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.