MINISTRY FOR THE YOUNG

^[p. 185] MINISTRY FOR THE YOUNG

(Copy of reply to a letter on this subject.)

As regards ministry for the young, it seems to me that Scripture warrants it. But it is not seen as a separate department, so to speak. He who made God known took little children in His arms, and Paul fed the Corinthians with milk as unable for meat, and John writes to little children as distinct from fathers and young men. Peter urges that those he addressed should desire the pure mental milk of the word so as to grow by it. Thus the same person ministers to old and young. It is a question therefore of discerning what is needed, and hence spirituality is essential if young people are to be properly served.

As you say, ‘young people are especially exposed to the wicked doctrines and views of modernism’; and this should be borne in mind in what is set before them, that is, ‘meal’ is to be put into the pot to counteract the poison. What they are to be fed with is Christ, and, of course, He is the food for old christians also, so that all eat the same spiritual food; but there is the ‘milk’ and the ‘meat’, and those who serve must know how to differentiate both as to the state of those he serves, and the food he has to present. The “household” Matthew 24:45, including all grades, has to be provided for, and it is obvious that the “prudent bondman” will not set before the babes the same food (although all may use milk) that he sets before the full-grown. The same bondman provides for all, and this agrees with what I said above.

Thus it is clear that the great thought of the house, or household, should always be in view in ministry, and if young ones are to be fed, what they can eat and assimilate must be given them, and not what is beyond their digestive capacity.

^[p. 186] Ministry — or meetings specially for young people — is really a matter of levitical wisdom, and the true levite will not fail to keep the household of God, the assembly, in view in all he does; he will impress on his hearers that they belong to it, or that it is in view for them, and that he is seeking to get down to their range of understanding (an important matter) in what he is saying, so as to lead them into “greater things”. Thus they will hear and ask questions and have understanding and answers; Luke 2.

I trust these remarks will be of some service to you.

(Signed) J.T.