ARMY OF GOSPEL WORKERS

By Thandeka Moyo

Document 1: “We Want Our Children To Believe The Truth”

I began writing this document when there were 45 days left before I was
officially aged out of being counted as a Senior Youth in Adventist Youth
Ministries (AYM for short and the age limit being 30 now), having been raised
in the Seventh-day Adventist Church for all my life, actively participating in
church activities and Youth activities for some of that time, having gone in the
world and returned by God’s grace, I think it’s appropriate that I share with my
brothers and sisters, young and young at heart, some key observances I have
made and the way forward revealed in scripture and from the pen of
Inspiration.

After virtually attending a lot of the GC Session this year, particularly focusing
on the Business Meeting, something about the proceedings and the
comments from delegates during the session really bothered me. Since the
GC Session is a very important meeting in the church (even what made us
officially a church in 1863) and is a magnified version of local business and
church board meetings, I observed two related flaws that stood out very
plainly:
1. The mostly automatic “Yes” vote to agenda items; and
2. The number of delegates who followed orders given electronically.
These two flaws had me a little puzzled for a while, but after a few days rest
from those intense days of business meetings with a couple days reading
articles and going over reports of proceedings from Adventist news sites,
YouTube channels and talks with some church brethren locally and a few
across Malawi's borders, the Lord drew my attention to one of the biggest
concerns I’ve had since coming back to the church in 2018: our army of youth.

I was a gamer, and there’s one thing that the majority of games train you to do
without question; and that is to follow orders without reasoning them out and
thereafter receive some reward for a job well done. A very handy tool to train
soldiers and slaves of men. With my observations in mind I picked up my late
father’s Revised 16th Edition of the Church Manual and pulled up the
amendments made to the AYM during the GC Session and compared what
had been added and subtracted. Three quotations from Ellen White’s writings
used in the manual really stood out to me, two of which remain the same to
this day in the manual. The first one comes from the General Conference
Bulletin, Jan. 29,30, 1893, p24, which reads:

“We have an army of youth today who can do much if they are properly
directed and encouraged. . . . We want them to be blessed of God. We want
them to act a part in well-organized plans for helping other youth.”

From the Bible text given before this quote, and reading 1 Timothy 4 in its
entirety, the first two verses are what concern me as I’ve seen them fulfilled in
my own life and what sadly I have witnessed in the lives of my peers and our
younger brothers and sisters now. Verse 12 is dependent on the spirit that is
leading the youth, which verses 3 and 5 point to when they talk of “believing
and knowing the truth”(v3) and being “sanctified by the word of God and
prayer”(v5). What bothers me most are the eight words that were omitted from
the original Ellen White quote above which are as follows:

“We want our children to believe the truth.”

Of all the sentences to leave out to this day this one is too crucial to ignore,
seeing that this is what we want in the life of our youths right? To live with
Christ as our pattern in all things, for He is The Way, The Truth and The Life
according to John 14:6. And in order to do that we would need to receive “the
Spirit of truth” which Christ has promised us in John 14:16-17. With Christ in
our lives we would be able to fulfill 1 Tim 4:8-12, for without Christ then v12
could be about living your best life, according to your own way. After all what
do we have to hide from ourselves or the world seeing as our GC Sessions,
Annual Councils, even division meetings will now be on YouTube for all to see?
The second quote that stood out to me comes from Gospel Workers p210:
“When the youth give their hearts to God, our responsibility for them does not
cease. They must be interested in the Lord’s work, and led to see that He
expects them to do something to advance His cause.
“It is not enough to show how much needs to be done, and to urge the youth
to act a part. They must be taught how to labor for the Master. They must
be trained, disciplined, drilled, in the best methods of winning souls to Christ.
Teach them to try in a quiet, unpretending way to help their young
companions. Let different branches of missionary effort be systematically laid
out, in which they may take part, and let them be given instruction and help.
Thus they will learn to work for God.”

It is easy to simply tell someone to act a part but where the rubber meets the
road is in showing how to take part in the work given. Sadly mentorship is
sorely lacking in going about doing God’s work within church offices and in
missionary work. Was not Joshua under Moses’ wing for decades before
taking his position as leader of the Israelites under God’s command? Wasn’t
Elisha by Elijah’s side for years before taking up his mantle? Didn’t the 12
disciples have an intensive three-and-a-half year apprenticeship under the
Good Shepherd Himself? Then how do we expect overnight evangelists or
Sabbath School teachers if they’re not learning under the wings of one for
more than an hour a week? What and how are we teaching them instead?

The third and final quote (which has been removed from the Church Manual)
was not much to go on but just enough to know that God had given us
instructions specifically on how to train our youth to be an army of Gospel
workers. The quote is found in Counsels on Health, p537:

“Let there be a company formed somewhat after the order of the Christian
Endeavor Society….”

What was this society that the prophetess of God called by name to learn
from? Was this the only instance they were mentioned in her writings? Are
they still around today? Did we live up to the counsel?
All these questions launched from these three statements regarding the
training up of the youth of our church had to be investigated and conclusions
drawn. I had to know whether the oft repeated quote from Education p271 had
or would possibly meet its fulfillment with the organization we have officially
overruling all youth ministries in our church today: for Adventist Youth
Ministries is Pathfinders.

Anyone who knows me knows that I can fall asleep very easily. Even in the
heat of an exciting hack-n-slash 2-player game I used to play with my brother
I nodded off rather soundly. The following quote that I found in the course of
my research is what kept me awake when I’d normally be asleep. The quote
is from Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students, p47:

“The future of society will be determined by the youth of today. Satan is

making earnest, persevering efforts to corrupt the mind and debase the
character of EVERY youth; and shall we who have more experience stand as
mere spectators and see him accomplish his purpose without hindrance? Let
us stand at our post as minutemen, to work for these youth, and through the
help of God to hold them back from the pit of destruction. In the parable, while
men slept the enemy sowed tares; and while you, my brethren and sisters,
are unconscious of his work, Satan is gathering an army of youth under
his banner; and he exults, for through them he carries on his warfare against
God.”

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my

word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free. (John 8:31-32)