Dimapur, April 5 (MExN): The Ao Baptist Arogo Mungdang (ABAM) youth directors’ training was held from March 31 to April 4 in Delhi with the theme GiY (Generation Internet Youth). The resource persons were Pastor Jeremy from Delhi and Toshi Sanglir, youth secretary, ABAM.
Altogether 64 youth pastors from different churches under Ao Baptist churches (ABAM) attended the GiY training at the Navinda retreat center.
Speaking on the topic ‘Mentoring the millennium generation’, Pastor Jeremy covered 3 major areas- Serving an example; Shepherding a soul; and Skilling for service. The entire sessions covered new areas where the youth directors were challenged to think bigger and break the shackle of traditional approach to God's ministry. He incorporated the understanding of Ministry to the church and Mission in the world. The highlight of the session was built on the model starting with Church membership, maturity, ministry, mission, and magnification.
Group discussion was part of every session which drew attention and made the trainees think deep in order to bring out the best. Developing and equipping lay servant leaders and instilling responsibility and making them visionaries in God's field was an integral part of the training.
Pastor Jeremy bought in various Biblical references and highlighted that teaching everyone in the church is an utmost focus of the ministry.
Speaking on ‘Reaching out to GiY (Generation Internet Youth)’, Toshi Sanglir emphasized that when one changes what he/she believe, they change what they do. GiY are those born during 90's. The session covered- Who are Giy; How do they differ from the rest; What is digital addiction; Why it's urgent; Digital intervention detox.
The speaker highlighted that GiY is a topic which emerged from the West and it has encroached and influenced our society and needs proper attention. “Today's kids are not bad, but they are different. Technology addiction is a new problem, and that, if addiction is a disease then, digital addiction is a disease as well,” he pointed out.
He further maintained that today's youth leaders need to address, understand and study the digital world which in certain terms creates social impairment. Stating that the digital world is challenging, youth leaders need to learn, change the content of demonstration in order to move along with the fast changing world and youth.
The last session had group discussion based on issues affecting today's youth and what needs to be done to bring change and awareness.
Social degradation, servanthood leadership, health problem, social disconnection, self confinement, anti-Christ trend, identity degradation, complete lose of interaction between child-parent, church going and spiritual downfall, and many more were the issues discussed and deliberated.
A session was also held on the ABAM Youth ministry manual which was discussed in groups for better functioning and betterment of ABAM YM.
The youth pastors also attended the Delhi Ao Baptist Church devotional service, where they had a fellowship with the church members.
