if you've been around a lot of churches lately you probably see that there's a disproportionate number of older adults and a seeming shortage of students and young adults and so we want to ask the question like why is that well it is International Youth Week and today we brought together Gideon st. Pierre Madison Chris Lee and Kaitlin Van Helden to talk about what's happening with youth so Gideon st. Pierre is actively involved in his church which is Lake mount worship center where he serves as a youth leader he's also currently studying for pastoral ministry at
Masters College in seminary Madison Chris Lee is a high school student who's also a dedicated volunteer at her home Church glad-tidings and Kaitlin Van Helden is currently a children's ministry intern at Compass Point Bible Church and she's studying for pastoral ministry at Redeemer University so welcome Gideon welcome Madison welcome Kristin really glad you guys are here so you're all actively involved in your local church what made you hang in there when a lot of your friends kind of drifted away just personally let's start there who wants to go first I can take this one sure
Gideon for me I've always I was grown and raised in a Christian home really strong Christian home so it's right from birth I was trained the like the very good things of the Bible like what God has to say on topics when struggles come up how to handle those kind of things and then just throw theories I've just seen God's goodness and once you develop your own track record of watching God's goodness in your life I know for me personally I don't want to move away from that because when God's doing a good work in
you why would you ever want to leave there because you're already in a good spot so I know God's been good to me so often throughout the years there's no reason for me to go anywhere so I've just kind of stuck through with it that's a great story Gideon how about for the two of you Madison Kaitlin what's made you hang in there when you know so many people your age are walking away I've just seen the value of just the church in my life and just the way that people in the church have supported
me just through everything and that's just something that's really important in my life so you felt like community and support around you yeah Wow how about for you Kristen Caitlin big love for you Caitlin Norris I kind of was always in the church and so I never really had a choice to leave but when a lot of my friends decided to leave the church it was really hard for me like I struggled with that a lot and I kind of had to own my faith like being in that position where I was away from home
it was kind of like okay I'm gonna make that choice to actually own my faith and to live it and that happened in university some well actually and it's funny of me to mess up your name because you actually attended our church like after you moved away from home now connects is a pretty big Church there's over two thousand people who call it home but you attended our Orillia location you were telling me before we got together for this interview so what made you decide to go back that's kind of interesting Caitlin well you know
what it was orientation and all the people from my university were celebrating and partying and I was kind of like okay it's Saturday night I have church tomorrow am I gonna go to church or am I going to stay at this hotel and hang out with these people that I just met and so it was kind of like okay goodbye everyone that I I'm just meeting I'm gonna make that decision and you know why it was kind of like the Holy Spirit on my heart because really I love to be a part of the crowd
and hang out with people but God was really touching me and like honestly getting the courage to call a taxi that morning mm-hmm was terrifying and so it was honestly God God has been pushing me and keeping me in track 100% that's awesome to hear and that is a big step I mean I remember being in college and deciding to go to church and you really feel like you're almost being rebellious compared to all of your friends don't you yeah what keeps you engaged at church like you're all part of a local church I pastor
a local church so I'm just kind of curious like what are the air do you connect what what makes you connect well for me like you said I'm very active and then like my worship center in the youth kind of department I'm just seeing the different kinds of students that we bring in all the time from the local high schools just even random ones off the streets that we see and we just invite them to come out to youth just seeing from their first Friday night there and coming to even a few weeks and a
few months down the road that kind of process the kind of progression that they've had and the kind of life change that they've had I look at that I might wow I'm really making a difference God is doing a good work here so that's just the reason I keep doing it because I love seeing God's goodness you see God changed lives you're pretty involved at your church all right you medicine yeah I have some awesome leaders who really encouraged me just to get involved in that that keeps me engaged mostly just them challenging me they
see a lot of potential in me and that's just really encouraging just to know that I have people around me who actually believe that I can I can make a difference now you you have some big responsibilities coming your way tell everybody what's happening in your life this fall I mean you're a high school student right you're not even in college I'm going into grade 11 this fall and my children's pastor recently asked me to head up the children's ministry on Wednesday nights so I'll be taking over the preschoolers and kind of picking out curriculum
and figuring out what's the best way to minister to them so you're in like serious leadership heading in to grade 11 at a local church and again a pretty big Church I think something like nine hundred people attend your church on a Sunday so that's a lot of responsibility cool how about for you Kate oh the question is what what what has kept you involved like what keeps you connected to a local church I've always had leaders kind of pulling me out of the crowd and being like Caitlin you know what you're gonna really be
good at this so could you volunteer and do this for this day and that has happened with me for the past like eight years so that has been really impactful in keeping me connected to the church I have been a children's ministry coordinator at a new church in Burlington called starting point I've been the internet compass point for three years and I wasn't really involved in the youth ministry at compass point as well when I was in high school and so all of those experiences I had kept me involved in the church you know what's
so interesting to me is you know as a preacher I were pretty hard on my sermons nobody's mentioned sermons nobody's mentioned music you're talking about personal experiences being involved relationally and like the investment that people have made in you which is awesome when you've seen in the time we have remaining which is not a lot when you've seen your friends sort of walk away what are they missing why do they end up walking away in your view because it's not always just disbelief is it that causes them to walk away sometimes I thought I know
even in my own life I've been completely straight away before like I said stayed pretty tight with God but just I know for a lot of my friends and even myself at times felt that there is something that we were missing even with God's goodness how great he's been to us sometimes there's this deep inner longing for something else like we feel that we're missing something so I think that's what a lot of youth especially are thinking or going through their heads is there must be something else there and I'm gonna go and try and
search that out don't you Wow appreciate that what do you would have what have you seen and your friends that maybe are in a season a wandering away I think for a lot of people it's just that it's it's the unpopular choice right now there's a lot of people who are kind of judging you for going to church saying why are you doing that they don't see the value in that so I think for a lot of people they just walk away just because they don't want to deal with the hate coming from other people
I guess yeah that's true it is it is not the popular thing to do last word Caitlyn yeah I completely agree with Madison it's not the cool thing to be a part of Church but a lot of my friends it was their life experience as well so like maybe their family's getting divorced or getting into friend groups that are into drugs or like just making those choices and with all of the mm-hmm especially with all of the controversial things that have to do with church so the church is completely opposite of the world and teenagers
young adults we don't like to make choices that are going to be against what everyone else is going to be making and choosing and that was the biggest reason why a lot of my friends aren't Christians anymore hmm hmm well I know I have learned something even in our time together today and I love the fact that there are churches that are making a difference all of you come from churches and this is interesting because as a relational as it is you all come from fairly large churches you know and it's the personal investment it's
the idea that you actually matter not matter one day or ten years from now when you have a job and you can give but you matter now and I love the fact that you're engaged and I just want to say on behalf of all the adults because I remember when I was your age church wasn't cool either if that makes you feel any better but but for hanging in there you inspire us you keep us going and thank you for doing what you're doing God not only will use you he is using you and never
ever forget that
