By Geoff Pittman
LEXINGTON, Kentucky--"I'm God's warrior!" shouted my five-year-old nephew as he swung a toy sword in the air back and forth.
Chopping down plants, he continued to tell everyone in the backyard about how God gives him his strength, and how these plants are no match for the power of God.
Earlier I was sitting in my room talking with him about God and he said, "Geoffy, tell me all you know about Jesus, so I can tell everyone I know."
I tried to hide my smile and asked him why he wanted to tell everyone. He said not everyone knows about Jesus, and even the worst bad people are still to be loved. The excitement in his eyes was almost too much as he preached to me about the love of Jesus and how it needs to spread from all of us who know him.
"This kid is five," I thought to myself, as God showed me once again that he works with all ages.
Growing up I heard of the importance of the young people and how they were the future of the church or the church of tomorrow. It was an idea that said: Grown-ups just need to entertain the kids until they are old enough to really be Christians. Somehow, if we play enough basketball games and have enough activities during our childhood, then we will want to stay in the church as adults, and that's how the future of the church is to be built.
It's time that idea about young people changes. We are no longer claiming teens as the church of tomorrow, but as the church of today.
The work of the church is to spread the good news, preach the gospel and tell people about Jesus, right? So what's the difference between a 16-year-old, or even a five-year-old, telling someone about Jesus and an adult doing so? There is none.
I know of teens who have been Christians for only a few months, and have already brought more people to Christ than adults have who have been in the church for years. Faith isn't about your age.
Young people are making things happen all over the place in our denomination. We have youth day services, dances and regional teen weekends. It's time for us teens to become the church of today.
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