Journal 03: When You Do Not Nurture Kids, You Got No Future
I was lucky to visit several churches in my existence. I
have learned a lot from them. But the most significant one was from my
partner’s home church. Ever since Richard understood his faith, he stayed in that
church for a long time now. It’s located in his hometown so he barely visits
it.
At first, I was overwhelmed by how they welcome visitors
coming from the city. I, for instance, was from the city when I first visited
their church and to be honest, their hospitality cannot be argued. They really
made you feel welcome and even offers the place as your second home.
Richard was made mature in that church not only by his age
but also by his faith. He’s a musician there and plays the guitar well. There are also other musicians who are about his age and few ahead of him. Now that
he becomes busy with city life and work life he barely visits the place. Same
thing goes to other musicians who have grown up and started to experience adulthood.
In short, we only got to visit it whenever there are special
occasions and when we need something to be done in their locality. As the years
passes by, I’ve seen how that church has changed over the years. I see new
people and even few rules and regulations have been altered. The church
practice schedule for example, has become movable depending on the availability
of the people in charge.
The most alarming thing is that people who are part of
praise and worship team are still the same people I knew 5 to 6 years ago. No
new person was added and most are no longer available. In all honesty, I was
expecting new faces in the frontlines of every church service. I simply believe
that an addition to the team is a sign of growth and progress.
I’ve learned that few young people were truly interested in
learning musical instruments but none of them continued to be serious in
entering God’s army. That’s when I started to analyze other factors. I started
to ask myself, why do young people don’t pursue learning and be trained in
God’s ministry? The answer was simple:
Learning something takes time and a lot of effort especially
if it’s a skill that requires understanding and practice. Mastering is another
one. Not everyone has the patience to train new people and sadly, I’ve seen it
in that church. They may encourage kids to try something new or learn new
things but that’s not enough because their patience defeats everything. If people
around you lacks patience in your skills or talents, you won’t get positive
results. No wonder kids dry out the passion to learn.
This serves as a reminder to everyone who only accepts
people or things that are nearly perfect or polished with their skills. It may
sound perfectly right to collect and welcome the skilled ones than those who
are newbies. But at the end of the day, those skilled people will always go
back to where they started.
Show patience to youngsters’ talents and passions. After
all, talents are not developed overnight. When you do this, you won’t only see
their growth but you’ll also the growth of the team or organization they are
in.