We Must Overcome the Fear of Reaching Loner Teenagers
There obviously would be negative vibes coming from some American people concerning the risks of reaching out to the loner teens. These types of young people over and over become the "shooters" in the schools. However, they are at a very small percentage. What single factor more than any other will keep us from reaching out to these needy "alone" teenagers? There is only one thing — the fear factor!
Hopefully with this article I can stir your faith to step out and reach out to the students who seem so alone, and without friends, at the public schools in your neighborhood. At the same time, I hope to dispel some myths that seem to fly through the air as we hear the Spirit of God stir our hearts to be an instrument of His Love! Often by listening to the warnings of the fearful, faith based projects are stopped before they are ever started! Just ask Nehemiah.
Loren Cunningham, the founder of Youth With A Mission, walked into his denomination headquarters excited about a vision God had just given him in the mid 1950s. It was a revolutionary missions plan using young people all over the world to win souls. He did not expect to hear what his General Superintendent told him! He was told that it just couldn't work. That it would be too dangerous for the teenagers, and that he would have to come up with a new plan. One of the largest evangelical denominations in the country with seeming unlimited resources and solid Christian people, flatly told Lauren he could not do what God had called him to do! Lauren did not yet realize that his plan was so far bigger than any one denomination and that God knew what he was doing! Today YWAM has thousands of full time employees and is in 171 countries around the world! Proverbs 21:31 says; "The horse is prepared for the day of battle but safety is of the Lord!
I can remember one of my first trips into Bed Stuyvesant Brooklyn to volunteer at a huge inner city bus ministry. I was traveling down from upstate New York and the two previous trips I had a Christian Brother ride along. At the last minute he cancelled and I found myself in one of the highest crime areas of the country. I was arriving at midnight to avoid high traffic. I was going to the church, a converted beer factory, where I would be sleeping in the church nursery. I can remember God's peace being on me so strongly I could have slept without fear on the sidewalk. When we pray a lot trusting God, we have very little fear about anything because God's Spirit rests so profoundly upon us and gives us an inner calm! That was one of my first experiences in learning Gods supernatural protection. When we are called to a potentially dangerous task that's when he will be the most near!
Read more about loner teenagers on The Christian Post.