Chapter 9 - Evangelising Youth: A Singapore Story

Rev Kong Hee is popularly known as the evergreen youth pastor of Singapore. Leading a mega church of more than 23,000 at the time of this writing, he is passionate in reaching the youth for Jesus. Just enter his church website, you will discover all form of outreach strategies. Through community services, sports, singing, dancing, studying - you name it they have it. Every domain there is to reach the youth, they are there excelling in almost all of them.

But this is not how the story began in Singapore. Youth work came through different agencies in the 1950s-70s - Youth for Christ, Boys' and Girls' Brigade, Navigators, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christian Fellowship, etc. These agencies went for the youth market via the institution route. We saw many fruits through these ministries. In fact many of the church leaders in Singapore today are the fruits of these ministries.

All these work climaxed at the late 80’s . Then came the mega churches which went into these institutions with their own campus and school ministries. Conflicts were real whereby members of the agencies had to take sides, i.e. whether to stay in their local church or leave so as to stay in these agencies.

Things improved with the Love Singapore Movement. Churches and parachurches came together for concerts of prayer and reconciliation. It was indeed a glorious time for youth work too. It was also during this period that churches were reminded to sow among the youth again. Rev Kong took hold of the call and went with it. The rest is history.

Looking forward, I believe more churches must plow more into youth work. We need more mega churches like City Harvest Church. Singapore could be reached in 1 day, if the youth is won!

(Thus, this little attempt of mine in penning down my memory and experiences in this e-book to encourage more youth workers to embrace the call.)

Photo taken from City Harvest Church website.

Chapter 8 - Parents and Youthworkers – Parentsconnnect

The BIGGER Picture.

In working with youth or children or any special people group, it is very likely that we could become very focus in developing our expertise. While this is a strength, it tends to limit us from multiplying the effects of our labour. We failed to see the whole picture.

I found that for change in the lives of the youth to be lasting, we need to consider the bigger environment and the other influences in their lives.

Thus the need to know the families, the parents, the schools.

Especially the family. I noticed the power of subtle conditioning in our family life. While we could vow not to behave like our parents, yet, we may soon discover that we have the very expression we don’t like. Thus, for effective youth ministry, we need to engage the parents of our youth. We see, hear and understand them. We may not be able to change the parents. But with the prior knowledge, it would help us to better influence and disciple our youth.

Chapter 7 - The challenging 20s, the restless 30s, the giving 40s, the covering of the 50/60s.

Working with young people is the same as working with other age group. We need to know their needs and style/culture so that we can be effective in discipling them.

I discovered that in each different age bracket, the person has different aspirations.

Questions asked:-
Can I love? 20-30
Can I make my life count? 30-50
Is it ok to have been me? >50

While these are the questions, the expressions are very different. The 20-30 would be the age group that expresses themselves by challenging the norms. They would express their value to us readily. Do not be fearful of these expressions. It is their way of finding and discovering themselves before they pour themselves into loving the things they question. This is the time to love them and affirm them of their identity in Christ.

30-40 While asking life purpose, they would be rather restless. The sense of restlessness comes from the “anxiety” to define life-meaning and purpose. As such, this is the time to challenge them to exercise faith, in venturing out, and in experimenting new ideas.
This is also known as the second-half for some people.

40-50 As they sailed through the turbulent 30-40, they have more or less sorted out their purpose. As such this is the good age group whereby life coaches appeared. These are the people who would like to give back to the next generation.

50-60 They know the influence they have over others. They do not have to run as fast as before. They would give by leveraging on relationships they have built over the years through their influence.