As we seek to define our youth
ministry’s vision and goals, we wanted to look at the basic commandments given
to Christians. Jesus gave us the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
Having considered these two divine imperatives, we chose to base our ministry
on the fundamental principles that Jesus provided in the Bible.
The Great Commandment was given by
Jesus when a Pharisee was trying to lead Jesus into a trap. Jesus responded to
the Pharisee’s loaded question by giving this statement, “You must love the
Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is
the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are
based on these two commandments” (Matt. 22:37-40). When we boil this
commandment down to the essentials, we come away with the command to love God,
and to love people.
The Great Commission was given by
Jesus directly to the apostles before His ascension. “Jesus told His disciples,
‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I
have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of
the age’” (Matt. 28:18-20). This commandment instructs us to go and make
disciples; which ultimately means to tell others about Jesus, and to teach them
sound doctrine. We also receive the assurance that Jesus will be with us every
step of the way.
GC2 will focus on both the Great
Commandment and the Great Commission. Our vision as a youth ministry will be to
1) love God, 2) love people, and 3) make disciples. We will focus our efforts
into the areas of prayer, Bible study, and service. We invite you all to join
us in our journey, and we strongly encourage everyone to lift this ministry up
in prayer and to provide encouragement for the young people of our church as
often as possible.
