ignite young people.
Youth presence ministries are dedicated to helping congregations, dioceses and other groups create dynamic youth presence that changes the lives of the young people and transforms the congregations. Youth Dynamics is reliant on partnerships with churches of multiple denominations to live out our vision and mission. Youth dynamic ministries seek to glorify God through worship services, music, dance, and prayer, preaching and teaching.
Teenagers need to understand and be motivated to support the Cooperative Program.
Meeting people where they are, leading them where God calls them to be.
A youth organization is dedicated to helping the local church evangelize and disciple youth.
The Christian churches seeks to provide opportunities for young people to come together, outside of church services, for activities, prayer, worship, devotions, and for times to interact and grow in their relationships with Christ. It is believed that our church is only as strong as our families are strong.
Youth Ministries provide programs, curriculum, materials, and training designed to bring children and youth into a living, dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ. Their mission is to empower and ensure the natural and spiritual development of young people through innovative ministry for growing dynamic Christians.
They combine biblical truth with the most practical and interactive faith applications for everyday living. Parish youth ministries enticed teenagers to attend by promising them service hours as part of their preparation for Confirmation.
The Youth ministry strives to foster confidence in Christ by empowering youths to: Celebrate uniqueness; practice spiritual discipline; develop humility; embrace mentorship; and equipping them to cultivate biblically based knowledge; and embody our tradition.
To be a success in youth ministry, the youth pastor must have the right goals and objectives. Goals tend to be immediate or short term. Objectives tend to be more long term and permanent and if he meets them, he is successful. The goals and objectives should be the underlying thought behind every aspect of his ministry. General goals may be stated in these terms: to present the plan of salvation; to nurture teens in spiritual growth; to develop leadership skills; to encourage witnessing and outreach; to develop positive Christian personalities and give direction in a Christian context to guide in the choice of future vocation; to instruct in personal Bible study methods (Fem Robert, 1972: p. 4).
The young person, who is gaining more and more independence, must be prepared to be responsibly dependent on God and His Word. Young people need to realize the important place, meditation on the Word of God in the light of Christian life. Leaders must lead youth to develop and sharpen their study skills and to find satisfaction through personal discoveries in God’s Word (Zuck & Benson, 1978). Youth need help in understanding the legitimate functions of reason and to develop discrimination in understanding the pronouncements of churches, theologians, ministers, and teachers. Youth should be encouraged to dedicate their minds to their Lord as fully as they dedicate their other talents and energies (Zuck & Benson, 1978).
Perhaps the greatest picture we have of the desired result of a healthy and effective youth ministry is the one given to us in the Gospel of Luke when describing Jesus as a young teenager. Luke 2: 42 states that when Jesus was 12 years old he went to the Temple in Jerusalem with his parents. While this is not intended to be a discussion on Christology, the reality is that Jesus did grow from a natural baby to a young adult. During this time he began to encounter the challenges all teenagers face: obedience to parents, developing a self-identity, puberty, and relationships with others and with God.
Jesus was fully God and added to himself humanity, so it must have amazed the teachers of the Law to be conversing with a normal looking twelve year old boy. Others were amazed as well with his answers as he gathered a crowd around him (Luke 2: 47). The holistic growth objectives Jesus demonstrated give all youth workers targets to aim for.
The Gospel biographies are filled with stories of Jesus breaking down cultural barriers showing love to Gentiles, the outcast, to women and children. Jesus was bombarded with requests for help and he was known for his sacrificial love given to all. The teenage years are very egocentric and one of the greatest challenges for all youth workers is to turn an adolescent’s attention outward to the needs of others. Jesus modeled what a life growing in healthy relationships looked like. It was a life of vulnerability and interdependence. Jesus never formed an exclusive clique but did give greater attention to a smaller circle for both support and mentoring. Jesus’ stature with God was recognized at his baptism as the Heavenly Father’s voice boomed his approval and love (Luke 3: 22). Too often this is the only focus youth workers have: developing students’ spiritual life. While this is foundational, it is not the only aspect of a students’ development we must invest in. God made us physical, intellectual, emotional, relational and spiritual beings, and the youth worker would benefit all involved if he or she considered how to add knowledge in all these arenas.
The declining number of young people is general tendency in the Church. The birthrate has gradually decreased and many young people left their church. A church without an understanding of their culture and the current of the times, and with a reputation of being alive is dead, will lose them, and they will never return to the church.
The following four approaches with a vision for the entire church present alternative plans for youth ministry. Each one of these approaches will support and assist the church with problems with its youth ministry, to put their youth ministry on track again. The inclusive congregational approach integrates youth into the Christian community, the missional approach as a mission, the preparatory approach propose a specialized ministry to adolescents that prepares them to participate in the life of existing churches as leaders, disciples or evangelists, and the strategic approach prepares the youth to become a new church (Senter III, 2001: p. 15, 16).
2. Methods
Study design and area
From the below Table 1, it is evident that Pastors who were investigated are 3.17% of the whole sample while lay young people are 69.84%, and 26.99% of the sample were youth leaders. The researcher selected the population of Tyazo Parish on the basis that he has been attending church services there and was able to see the problems hindering youth from serving the church and the community.
Data collection
In this study, the instruments were divided into two parts. The researcher used interview guidelines and questionnaires as his instrument of study. The method that the researcher used was face-to-face conversation, note taking, participation observation, and comparative analysis. The tools were the New International Version, concordances, and Bible Dictionaries.
The research questionnaires and interviews guidelines were used to collect data from lay people and leaders respectively. The questionnaire was designed in Kinyarwanda language because most respondents are Kinyarwanda speakers and it was very easy for them to give their point of view. It was also translated in English for the work itself is in English.
The questionnaire was consisted by both close-ended questions as well as open-ended questions to minimize on the limitation of the researcher during the analysis of the questionnaires considering the respondents who wrote in Kinyarwanda. The researcher developed the questionnaires from materials gleaned from literature review in the view of the hypothesis.
The questionnaires were prepared considering the research questions on which the whole thesis is based. Oral interview was addressed to church members and leaders. This interview was conducted at different times based on the appointments with concern subjects.
The researcher preferred this technique to avoid wrong answers that can mislead the study. In fact, when we talk face-to-face, the subject can ask any question for clarification in order to give a true answer. Another reason is time management. The oral interview was conducted by a list of close-ended questions and open-ended questions for lay people and close-ended questions and open-ended questions for pastors and other church leaders. The obtained information was recorded and then, the answers were grouped according to their categories
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Table 1. Study population and sample size.
because some of the subjects can give the same answers. All the findings were presented qualitatively.
The data collection was done by referring to the data compiled by the Tyazo parish in annual report. The other process of collecting data was doing the one-on-one interviews with the local church leaders and lay people. At the very beginning of this research project, the researcher asked for the permission of the Executive Board of the Tyazo parish to use the annual reports as the basic data for this study and specifically focusing on the area of Church membership statistics to reflect the situation of Tyazo parish. The researcher further asked for permission of the Executive Board of the Tyazo parish to conduct a personal interview with the church leaders and lay people of Tyazo church. After receiving approval of the Executive Board, the researcher sent the consent letters to the church leaders, lay people within two weeks, and made the interview appointments with them.
Ethical considerations
Protecting the confidentiality of the participants was of importance in this study. Participants were assured of their anonymity when the researcher sought permission for their participation. He reassured the interviewees of this both before and after the interviews. He also assured the participants that he was the only one involved in analyzing the data, and their identities were not revealed in this study. He assigned the participants each a number and stored the transcripts in his computer with password protected. He was the only one who could access the computer. After the study was completed, he stored the data in a safe place with protection.
3. Results and Data Analysis
Microsoft Word carried out data processing and the results were analyzed by SPSS and Excel software. The table below summarizes the identification of respondents which include their age, church membership information, education and sex.
The below Table 2 shows that 75% of the respondents were aged between 18 - 27 while 25% of the respondents were aged between 28 - 35.
It was also disclosed from Table 2 that 68% of the participants were primary school leavers whereas 27% of them were secondary school leavers. Furthermore, 5% of the participants were university school holders. It is evident that the great majority of Tyazo parish has primary level of education whereas the minimum number of Tyazo youth has only university level.
It emerges from Table 2 that 51% of the participants were female whereas 49% were male. There is numerical gender inequality in Tyazo parish where women outnumber men.
Evangelistic activities of participants are represented in Table 3. Types of involvement levels like home and mass media were found at high level: 43% and 24% whereas pamphlets, street and Bible were found at 14%, 11% and 3% respectively.
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Table 2. Socio-demographics information.
Source: Field survey information.
Figure 1 shows that 46% of the respondents disagreed that youths of Tyazo Parish were supported to develop their own leadership skills whereas 43% of the respondents confirmed that youths were supported to develop their own leadership skills.
The remaining 11% of the respondents represented had no answer to the question.
Concerning youth engagement in decision-making within the church, 76% of the respondents rejected that youths were dynamically involved in decision making while 16% agreed with that statement. In addition, 8% of the respondents abstained.
The percentages of participants regarding praise and worship activities are represented in Table 4. The types of involvement level like music instruments, choirs and choruses leading were found at high level: 76%, 74% and 46% respectively while new hyms, worship and drama were found at 25%, 15% and 3% respectively.
4. Discussion
As the main objective of the study was to determine the extent to which young people were being dynamically involved in Tyazo church activities, the paragraphs below brief the discussion of the study about youth’s involvement in evangelistic, church leadership, and praise and worship activities.
Youths Involvement in Evangelism through Mass Media.
In Tyazo cycles, the results have depicted that youths are at low expectation included in evangelization through mass media. The youths are one of the populates that Jesus Christ commanded His disciples to reach out to.
Therefore, it is one of the duties of the gospel carriers to devise communicable means of reaching the youths wherever they are including the new media. Discussing on reaching out to the youths and what it entails, Werner opined:
“To reach the young generation with the liberating news of Jesus Christ, we need to go beyond our comfort zones to meet them where they are and accept them as they are. At the same time, we must be bold to engage the powers of darkness that try to destroy God’s purposes for the young generation. Mission to young people remains under the promise, which Jesus made to his followers: “I am with you always until the ends of the earth” (Werner, 2004: p. 46).
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Table 4. Praise and worship activities.
Santana discussing on the benefits of the new media evangelism said, “Video announcements for the youth group are more attention-getting and memorable than having a person read them aloud week after week. Besides their flashier nature, however, he says that video can help set the atmosphere before events of any mood. For example, prayerful, serene videos might help prepare minds and hearts for worship, while upbeat videos might excite them for group activities” (Santana, 2010: p. 21).
In addition, to stress the importance of actively engaging the youth with new media evangelism Obiano opined, “But even so, this is not enough, in view of the growing influence of the social media on the youths. What cannot be gainsaid is the fact that if the Church of Jesus Christ must retain a firm hold on the youths, we must all keep a date with them on the social media the new rendezvous” (Obiano, 2015).
Chainarong likened the social media as Areopagus as it is seen in Acts of the Apostles18:19ff. He then took the youths on social media as those who sat at Areopagus, hungry of new idea.
He said:
“If only to be able to reach our young people and an increasing percentage of people of all ages, we need to be present in this new Areopagus. Nowadays, people are spending huge and increasing proportions of their time in this virtual world. I believe many of us, if not all, keep our mobiles with us all the time. Many keep social networks open throughout the day in a distinct browser tab or app, so much that for them it is becoming increasingly the place where they live their lives.”
Those who have the responsibility of teaching young people must not ignore the impact and influence of the new media on the lives of the young. The involvement of the Church may eventually be the last and best opportunity for them to learn how to evaluate the quality of the information they find there. Educators, both secular and religious, need to play more active roles in the activities of young people online, to serve as guides and content providers for the young (Dankasa24). Therefore, one should be ready to meet what may not go down well with him or her while assessing the new media.
However, it could be managed as one considers this:
“Unfortunately the Internet doers have a bad press viruses, pornography, and child grooming in chartrooms, to name just a few of its horror stories. These are indeed very real and frightening issues and it is important to bear in mind that many people in the congregation will need reassurance that the Internet can be used for good, and indeed for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.” (Jewell, 2004: p. 81)
In Nigeria, more and more young people are turning to the internet to find personal, social and religious information and ecclesiastical institutions are devoting more and more resources to improving their presence on the web. In a world where every day we become more interconnected, the global visibility of churches is clearly linked to their commitment to the worldwide web.
Virtual learning programs and open access initiatives allow Bible knowledge to spread beyond physical boundaries, thus, enhancing the church’s important role in raising new generation of leaders with character (Bolu, 2011: p. 86).
It is worthy of note that the youths need well-educated instructors to handle them in evangelism. This education goes beyond initial mode of evangelism to the areas of new media evangelism. On the need to train trainers of the youths for effective youth evangelism Werner wrote:
Youth workers must become more educated and aware of the specific media influences, which affect their young people and how young people are processing those influences. Youth ministries should provide youth with tools to discern the messages they receive from popular culture and media.
Finally, youth workers should develop programs that interface with pop culture and media, and use current songs, video clips, etc. as teaching tools (Werner, 2004: p. 25).
Still on the training the trainers, the training should move to the point of educating the youths to becoming disciples who will be able to convert and disciple other youths and not mere converts with no knowledge of converting other. In line with this idea, Werner opined:
The church must begin to see youth not only as recipients of ministry but also as agents of ministry. Jesus did not commission us to make converts, but disciples. Thus, our goal is not just to evangelize youth, but also to equip them and send them out as “indigenous” evangelists to their peers. The existence of a global youth culture means that youth across the world share a common base of knowledge of music and media, clothes and other artifacts, values, ideas, behavior and even elements of language. The most strategic thing the church can do to reach the youth generation is to equip those who already believe as youth-evangelists who can start a chain-reaction of evangelism among their peers! (Werner, 2004: p. 54)
Consequently, as the new media is seen as opportunity for the propagation of the gospel, steps should equally been devised on how to overcome some of the negative effects it pose to the future of the youths who are the future leaders of the church.
From the above discussion of the researcher, it could be deduced that, education is a very important tool towards running a youth evangelism that would make notable mark.
Youths’ Involvement in Street and Home Evangelism.
Through this study, the outcomes were that Tyazo youths were not engaged in street and home evangelism.
Street evangelism is a grassroots, non-profit ministry, dedicated to responding to the mandate of Jesus to preach the Gospel to all nations by taking the Christian faith to the streets. Christ’s call to evangelize was made to every Christian, and the Christian church reiterates this need, urging each of the baptized to bring the gospel, found fully in the Christian Church, to a culture that has largely reverted to paganism. Street evangelization provides an avenue for people to share the person of Jesus Christ and the truth and beauty of the Christian faith with a hungry culture. Street evangelization provides the tools and resources for Christians to engage the culture in a simple, non-confrontational method of evangelization which involves making themselves available to the public to answer questions about the faith and to pray with those who request it (https://streetevangelization.com/about/).
Since thieves, prostitutes, drunkards, killers, immoralists, etc are found in all corners of the world including streets, hospitals, marketplaces, homes, and schools; therefore youths of Tyazo Parish must be equipped for outreach.
Youth Involvement in Leadership.
The important lesson for adults is to never give up providing leadership opportunities for young people. Youths become competent leaders when they are first helped to develop their own leadership skills and also when they are allowed to take decisions on church issues.
Seven principles speak directly to involving youth in leadership positions are: first Youth develop positive relationships with adults and peers, second Youth are physically and emotionally safe, third Youth are actively engaged in their own development, fourth Youth are considered participants rather than recipients in the learning process; fifth Youth develop skills that help them succeed, sixth youth recognize, understand and appreciate multiculturalism, and seventh Youth grow and contribute as active citizens through service and leadership.
Tyazo church must help to develop tomorrow’s engaged agents of positive change by providing youth with the knowledge and skills to become leaders in today’s multicultural world along with a commitment to civic service and responsibility. Through experiences and trainings that teach youth how to run a meeting, deal with conflict, understand and influence public policy processes, work collaboratively with people of various leadership styles and personalities (Michigan State University Extension. Retrieved from https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/youth_in_leadership_roleson, November 30th, 2021).
Youth engagement in Worship through learning and playing musical Instruments and Drama.
Throughout this study, it was obvious that Tyazo youths are involved in playing musical instruments. Unfortunately, Tyazo youth were not engaged in drama ministries.
Rachel Gonzalez opined that:
Learning music helps young people think both creatively and analytically, which helps develop both sides of the brain and broadens the possibilities of other subjects they can learn about. Being in an ensemble teaches young people how to work with others and see their part in the bigger picture, which will benefit them in group projects in school and then later in the workplace. Music also encourages creative problem solving, appreciation of art and history, emotional maturity, and the development of fine-motor skills. Put these benefits in a biblical context, and music can be a powerful tool in young people’s spiritual growth by helping them learn how music can point people to the Gospel (Gonzalez, 2017).
Young people feed off one another. If they’re surrounded by others like them, they will have fun regardless of the circumstances. Give them instruments or a song to sing, and they’ll run rampant. Then it is just a matter of corralling them and helping them focus on the music.
Another option is to pair each young musician with an older musician. This gives young people someone to not only learn from but also look up to and grow through spiritually. Having a mentor at church is a good way for young people to learn about and apply their faith in their lives. With the support of parents in your congregation, you can help young people thrive in musical environments at church (Gonzalez, 2017. Involving Youth in Church Music. https://blog.cph.org/worship/involving-youth-in-church-music, November 30th, 2021).
Regarding Tyazo youth involvement in drama ministries, it was evident that this ministry seems to be absent in Tyazo parish. Even though it is like that, drama is a very powerful ministry tool.
In Ezekiel, drama is used as a tool to communicate God’s message. God is the writer and the casting director. He instructed Ezekiel to build a set.
The scene told a story that captivated the audience, making it possible for Ezekiel to deliver a powerful message from God.
This can be said to be the birth of drama ministry. This scene in Ezekiel brings to mind a quote by shake spare “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely player”.
In the New Testament, we see the example of Jesus. He adopted the method of storytelling in communicating with his audience. Mathew 13: 34 “Jesus always used stories and illustrations like these when speaking to the crowds. In fact he never spoke to them without using such parables.” I cannot imagine Jesus telling a boring story. He would have livened up his stories with different gestures, facial expressions, and voice tones. He may even have asked someone in the audience to act as a character in his illustrations as he did with child in Luke 9: 46-48 “… so he brought a child to his side. Then he said to them, anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my side…” This is drama.
God chose to communicate through arts and drama. This clearly shows that Christian drama, as a ministry is important.
We are genetically compelled to love stories. Thus a very good way of captivating our attention is by telling a story. Once the preacher has the attention of his audience he can impact them with a very a powerful word from the Lord.
We remember plays or movies we saw many years ago, especially the very good ones. We have the tendency to recall pictures and images or things that we see and hear together. So if a message is communicated via drama we will remember it.
When a sermon gets too long, the tendency is that the audience will lose concentration. The hour-long lecture style usually works best with the young students. Not very many people can take in a one-way stream of information for long. However if the Preacher includes stories or drama in his sermon, he will mostly certainly retain the full attention of his audience.
Drama can be used to meet people, especially unbelievers, on their ground as encouraged by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9: 19-23; “Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some” (https://www.sunrisemagazine.org/blog/post.php?s=2016-06-07-the-importance-of-christian-drama-as-a-ministry, retrieved 30th Nov. 2021).
In general, the value of drama for the church is that it brings people, people of all ages, into the life of the church. Like other group activities, the fun of putting on a play derives from fellowship, from working and playing with others. When the play being produced has religious meaning, the process of production is an edifying one; as the players probe more deeply into the play they gain a deeper understanding of its meaning. Play production also gives people whose special talents lie in the speech and theatre arts an opportunity to make an offering of their gifts to God and to the community. If we take these general values apart and look at the nature of dramatic art itself, we see that:
First, as a collective art, drama can involve more people in the essential mission of the Christian church, the preaching of God’s Word and the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ. When dramatic art is integrated into a service, the performers take essential parts in the Church’s most definitive practice, the worship of God. The drama brings people to the heart of the church.
Second, as a visual art, drama can connect with our contemporary culture that privileges the visual above the verbal. We have become so used to watching television, films, and streaming video that listening to the spoken word takes extra work; work that many people are unwilling or unable to undertake in the course of a weekly hour or so of worship. For this reason, drama may be a more familiar and thus more effective form of communication to some people in the pews than single voiced preaching.
Third, as a collaborative art, drama can draw performers and other artists together into groups of mutual support as they work together to achieve their objectives of creative communication. Through the grace of God, support becomes friendship and friendship becomes love in the name of Christ.
Fourth, as an art in service to the liturgy, drama can offer performers the opportunity to serve God and God’s people, the church. Actors, directors, and playwrights join musicians and visual artists in answering this call to put their particular talent, skills, imagination, and their joyful self-expression in the service of something greater than themselves.
Drama can be used to affect the church and the world for Christ. Therefore, Christians and churches are encouraged to be involved in drama ministries.
Reasons for doing drama for the church are plentiful; resources are comparatively undeveloped. This researcher says “undeveloped”, because he believes that there are such resources in every congregation awaiting the right person to discover, invite, and build them up into a God-pleasing form.
The discussion above show that publication done have similarities to the current study and some contribution look the same. Therefore this study could strengthen the others for the best improvement.
5. Conclusion
By analyzing the result from the respondent, it is concluded that the involvement of youth in Tyazo praise and worship activities is at middle level.
Even though the research partners acknowledged that involving actively young people in evangelistic activities, church leadership, and praise and worship activities brings about church future prosperity and success, interviewed persons agreed that young people were not given privilege to carry out these noble tasks. The observations made revealed the following apparent issues in Tyazo parish. They are namely: lack of youth representation in church administrative board; deacons keep on serving the church at their age of retirement; preaching ministry is centered on pastors, catechists, and old deacons who are taken as experienced in church affairs; absence of evangelistic ministries for outsiders; lack of effective worship team in Tyazo local church.
The goal of youth dynamic involvement in the local church activities should be participation as part of building up the local church; all the goals for growth in the local church must include and concern their youth group as an integral part of the body of the Christian community. Youth dynamic involvement depends on good church leaders, because youth followed their leaders. Youth leaders should have a bird’s-eye view. It means that there should be an inclusive and comprehensive insight in young people.
Without it, the youth will miss as a part of the body of the Christ. The youth leader should be a servant leader like Jesus, who did not come to be served, but to serve (Mark 10: 45). As he served us, we have to serve the youth, because ministry means service.
According to Ephesians 4: 11-13, the body of Christ may be built up when God’s people are equipped and trained for works of service. Youth are part of the congregation in the local church. In other words, the church must incorporate their youth into every part of the ministry. Therefore, it is necessary to youth workers to learn more about the youth and to be aware of their developmental needs. Youth workers must know the different theories on child development to understand and teach the youth effectively. Youth workers need to work with parents of the youth, because family ministry focuses on strong religious education and connecting the generations. When youth workers understand the world of the youth and the challenges facing young people today, they can be more effective in reaching and ministering to them to build up the local church.
Acknowledgements
We extend our gratitude to Hope Africa University which allowed us to access their Theological library for carrying effectively this article. Special thanks to Rwanda Pentecostal church-ADEPR which accepted to work with us by giving us the crucial information for constructing effectively our article. Our thanks are particularly addressed to Dr. NIKOBARI Simeon who helped through providing ideas and orientation while writing this article.
Author Details
Hope Africa University for Theological Research, P.O. Box 238 Bujumbura-Burundi.
Abbreviations
A: Agree, ADEPR: Association Des Eglises de Pentecôte du Rwanda, D: Disagree, DNK: Do Not Know, DP: Displaced Persons, RPHC4: Fourth Rwanda Population and Housing Census, SA: Strongly Agree, SD: Strongly Disagree.