I want to thank Pastor for giving me the opportunity to come up here and speak to you tonight. I don't get too many opportunities to be able to speak to the adults and the teens at the same time, but I relish the opportunity to be able to speak to you tonight on a subject that I believe is very important in all Christian lives, but especially with our youth as we move forward. It's just some ideas and some different things that I'm wanting to do with the youth group. The title for my sermon tonight is Growing the Future of the Church. If you want to go ahead and turn to Titus chapter 2, we're going to look at verses 1 through 8. We're going to be looking at a lot of different verses tonight. I won't have you turn to all of them, but this will be our main launching point, our main scripture for tonight. And so we're going to go ahead and read through these as we continue for tonight. Titus 2 1-8 says, But speak thou these things which become sound doctrine, that aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at the home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded in all things, showing thyselves a pattern of good works. in doctrine, showing uncorruptedness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." Growing the Future of the Church, the main topic we're going to be talking about is mentoring. Mentoring younger generations, mentoring, the main focus I'm going to be going for is the teens. But this summer, what we're hoping to do is to be able to start a mentoring program with our teens, be able to have some adults in our church, be able to take some of the teens underneath their wing, be able to teach them some different things. And tonight, I wanted to talk to you about what it is, why we do it, and towards the end, some practical ways that we can mentor and be able to communicate with our teens. Webster's Dictionary says what mentoring definition is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. And so this is straight out of Webster's Dictionary. This is what he described, or the definition is. And someone who teaches or gives help and advice to an often less experienced and often younger person. We're going to be focusing mostly on the younger person aspect of this with the teens. But what is mentoring? And I'll also be talking about some of the benefits. Mentoring, being an active example, willing to listen, share skills, and provide a positive and spiritual perspective for life experiences. It's also interaction. It's not just prayer. but both are necessary. A lot of times we'll have different prayer requests, and pastors mention it multiple times, that we need to pray for our teens. We need to pray for the future of our church. And that is very true. And we need to pray for our teens. They are going through a lot of different situations. A lot of things are bombarding them that even myself didn't have to deal with, and with technology and different things that are going on. So we need to continue to pray. But with mentorship, it also includes interaction. and both are needed to be able to be a good mentor. Provides wisdom and offers spiritual sound, safe, and a fun friendship. Usually when you're a mentor, you're not going to be someone that the person doesn't like. You're going to be a mentorship, you're going to be someone who is, you're going to be friendly, you're going to be giving that sound advice, but also having a safe, enjoyable relationship with them. Also, I found this quote. It says, one leads or is being a mentor simply because they know the path a little bit better. And that can be spiritually. They've been in church longer. They've been saved longer. That can be physically. older, they've gone through hard situations, they've gone through situations in their lives, and so they know the path a little bit better. Another example that can be given is they are on the stairs, there are a couple more steps up or they are up a ladder, a couple more rungs, and they're being able to be there to help lift them up or up to the next step or up to the next rung in the ladder. Some everyday examples that we see. The exchange program. This is a mentorship program that quite a few of you have been going through. And that's what it is, one-on-one mentorship from someone who has gone down the path a little bit more, has a little more experience being able to teach others about Christ and be able to teach others about the Bible. Coaches. We all, if we all played sports when we were growing up, we all remember our coaches, whether good or bad. But they are mentors. They were ones who you hear all the time about kids who they were saved out of rough families, bad neighborhoods, bad decisions because of their coaches. And being a good mentor in that respect, and they had the respect of their coaches. Parenting. All of you who are in here are parents and are mentors. You are training up your children because you have gone through situations, you have gone through different aspects of your life, that you know things a little bit better, and you're able to train your children up, you're able to mentor them. There are other aspects of parenting besides that, but parenting can also be considered mentoring. Teachers, same idea. The world even has mentoring programs, big sister, big brother programs. You hear them on the radio commercials or on TV all the time, always talking about, oh, you don't need to be this special person to be able to be a big sister or big brother. You don't have to have these special powers or anything like that. Anyone can be a big sister or a big brother. And the one I have down here at the bottom, everyone. Everyone is a mentor. There's another definition that you can have for it is leadership. Leadership basically is being an example. The same thing can be said for mentorship, being an example. So you are influencing, you are being an example to everyone, whether older, younger, spiritually, or physically, you are being an example to everyone. And therefore, you are in one way or another, whether good or bad, mentoring those that are around you. Then we have – I got a list here of biblical examples. Some in here are obvious. Some of them you might not have thought, oh, that is a mentoring. Jethro and Moses. Jethro – or Moses was in the desert for a long time with his father-in-law and Jethro. And then Jethro gave him a lot of good advice after he left Egypt, splitting up the people into the different groups, being able to provide that advice. And then Jethro, through Moses, was able to even give some of that information to Joshua. And there are many passages that we could go through talking about these men. And then we have Naomi and Ruth. the relationship they were able to have. And we can go down this list. The one that we're gonna be talking about a little bit later especially is Barnabas to Paul and Paul to Timothy. We wouldn't have Timothy if we didn't have Barnabas. And we're gonna be talking about that a little bit later. And then of course the biggest and the most important mentor is Jesus Christ. He had 12 mentees for three, three and a half years. And so these are some biblical examples that we were able to have through the scriptures. Who can be a mentor? In Proverbs 22, verse 6, it says, train up a child in a way that he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. Usually, this verse is used in respect to training up a child. But if you actually go look at the chapter, it is not talking about parenting. And if you look specifically at the verse, it says, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. It doesn't say he will not depart from you, or not depart from your parenting, or anything like that. He will not depart from the training that he receives, in Proverbs 22, verse 6. Sorry, my headings got a little off, so this should be Yeah, who could be a mentor? Everyone is a mentor. We've talked about this before. We've hit on that one a little bit. But people are always watching, so we always should be pointing them to Christ. When I was at camp, if you've ever been to the Wilds and you've seen the all-staff choir that they have, there's 300-plus people standing up there on the stage. And one of the things that always stuck with me when Mack Lynch or whoever was directing the music, he said, always watch me as the leader, as the song director. Because he'd always tell us, you will always have someone see you, whether you're fooling around up on the stage, if you're looking out in the crowd, no matter what, someone is watching you. And it was very convicting to me to be able to use that, to know that, that there's close to a thousand teens out there, and there's probably at least five of them who are at least looking at me. I don't know who they are. I don't know what they're thinking of me. And the same thing can be said when people are always watching. There's always somebody watching you, whether it's a co-worker, whether it's your child, whether it's someone here in the church. There's always someone watching. So in that illustration with the choir director, we should be looking at the choir director. We should be looking at Christ. So that way, when the people in the audience see us, They are able to see Christ through us. Or in the example of the song, they are able to hear the song that we're singing without having a distraction. And so people are always watching. So my question is to you, what kind of mentor are you being? What kind of example are you setting, not just for your children, but for the people around at work? Again, the definition that we saw at the beginning is one of it's usually someone younger or less experienced. That doesn't always necessarily mean teens. but you need to make sure that you're having that good example around the teens and around those that are at work or at home and be able to keep that good example for Christ. Who should we be mentoring? The next generation. This gets into a little bit of my title, Growing the Future of the Church. When it says, I have up there, it says it could be a teen or it could be a younger adult. We have some college kids who are getting ready to come back from college who have gotten their heads filled with a lot of book knowledge. And to be able to come back and be able to apply that, it's exciting for them. And I remember being able to come back and be able to have that knowledge and be able to use it. Well, what kind of mentors are we being to these college students when we come back and they see us doing things that we shouldn't be? Or the opposite. They maybe get encouraged because they see us doing things that we should be doing and be able to apply that knowledge that they learned from school. So I mostly focus on the teens because that's what I enjoy. That's the department here at the church that I work with. And so that's mentoring someone. That's usually someone who has similar likes, whether that be sports, technology, hobbies, etc. Like I mentioned before, you're not necessarily going to mentor someone or want to be in a one-on-one with someone who you're not going to like. People who are alike are going to attract. Sometimes they say opposites attract, and that's true in some cases. But if you can find someone who you like sports. I enjoy watching sports. I enjoy watching certain and playing other sports. Some of the people here, you are really into football, or you're really into soccer, or you're really into basketball. And we have some teens who are really into those type of things. And to be able to have that interaction with adults, for them to realize that, oh, these adults do know something besides what I'm supposed to do and what I'm not supposed to do and telling me what to do. Just to have that fun interaction, hobbies, is actually kind of funny. When we were moving, Last week, we were moving a bunch of stuff from my basement, and some of the teens saw that I had a fishing box and a fishing pole. And they asked me, do you know how to fish? Do you like to fish? I'm like, yeah, I love to fish. I just haven't gone since I was probably in high school. I haven't had the time and didn't really know anyone else that was around that liked to fish. And they're like, OK, we're going fishing sometime this summer. I'm like, OK, great. If they don't know what your hobbies are, if you don't have that interaction with them to be able to know their hobbies, whether it be sports, books, different types of entertainment possibly. And so you've got to be able to have that communication to be able to get in their lives so you can be a good mentor to them. And again, I ask, what kind of mentor are you being? Does the different aspects of your life, the likes you have, sports, technology, books, hobbies, are they ones that would be good for our teens? Or maybe you have to take a look at yourself and say, hey, maybe these aren't some of the things that I should be showing to the teens. Or maybe I should be working on this in my life and be able to get some biblical help, get some spiritual help to be able to take care of these different areas of my life. Why do we mentor? Okay, so I've explained who and what, and it's like, okay, fine, that's all good and everything. But the question is, why do we do it? And the most important is, we are commanded to. And I have several verses up here in Psalms 145, verse four. It says, one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty works. One generation to the next. That doesn't happen without some type of mentorship, whether it's parenting, whether it's one-on-one with a teen, whether it's getting involved in Sunday school, whether it's getting involved in helping out with a youth activity if we need drivers or if we just need adults to be able to help corral these kids. Sometimes all that is mentoring. All that is showing an example of what Jesus Christ is and what he can do in your life. I won't go through some of these other verses, but all these verses talk about children, talk about next generation, how we are supposed to be showing them what Christ wants us to do. This is a big one for me. If we do not mentor these kids, if we do not mentor our next generation, who will? Usually the default answer is the world. Usually the big example that I like using in this is when a kid goes to camp and he has issues with, say, music. They get rid of the music that is not honoring to the Lord, and then they go back home, but they don't get any music that's honoring to the Lord. You create a vacuum. And you got a vacuum, something's going to fill it. And 99% of the time, if they don't get something to fill the vacuum that is good and is godly, the bad's going to come back in. So if we are not taking care of our next generation, if we are not taking care of the teens, if we're not taking care of even our young adults or our young Christians that we have here in the church, the world will. And that's not what we want. I believe that's what's happened to a lot of the good churches that we have in this country. They're not taking care of the next generation. Little things slip in and different things come up that the world is giving them their mentorship. The world is their example because we are not being the examples that we need to be. teaching others for growth and for spiritual maturity. We already looked at this in Titus chapter 2. But we mentor because we need to teach what we've learned so that we can grow and mature those for our younger generation. Next one, spiritual friendships are extremely valuable in anyone's life. In Proverbs chapter 27, verse 9, it says, ointment and perfume rejoice the heart, so does the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. We're going to be looking at some benefits later, even physically, of having that spiritual friendship, having that good mentorship, you could replace friendship with there, that it's extremely valuable in anyone's life, whether you are a little bit more gray-haired than someone else here. I'm not going to get into ranges because I'm going to get myself in trouble. Or if you are a teen, college student, everyone can be a spiritual friend. I'm just going to make sure that we are the right kind. And then again, Proverbs 27, verse 17, iron sharpeneth iron. So the man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Iron sharpens iron. We help each other. We pull each other up on the next step on the ladder, the next step of the stairs, to be able to move forward in our Christian life. For any of you who have done Sunday school or are teachers in, just normal teachers with a math history or whatever, usually you have to understand a subject better than what you have to teach it. Because you know there's always that one kid that's going to have the random question that you're going to get, who's going to stump you. And you want to make sure that you at least have most of the answers or at least know where to go get the answer. Why do we mentor? because you can learn while teaching. You can learn while mentoring. You can learn with these kids. You can learn from these kids. These kids can learn from you, and you can learn from them, whether it be how to work your cell phone, or how to unlock your computer, or different books, or different things that are going on in social circles, and different things like that. Being able to bridge that gap, and be able to have interaction, and be able to teach each other. passing it on. The question I have here is, when is mentoring effective? It's when the one who is mentored becomes an effective mentor themselves. We know when we have done a good job as a mentor, when they have been able to pass that knowledge on, and we'll see that here in a minute with a biblical example. But the hard part in that area is we may not see the fruit for years. With these teens, I may not see some of the fruit of the teachings that I have, the teaching the pastor has, the teaching that they get at the different schools and Bible lessons in different areas. We may not see the fruit for years. And sometimes, as humans, that's hard, especially in our culture here in the United States. We want everything now. We have microwaves that give us things in 30 seconds. We have phones and we can find things on Google. We joke around at my work is that if you want something, just Google it. For my IT work, we wouldn't have a job without Google because we wouldn't be able to find things quickly. We won't be able to do our job. We are so used, especially in here in the United States, of getting everything now, and we need to make sure that we are patient and that we may not see the fruit for years to come. This is a fun example that I found in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 2. The Apostle Paul He's talking to Timothy and he says, I mentioned earlier that we would not have a Timothy if we didn't have a Barnabas. If you look at Barnabas and Paul, when they first started their missionary journeys, it was Barnabas and Paul. And then eventually it switched. It went then to Paul and Barnabas. And then they split, and they had two teams. And it went out from there. And then eventually the apostle Paul mentored Timothy. And then if you look here in 2 Timothy chapter 2, it says, saying, commit thou to faithful men who may be able to teach others also. So it's really neat to see. And this didn't click for me until I was studying through this. Barnabas mentored Paul, Paul mentored Timothy, Timothy mentored others, and that's all we know about numbers. But Barnabas had no clue the effect that he would have had on the number of people that he would have mentoring just the Apostle Paul, or Paul as he knew him at that point. I could see the Apostle Paul being hungry, wanting for the Word, but I could also be seeing him being one who wanted to know every single detail. He was a very smart guy. He was taught by some of the best teachers, but I can see him being a very difficult student. And sometimes we might have situations as parenting, or as youth leaders, or as teachers, or as Sunday school teachers, to where some of these kids, or even some of these young adults, it may get frustrating sometimes, but we need to make sure that we continue to mentor these kids, we continue to pray for them, because we never know. We may have, in our youth group, we may have an Apostle Paul who teaches a Timothy, who then spreads out to who knows how many different people. And if we don't do that, our church is going to end up in a way that it's going to dissolve like many of the churches have here in the United States. Some of the benefits. And going through these, again, a lot of these I didn't realize until I was going through studying. Love, Proverbs 17, 17. A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born of an adversity. Benefit of having a mentor. Benefit of having someone who is there for you. You're going to have someone who's going to be a friend. You're going to have someone who's going to be there for you. Be a brother born of diversity that is mentioned here. Acceptance now this word acceptance not necessarily letting them do whatever they want But it's more of the responsibility with a goal of maturity in all of their lives Romans chapter 15 verse 7 wherefore receive you one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God being able to work with these teens being able to Work with these teens and young adults be able to bring them in accept them into your lives be able to teach them Be able to give them support, Romans 12, verse 15. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that do weep. You're not going to know situations that are going on in their lives if you aren't getting into their lives. If you don't know who they are, you don't know. They may have some prayer request that's coming up, or you may hear a prayer request, whether it's on Wednesday nights or in Sunday school or different things that come up, and you may not know what's going on. But how can you be a support to them? How can we follow this verse when it says, rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep, if we don't get into these kids' lives and be able to understand what's going on? Freedom of expression, James 1, verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. You could rephrase this, freedom of expression. It gives them an ear to talk to. Sometimes these teens, especially some of the ladies, just like to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. Before Wednesday nights, we usually are just fooling around, just talking, and sometimes it takes me a couple minutes to get these teens to calm down because they just love talking to each other, and that's great. They love talking with each other, but you also need to make sure that as we are mentoring, as we are getting into these teens' lives, that we give them freedom of expression. Let the information flow. Let them be able to talk to you and to understand what's going on in their lives. Spiritual benefits counsel being able to give them counsel again Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 talking about iron sharpening iron in the Proverbs chapter 13 verse 20 Says he that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed again, if we aren't mentoring our teens if we aren't being those men who men and women who are walking with other wise men and wise women and You could almost say that... Companion of fools, the world, basically, will be destroyed. And that's what I feel has happened to a lot of our teens. And as some of growing up, we all know people that, as they were growing up in their teen years, they looked great for the Lord, and then they fell off. We don't know exactly what happened, but for some reason, they fell off. And they got, more than likely, got into that companion of fools, and they were destroyed spiritually. Speaking the truth in love is another great benefit with mentoring. In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15, it says, But speaking the truth in love, that we may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. Being able to grow up in the different things that we have in the Lord. And then Proverbs chapter 27 verse 6 says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Sometimes, especially as parents, we have to tell our kids things we don't like to say. Abigail, right now, she's 13 months later this week. Right now, usually the only thing that I say that she doesn't really like is no. And for me, that's usually the only thing that I say that she doesn't like. But as she gets older, and those of you who have older children and teens and have ones that have left the house, you can probably think of situations to where you have to tell your children things that you may not like to say, but it's necessary for their physical growth, for their spiritual growth. The same thing can be said for in mentorship, being able to speak the truth in love, being able to give that give that to them. Encouragement. I'll only read Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13 here. It says, must any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Being able to give encouragement, being it whether it's a handwritten note or just saying when we have some of our teens play the piano, some of our teens come up here and sing, some are in the choir, some help with different aspects of the ministry, just to be able to say, hey, I saw you did this, you did a good job. That will make a teen weak, to have some of you come up and talk to them like that. It's just simple things, just to be able to give this encouragement, be able to let them know that they are being noticed, and it's not just their parents that are forcing them to do some of these things. They're doing it because they enjoy it. They do it because they want to have these gifts and be able to use them for the Lord. But it's also nice to be able to get that encouragement from those that we have here in the church. And this one was very interesting, the physical benefits. Usually when we talk about mentorship or being spiritual, we don't always think about that it can very much affect our physical life. But in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verses 9 and 10 says, Two are better than one. If someone is off by themselves, if they're off on an island by themselves and they fall and hurt themselves, some of you work in construction or some of you work in areas to where if you fall or if you drop a hammer or if you fall off a ladder and fall on someone else or something happens and you're by yourself. Sorry, Phil. If that happens, it could be deadly because you're by yourself. If a hammer falls or something happens, it could literally be deadly. But if you have someone there who is being a spotter, or someone who is there is helping you, it can save your life. And the same thing can be said being mentoring. If we have people in the church who are mentoring our teens, and they are able to see things that are coming up in their lives. With working with these teens for the past three-ish years now, I can see, even in my own life, some of the things that they're doing, and I'm like, I know where this is going. And I've talked with them and I've worked with them on some different areas to say, hey, these decisions and these actions that you're doing, I can tell you, I have had friends and I have had it personally to where this is what's going to happen. And even some of you adults that have more experience than I do see some things that are coming up in their lives to say, hey, be careful. Watch out. What's coming up next? You're not going to like it. It's going to be painful. And so just to be able to be that help in trouble. Physical health to the body. In Proverbs 16, verse 24, it says, pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones. And then again, in 17, verse 22, it says, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth up the bones. So being able to be there, give that encouragement, be able to come alongside, be able to be that friend that is willing to help, you can have these physical benefits. And now comes the fun part. And you're like, OK, we understand what it is, and why we should do it, and who should be doing it. But how? And a lot of this area that I'm going to be mentioning here is to help bridge the gap. A lot of these teens, you will see them. I left my phone back in the back so it wouldn't beep while I was up here. But you'll see them down like this, if they have phones, or video games, or books, or whatever. And a lot of times, those that are in older generations don't understand the phone, they don't understand why would you be on Facebook, why would you be plastering your whole life on Twitter, why would you be doing these different things, what and why are you doing this? And that's part of what I'm going to be helping you here is show some just easy ways to be able to get into their lives and be able to help mentoring them. Later next month, I'm going to be preaching again on social media of what it is, how it can be used. It is an awesome tool. I've been able to present it a couple times to the deacons to be able to show them. It is an awesome tool. But like any other tool, it can be used for both good and for bad. And so just to be able to show you how do we mentor these teens, how do we mentor anybody, It needs to be started on a foundation of prayer. Everything needs to be brought before the Lord. If we don't start on a foundation of prayer, it's going to be like the Little Kids song. It's going to be built on quicksand. And if you don't start it on a foundation of prayer, being able to pray for the teen, being able to pray for the mentorship that possibly is going on, being able to pray for them, it's going to fall apart. We have showing a godly example, and I've mentioned this several times before. Being able to show that example, be able to understand that you are always being watched, no matter what. This phrase I actually got from my brother. He's a pastor over in Virginia. Teens are great imitators, so give them something great to imitate. Some of these teens, they have their, of all teens, whether they're here or in public school, they have their movie stars that they like to imitate, they have the people who, their music they like to imitate, they have their friends they like to imitate. We need to be giving them a good godly example here at the church and here in their lives, be able to give them something great to imitate, and then they will be able to use that for the Lord. Listening will develop trust. I mentioned this a little bit more with the talking. Sometimes, even the guys, sometimes you just got to listen. Sometimes it's hard. I know for me, I like to fix things. If something's wrong, I like to fix it right then. And I don't always like to listen and be able to work through things. But sometimes just listening to the teens, being able to hear how their day went, how their week went, how their family's doing, how their schoolwork's doing, and whatever it might be, that is how you get to know each other. That is how you build a relationship. That is how you build a mentorship. Being a friend, someone who comes alongside to help, doesn't mean you have to be buddy-buddy with them and have to see them every day and be able to cling on them and say how they're doing and try to use their lingo and totally butcher it. That might happen. But just be a friend. Just be someone who checks in on them every now and then. And I'll be showing some practical examples here on the next slide of how you can do that. But just to be able to be a friend, to be able to come alongside and help. This is very important. Keep the communication lines open. When you have a mentorship, sometimes it can feel like it's one-sided, where the mentor is only trying to get to the mentee. But the mentee doesn't always come back to the mentor. We can see that in our own lives as your parents have kids and they've done something wrong. How often do they come around the kitchen and asking for randomly to help for something? They're not going to. They're not going to show up if they know that they've done something wrong or if they are feeling guilty about something. But if you talk to them and be able to go to them and say, hey, what's going on? How are things going? And just to be able to keep those communication lines open makes it a lot easier to be able to understand what's going on in their lives. Hold on. Practical ways, and I've got a list of them here. Texting. Some of you, I understand, this is a foreign concept. Texting is a very large part of our teens' lives. It ties in also with Facebook messaging, Twitter, and different things like that. But even just sending them a simple text. Most phones today, depending on your cell phone plan, can text. Just send them a simple text once a week or every now and then saying, hey, I'm praying for you. Is there anything I can do for you? just to be able to give them that line of communication. Social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, there are a lot of tools out there that can be used. And social media is our teens. It's their culture. If you look in the culture today, this is where they live. They're not hiding things in the locker rooms or in the hallways at school anymore. It's on social media. But it can be a good thing. It can be an easy way to get communication. It's an easy way to get information out. And so it's a fun way to be able to to interact with them. Handwritten notes. Three by five card. Find out their locker number if they're here at the school. And just write a quick note and just slide it in their locker for them. Really easy. Just some really easy. This one seems kind of dull, but sometimes just talking to them. And that's all they need. They need someone to talk to that's not their parents and that's not their friends. And that's OK. As long as it doesn't come into a situation where you find out some information that could hurt them, then you have to deal with that as it comes. But sometimes they will answer and talk to somebody else different than they will to their parents. And so just talking to them. Have them over for dinner. Just say, hey, you want to come over for dinner? This is what we're having. Or, hey, what is your favorite food? We can make it. And just come over and talk, just to have them over. Little treats. This can go along with the handwritten notes, too, just whether it's a candy bar, or it's one of those oatmeal pies, or just something. Just give them something. Put their name on it in the back of the auditorium. Put it on a little table. Put a little verse with it. Just little things. It makes it so easy. These two here, yard work and house cleaning. Let me put a caveat here for the mentors, this is not forced labor. This is not forced labor. But some of our teens are very good at working outside, or working in the house and cleaning, or being able to just be a help. And that's fine, and they're good at that. And so this could be in other ways that they have it. Visiting them at work, just to say hi. Some of our teens have jobs that they work at on the weekends or in the evenings. When I was working, In high school, I waited tables and worked at a restaurant. To be able to see some of the church family come by, it was just cool to have them sit at my table or to order food from me. Just to be able to see someone that you normally see at church, when you see them somewhere else besides church and you never see them anywhere else, you see them in a different light because they don't have a tie on, they don't have a full suit on, they're not in a fancy dress or anything like that. It just puts them in a different light. Just stop by the work and just say hi, just to be able to see how they're doing. Bible study and prayer time. This can be, depending on how your schedule works and how different things go, it could even be just five minutes before the service starts. Say, hey, five minutes before Sunday school, in between Sunday school and church, can we just go pray for five minutes? And it could be a very easy way to to get in their lives. Go to the sports games, especially here at FCA. We have the home games. If you can go to an away game, I understand if you can't, but just come and just interact with them, just to be able to come up and just to see someone else besides their parents and their coach yelling at them from the sideline can mean a lot. And I remember growing up, there were several adults that would be out there just yelling my name when I had the ball or telling a good job It means a lot. It can give you a lot of encouragement just to have someone coming up. Ask about and help with their schoolwork. Some of you are really good with math. Some of you are really good with geometry. Don't ask me about geometry. Or sciences or histories or whatever it might be. And you may be able to help them with their homework. Just another practical easy way to be able to get in and to help them in their lives. In conclusion, we are commanded to be godly examples and to teach others about Christ. This summer, we want to make sure that, in all our lives, we want to make sure that we are following this commandment and pointing others towards Christ in all areas of our life. I usually, I'm focusing mostly on the teens. That is who I work with. I may be coming to some of you here, some of the adults, and say, hey, would you be willing to do a mentorship? Each year from the teens, we get a packet, well, not a packet, but we have them fill out a list of information, name, phone number, favorite candy, favorite restaurant, all these different things. So we know the little tidbits in Prairie Quest. But if you are wanting to be a mentor, want to be able to just, like I said, when I had this slide here, oop, wrong way. Just to be able to do some of this stuff here, this does not take 20 hours a week. This could take tops 30 hours, or 30 hours, 30 minutes, some of this stuff. You come to church, get a 3x5 card, write a note, stick it in our locker. You can do that from Sunday school to church. It is not hard. We are wanting to be able to do this mentorship program to be able to have some of our teens being able to interact, being able to learn from some of the adults here in the church. We have a lot of great people here in the church that have a lot of experience, have a lot of knowledge, and to be able to pass that on to the next generation like we are commanded to would be really, really cool. Whether it's on Wednesday night during prayer time, whether it's during the week doing any type of these practical things. If you are willing to do that, come talk to me. Come talk to Mrs. Rogers or Phyllis Asia if you don't see us around. Let us know. We'll put your name on a list. We'll get you paired up, quote unquote, with somebody and have you guys start the communication and take it however far you want. We want at least a little bit of communication to be able to move forward, but we also want to be able to get in these teens' lives, being able to help them grow, and to be able to protect the future of the church, be able to grow the future of the church. And so this is a high burden in my life. Because I can think of, we've had here Evangelist Shorty Shank. I would consider him one of my mentors growing up. He is a guy that I, even today, I still email him and Facebook him and ask him questions to be able to get the spiritual counsel. And that's eventually what I'd love to have our teens, be able to have multiple avenues of communication, multiple ways that we can get godly example in their life. Not saying they don't have them now, but if we can get as many hooks into some of our teens and be able to keep them in the church, be able to have them grow, we may get an Apostle Paul that teaches a Timothy that teaches others. And that would, in my mind, that would be awesome to be able to do that. And so, again, if you are willing or if you want to be able to help with this, it doesn't take a lot of time. But it's a huge encouragement to some of our teens. And so, again, if you'd be willing, just let me know and we will move forward with it. mentoring. It's a huge burden in my life, and I think it's what's going to save the future of our church, to be able to have that knowledge passed on to the next generation. So let's pray.