Participants: Karen Thomas, Jason McCracken
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000059
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00:30 Welcome to Issues and Answers.
00:32 It's great to have you back join us 00:33 for another wonderful program. 00:35 Today our guest is Pastor Jason McCracken. 00:38 He is a marketing representative 00:41 with Review and Herald as well as a youth evangelist 00:45 and has done evangelism around the world 00:47 and he is fluent in many languages 00:50 Portuguese, Spanish, English you name it he can speak it 00:54 or at least give you a greeting. 00:55 As a matter of fact could you give us your famous greeting 00:57 that you do when you go places? 00:59 Well, I actually do 30 01:01 but maybe I can do a couple right now. 01:03 Okay. Okay. 01:04 From the Philippines is Magandang umaga po. 01:06 In fact, matter of fact, talk to that camera over there. 01:08 Okay. Yeah. 01:10 How about this one? 01:11 This is from Africa. 01:14 The other one is from Fiji, Bula vinaka. 01:19 How about this one from, all the way from-- 01:21 now this is a little difficult. 01:22 This one is French. 01:28 Now of course, I love Portuguese. 01:31 So this one's like this one. 01:39 That's great. 01:42 I'm sure people watching in those language 01:44 appreciate getting that nice greeting. 01:46 So tell me now what do-- we are gonna talk about today? 01:49 Today we're gonna talk about some issue of youth evangelism. 01:52 One of my concerns is that in small churches 01:56 we have a number of young people 01:58 and they are sitting there on the bench 02:00 doing nothing and they are saying 02:03 "How come I can't get involved in youth evangelism? 02:06 Do I have to be an adult to actually evangelize?" 02:10 And I'm saying no. 02:11 You can be a youth evangelists as early as 12 years old. 02:15 Jesus, at 12 was doing youth evangelism. 02:22 And so tell me what does the Bible 02:25 say about youth evangelism? 02:26 Well, the Bible is very-- 02:29 Jesus gave us some tremendous indications here 02:32 in Matthew Chapter 28 reading from verse 18 it says, 02:39 "And Jesus came and spake unto them, 02:41 saying, all power is given unto me 02:44 in heaven and in earth." 02:47 Verse 19, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 02:51 baptizing them in the name of the Father, 02:55 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost 02:57 teaching them to observe all things 03:01 whatsoever I have commanded you 03:05 and, lo I am with you always, 03:08 even unto the end of the world." 03:12 This is the commission that Jesus gave His disciples. 03:19 People do not understand that the disciples of Christ 03:23 were very much young in heart. 03:26 They were not old people of 100 years old 03:29 they were young and Jesus had to teach them 03:34 that they have to go into the world, 03:38 into the communities, into society 03:40 and preach the everlasting gospel. 03:42 Now why is that so important that a person 03:45 who believes in Christ actually has to go? 03:48 Because witness, when a person witness, 03:52 now we-- let's flip it around. 03:54 Jesus says to go. 03:56 Now when the person is going 03:59 which is that they are now going. 04:01 Now he has to witness. 04:05 Witness mean he is going to testify 04:08 or to be a witness of Christ 04:10 everything that Christ has taught him. 04:13 So now when the young person go into the society, 04:17 into their own community and talk to young people 04:20 who has no relationship with Christ or un-church 04:23 they are now going to witness about Christ 04:28 and sometimes that can be difficult 04:30 because young people just can't take a Bible to high school 04:34 but if they learn about what Jesus taught them 04:38 now they can go to school and they can talk about Christ. 04:44 That's Youth Evangelism. 04:47 And how do we get from the person 04:51 that sitting in their pew, 04:54 the young person and then getting them motivate, 04:57 are young people interested in this kind of thing at all? 05:00 Well, first of all-- Would you find? 05:02 First of all young people have to be taught how to witness. 05:07 I was talking to my daughter just the other day 05:09 and she's only 12 years old. 05:10 She is a little taller than I am and she's 12. 05:14 And recently we had death in our family 05:17 and of course, she understands death 05:20 through what we have taught her in the Bible. 05:22 But now she was witnessing about what happens, 05:26 she said I went to the casket 05:28 to say goodbye to my grandmother 05:31 and when I got back to my community 05:33 I told my friends about the funeral. 05:36 And I told them, I said, "My grandmother, 05:39 I watched my grandmother go down in the ground." 05:44 And I'm going to pray that when Jesus comes back 05:47 the second time and all of His glory 05:49 with millions of millions of angels 05:52 Jesus is gonna call her by her name 05:56 and she is going to be resurrected. 05:58 And so the kids were saying 06:00 "Well, ain't she dead or she in heaven?" 06:03 She said, "No, she's in the ground. 06:06 She is in the ground. 06:08 Do you hear what I say? She is in the ground." 06:11 And so they said, "Well, some people believe that 06:14 you know, there's this ghost," 06:15 she said "Look, Casper the friendly ghost 06:17 is only on television, you shouldn't be watching it." 06:21 And that's witnessing, it's natural, it's spontaneous. 06:25 It's not about sitting down with the Bible studying 06:27 and showing the Bible and pointing these things out, 06:29 so you ought to believe what the Bible says. 06:31 But there was something that she said in the home, 06:33 the mother was present, the daughter was present 06:36 and so is my daughter. 06:37 And she turned to the mother and said, 06:41 the mother said to her, 06:42 "Well, there are so many religions in the world," 06:46 and my daughter said, 06:48 "Don't worry about the religions in the world 06:51 just worry about what the Bible is saying." 06:54 That's beautiful. That's youth evangelism. 06:56 It's not a tip it's person to person 07:01 relating about Jesus and His life. 07:06 And you know what they said? They said, hey, that's cool. 07:10 Cool to know there is something at their fingertips. 07:11 That's right. 07:12 And she didn't take her Bible because it was her memory. 07:16 It was from an experience that she had recently 07:19 with the death of her grandmother. 07:22 So now obviously being the great father that you are 07:25 to have had this wonderful witnessing experience 07:28 that you are able to see your daughter in action 07:30 what kind of things would you do to prepare her 07:32 so that when she was in that situation she had an answer? 07:37 Well-- Or something to say. 07:38 We most adults would like to dialogue with their kids 07:42 and they think you have to be in a formal setting, 07:44 you have to be on a couch 07:46 and you have to wear shirt and tie and you open the Bible. 07:49 No, you can be outside on the port, 07:51 you can be in your car, you can be at a picnic aground, 07:55 you can be at a baseball field, 07:57 you can be in the backyard or even in your bathroom 08:00 while she is combing her hair, you can talk about Christ, 08:03 you can talk about the Bible 08:04 and remember young people are going through 08:06 difficulties in their lifestyle. 08:09 So you relate these difficulties in their lifestyle 08:12 and you talk about Jesus when He was a teenager. 08:16 People forget the Jesus was a teenager at one time. 08:19 He was that-- He was a baby. 08:21 He grew up to be a young man and also a teenager 08:25 and He had to wrestle against temptations 08:28 in His lifestyle, in His life time. 08:30 So well, what about us? 08:34 We did the same thing, so are young people 08:38 are children going through the same thing now 08:40 so we relate the simple things and correlate it to the Bible 08:44 and it makes it easier for them to go out and witness. 08:48 We don't tell them to go witness, 08:49 they do it spontaneously just say. 08:53 Oh, that sounds pretty easy. 08:57 Now, let me give you, let me share this to you. 08:59 Okay, all right. 09:00 Here we are at a small little church, okay, 09:03 and basically if you have a youth leader in your church, 09:06 a youth leader in your church, 09:08 that youth leader really needs to understand 09:10 what is youth evangelism. 09:11 That he or she needs to understand 09:14 the essence of youth evangelism 09:16 that why we should evangelize then open the Bible 09:20 and express that to the young people 09:21 and give them some creative ideas. 09:23 Let me give you a creative idea that we did in Brazil. 09:26 And they are still doing it now. 09:28 Mother's day will come up eventually 09:32 and so all the young people of course, 09:34 they are gonna give their mothers a little flower, 09:36 a little card or maybe sing to her. 09:39 What we did, we did a national project. 09:42 We started from the local church. 09:44 We said we are going to visit in all of Brazil 09:48 one million mothers on that Sunday. 09:52 Wow. 09:53 And so the young people said, 09:54 wow, we're gonna visit one million. 09:56 No, you're just gonna be a part of the hundreds of thousands 10:00 who will be going out knocking on doors 10:02 saying happy mothers day. 10:05 Well, how do we gonna do this? Very easy. 10:09 On mothers day we want you to get a t-shirt 10:12 that has something that reflects your church, 10:15 a symbol, Adventist youth. 10:17 We want you to go and get a rose or a flower. 10:21 We will provide you with a card, 10:24 a beautiful card, a national card, 10:26 it's the same exact card on billboards, 10:29 on the bus, on street signs 10:32 and you're gonna give that same card 10:34 even we will have a television spot created. 10:39 We will now teach you the song 10:41 that the name of the mother's day campaign was 10:46 That means we applaud you mothers. 10:49 And so Sunday morning there would knock on doors 10:53 and they would sing the song. 10:58 And they would go on and then they say. 11:04 And then would all clap. 11:08 And give her the flower, give her the card 11:09 and then invite her Sunday night at a school 11:13 at elementary or public school to this mother's day program 11:17 free of charge sponsored by the Adventist youth. 11:21 All the overwhelming response across the country 11:25 more than one million mothers were reached in one day. 11:29 Now, that's a simple project 11:30 that started from a little church 11:32 and expanded throughout the country. 11:34 Now what about that little tiny country church? 11:36 You don't have to go and do a national project 11:39 but you can do it locally. 11:41 You can take the same format 11:43 we're gonna buy some roses and some flowers 11:45 and we're gonna go and knock on doors 11:48 and we're gonna give them flowers 11:49 and a beautiful mother's day card 11:52 and we're gonna sing to them in English or Spanish 11:55 or Tagalog or Portuguese or whatever 11:58 and express your love for mothers 12:01 and then invite them to a mother's day program 12:04 that you're gonna put on in a high school. 12:07 So you don't have to have 12:09 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 60, 80, 90 people, 12:14 you can just have five young people 12:16 and a small little church 12:17 to do something nice for the community. 12:19 That's called youth evangelism. 12:22 Just getting the young people up and going. 12:25 Getting them involved. 12:26 Now in some places we have this gender, 12:31 I don't say gender but generation issues 12:34 where the people who are older 12:36 and they have more leisure times 12:37 some of them are retired or maybe not even those 12:41 that are retired those that are working 12:42 they really don't feel that they are ready 12:45 to give the young people that much the attitude? 12:51 How do you overcome that challenge? 12:53 Let's say you're in a small church 12:55 there are 50 people who come to church 12:59 more than half, 75% are old. 13:02 25% are between birth and maybe 15. 13:06 Now you don't need to ask permission to go out 13:09 and do community work, you just go. 13:12 Jesus said go. 13:14 He did not say you need to go to church board and say, 13:16 "I approve you to go and knocking on some doors 13:18 and telling a mother about mothers day." 13:23 What they have to do, the youth have to organize themselves 13:26 telling that we're gonna do something here in the community 13:28 and I know that they will get all the support. 13:32 Some of the older people might even give them 13:34 ideas and suggestions. 13:36 It's a collaborative world, we must work together 13:39 but the youth are the foot soldiers 13:41 because they have more energy than the adults. 13:44 So let them go out there and do the work. 13:49 Well, that sounds great. Give us another example. 13:51 Okay, sure. 13:52 Well, the Insight Magazine carries an issue, 13:56 a special issue once a year regarding youth evangelism. 14:00 Now this youth evangelism is very interesting 14:02 because this is called UW, ultimate workout. 14:07 Now they are actually going to use 14:09 their physical bodies work hard 14:13 but witness at the same time. 14:15 They had 163 students divided into five different projects, 14:22 ADRA projects and they went to Nicaragua overseas 14:25 and they built houses, churches, 14:29 schools and clinics within a two week period. 14:32 In the evening time they would have 14:35 some form of evangelistic program, 14:38 they would take their guitars, 14:39 they would song songs with the kids 14:41 because a lot of children would like to learn English, 14:43 especially in Spanish speaking countries. 14:45 So they like to learn English 14:46 so they were like to all those cute little songs in English 14:49 and those beautiful-- 14:51 and so the children are learning English, 14:55 learning about Christ in song 14:58 and then you would have one of the young person come up 15:01 and give his testimony about what the Lord has done for him. 15:04 Now the interesting thing about this Karen, 15:06 is that when they leave the shelter is still there, 15:09 it is a reminder, a constant reminder 15:13 what God has done through the young people 15:15 by building that particular church or school. 15:18 So every time they go to school, 15:20 every time they go to church, they will always 15:23 think of young people working for them. 15:28 You know, I am really excited about what you are saying. 15:31 I have seen a lot of really good projects 15:34 that have been going on with young people. 15:37 I'm wondering what would be like the next step 15:41 between maybe doing a project as a church 15:45 and then actually kind of growing beyond friendship 15:51 to active soul winning and guess it's-- 15:54 Okay, before I even get into that 15:57 I'm gonna share another testimony with you. 15:58 Oh, good. Okay. 15:59 Just a few weeks ago in West Virginia, 16:03 the Southern part of West Virginia 16:05 there were floods. 16:07 I mean, these floods were not two or three feet 16:09 15, 16, 17, 18 feet of water. 16:13 Just walls of water, just wiping out communities. 16:18 The young people of Heyward, South Marlene 16:21 got an urgent call from a member of a church, 16:24 he said, "Can you come and help? 16:26 We are old we can't pull up the carpet," 16:28 because after the floods recede they have to pull the carpets, 16:31 they have to pull everything out of the house 16:33 and they have to let it dry, 16:34 and they have to start building their lives all over again. 16:37 About 15 to 20 young people said, "Okay!" 16:41 In the congregation who's predominantly old, 16:44 they found 15 young person, they jumped in a van, 16:47 a couple of vans, they took a lot of medical supplies 16:50 and they were flying down to Western Virginia 16:52 and they stayed there 16:53 for approximately about five days. 16:57 And they worked, and worked, and worked 17:01 and a person who was un-churched, 17:04 who would never go to church, they worked on his house 17:07 and these kids were working hard 17:09 15, 16, 17 hours a day, 17:11 pulling out carpet and boards and taking furniture outside 17:16 so the military can actually carry it away. 17:19 And this man who was un-churched said, 17:23 "Why are these young people smiling? 17:25 We are the ones who are depressed, 17:27 we discouraged you." 17:28 But he said, "Every time I see them 17:30 I feel good about myself. 17:32 Who are these young people?" That's youth evangelism. 17:36 And then he said, "Where do they go to church?" 17:40 That's youth evangelism. 17:42 Now let's take another example of youth evangelism. 17:46 The young people in a small church 17:48 or a medium sized church in their community 17:50 might have a lot of young people. 17:51 They could gather seven different topics, 17:55 plan one week of youth evangelism. 17:59 Years ago they called it 18:00 the week of prayer, not anymore. 18:02 Youth evangelism or youth week or net or whatever 18:06 and from Sunday all the way through the next weekend, 18:10 they can have a youth speaker come in 18:12 and speak to the issues of young people. 18:16 So now the young people are witnessing 18:19 in church to their friends and the next day 18:23 as they talk to their friends about the sermon, 18:26 now they can witness spontaneously 18:29 and some of those young people need to go home 18:31 and read their Bibles again 18:32 because they've forgotten those important truths. 18:35 And says, "What is that again, 18:36 I've got to find out, where is it again?" 18:37 And so what's happening is that young people will do this 18:41 naturally like breathing just in one week. 18:45 I think that's superb. 18:46 Now I'm sure those of you who been watching at home, 18:49 listen to all these great ideas 18:51 that Jason's has given to us, you picked your favorite. 18:54 That's probably one of mine because it's easy to do that, 18:57 and that's a fabulous idea. 18:59 Just having the young people in the church 19:01 or just pick what topics they like 19:05 and what is something they want to study about 19:07 and they have a speaker come in and share that 19:10 and then they have something to share with their friends. 19:12 Right. 19:14 Who-- you know, young people 19:15 really are getting hit hard with a lot of issues. 19:17 A lot of issues. 19:18 And they may not be talking 19:19 with their parents about some things 19:21 but they're certainly talking amongst each other. 19:23 I have found over the years 19:25 conducting more than 50 youth evangelistic weeks of prayers 19:31 that in that week they will listen to you. 19:36 I go to the, when I go to the locations 19:39 around the country and other places around the world, 19:42 I will tell them this week I speak only to the youth. 19:47 But the adults, they're saying, "I need it, too." 19:50 Because there are topics that they need revisiting. 19:56 For example, topics on sexual behavior and deviance, 20:00 topics on dating, marriage, divorce, 20:03 topics on even music, this drug culture. 20:10 There is so many different topics out there 20:12 and the young people want to hear it every day or weekly 20:16 you don't get this in church ordinarily. 20:18 It's a special week designed for them 20:21 and then a call is made an appeal is made for them 20:25 to give their life to Christ and to come to baptism. 20:30 And the result is phenomenal 20:32 just in this year alone, just this year alone 20:37 there have been over 200 decisions 20:40 with just preaching to young people, 20:42 200 decisions just with young people in youth evangelism. 20:47 That's wonderful. 20:48 And so, I have we've actually had baptisms the next day. 20:54 And so the results are instantaneous. 20:58 Now, what about you know, 21:00 lot of times the people talk about evangelism 21:02 they want to know about ground work 21:04 and what needs to be done well in advance. 21:06 How much of a person said "Hey, I really like 21:08 what Jason McCracken's talking about in this program 21:11 and I want to do it in my church? 21:13 I'm gonna get started right away." 21:15 It would take about four months. 21:16 Four months. 21:17 Four to six months to make the preparations 21:19 you can't call a youth evangelist 21:21 and say, "Okay, next week I want you to preach." 21:24 What you have to do is you have to come in, 21:26 talk to the youth and say, "Look, 21:28 I have ten youth before me. 21:31 How many friends do you know?" 21:32 "Oh, I know five, I know three, I know four." 21:35 "Okay, what we're going to do is have a plan 21:38 we want you now to feed your friends with literature." 21:43 Sometimes I use the Insight Magazine really well 21:45 because it's youth talking about their lives with Christ. 21:50 And so, teens reading about teens is very powerful. 21:54 So, here they're gonna be reading religious material 21:59 and then they are preparing their minds. 22:01 Now the young people we're gonna give them 22:02 some topics to talk about, discussion topics. 22:06 And when they discuss these topics then, 22:08 when they come to that week everything is prepared. 22:11 Then the Spirit of God will fall on that church 22:14 and young people will make decisions for life 22:16 not just because of the emotion but for life. 22:19 Praise the Lord. 22:20 Let me share this with you, 22:23 last Halloween most people don't celebrate it 22:27 because we understand the implications. 22:28 Yeah, most Christians. 22:29 But now I witnessed during the 31st of October 22:37 there are so many young people in my community 22:41 it would be terrible for me to slam the door 22:44 and say, "Get out of here." 22:46 What I do is open my doors I have gospel music blasting. 22:53 I have a pumpkin with a cross 22:56 rather than the ugly little smile, 22:59 have a cross with a candle in it. 23:01 When they come to my house they're getting the gospel. 23:05 And so here we're passing-- What a great idea. 23:08 We're passing out magazines about drug education, 23:13 about education about life. 23:16 They are getting religious material free and one time 23:20 we had some magazines called Listen Magazine, 23:22 it's a magazine that talks about 23:23 drug and alcohol addiction. 23:25 And you have a lot of celebrities 23:26 on the cover of Listen Magazine 23:29 and I had Shaquille O'Neal on the cover, 23:30 I had Venus Williams on the cover, 23:32 I had some football players, some basketball players 23:35 and the hockey players and ski players, 23:37 it was a famous Wayne Gretzky. 23:40 Famous and I'm yelling "Hey, I got the hot stuff." 23:43 The kids where running to the community ramp 23:46 and said "He even got 'N Sync on the cover." 23:49 And they where running to my house 23:51 and 200 young people got 200 pieces of literature 23:54 in a matter of hours on that day. 23:56 Thanks to Lord, on that day 23:57 that people celebrate the double. 23:59 That's right and so what happens is 24:01 if you have a cross America people open up their doors 24:04 and feeding the community with the religious literature 24:07 on the day the people expect candy and gum 24:10 and then popsicles or whatever, 24:12 you're actually doing youth evangelism 24:15 and guess what Karen, 24:17 it was not me sitting on the porch 24:19 it was my son, it was my daughter. 24:22 Praise the lord. 24:23 And they where handing out the magazines 24:26 and they where saying, "Say no to drugs." 24:29 Here no trick just a tweet that's creative. 24:35 That is creative. I like that one. 24:36 That's the type of evangelism that we need. 24:38 I like that one, I really like that idea 24:41 and I hope those of you're listening at home 24:44 isn't that great? 24:46 I mean, what a great way to really do something on a day 24:49 where people are celebrating their death. 24:51 You know lot of times Christians 24:52 we don't know what to do on that day 24:55 because we don't really want to feel like 24:57 we're getting involved in ghost 24:59 and goblins and ghouls and all these other things. 25:02 Yeah, that's right. 25:03 Yeah you understand the social implications 25:05 of doing all of that 25:07 but you know I really appreciate you coming today 25:10 and sharing this of with us 25:11 all this different kinds of ideas 25:14 and I like to just give you some time 25:17 and we got it about a little more than a minute, 25:19 couple of minutes to just talk to the young people 25:22 who are watching the program today 25:23 and just share what's on your heart to them 25:27 on what Christ can do through them. 25:30 Jesus Christ, when He lived on this earth as a teenager, 25:36 at 12 He really began His ministry 25:40 from there He died as a young person in His 30s. 25:44 But now if Christ witnessing the community 25:48 every example in the Bible 25:50 about Christ witnessing was in the community. 25:54 I must stress the point, in the community. 25:59 Christ would go to the temple to celebrate His holy day 26:03 but Christ preach, walk, talk, relate to people, 26:08 common people every day in the community. 26:11 Young people you can do it. It's very simple. 26:13 You don't have to wear a shirt or a tie, 26:15 you don't have to wear a church clothes just go. 26:18 The Bible says, "Go Ye therefore into all the world." 26:22 But a different translation would say 26:25 go and make disciples, baptizing them 26:30 that is the secret of youth evangelism. 26:32 It can be in your church, it can be in a community, 26:35 in a community center, it can be at a poolside, 26:38 it can be anywhere that there are people 26:43 that need witnessing about the love of Christ. 26:46 Since Christ is in your heart 26:48 it's easier to talk about somebody 26:51 that you know about it. 26:52 Well, we pray about this. Okay, thank you so much. 26:56 Father in the heaven, we're so thankful 26:58 that You have been a loving God. 27:01 A teenager preaching the gospel, 27:04 sharing Your love and we're thankful that 27:07 young people can do the same thing, 27:10 here abroad and around the world. 27:12 So Lord, bless the young people may they be focused, 27:17 may they tell about the love of Christ. 27:21 And we pray that You would give them the power 27:23 that they need to go out in the community. 27:26 Thank You for hearing and answering our prayers 27:29 in the name of Jesus we pray, amen. 27:32 Amen. 27:33 Well, thanks again for coming back to our program again. 27:35 Thank you. 27:37 And it's been a real pleasure to have you back. 27:39 Thank you for your wonderful ideas and youth evangelism 27:42 and how young people can get up and get acted. 27:44 Thank you, okay. 27:46 And for those of you who are watching the program 27:48 if you have any questions, 27:49 just feel free to call the 800 number on your screen 27:52 or go to the website for 3abn, 3abn.org. 27:57 And until next time God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17