Transformation, What a Great Word!

My small group of Jr. High girls at an Area Retreat in Mexico

A few weeks ago I went to a Young Life Banquet and was reminded again how much I love youth ministry!  During the program about 15 high school students ran out from the back wearing neon colored t-shirts with expressions of love for young life.  They were all holding pieces of cardboard and proceeded to, one by one, come up on stage and display words expressing what their lives were like before Christ, and then turning over the cardboard the other side expressed what their life is like now that they know Jesus.  It was moving!  Later on the speaker made the comment that a young life leader doesn't just see a 12, 14, or 17 year old in the crowd at a young life meeting, but rather a changed marriage and a changed family.

Being at this banquet and seeing all these things reminded me of the word "transformation."  It's a word I love, and I think it does a great job of describing the gospel.  The students displayed with their signs how the gospel has transformed them.  The speakers word echoed the word transformation.  Students lives are forever changed when they see, experience, and receive Christ.

The word transformation is the whole reason we felt called to jon GYFM.  Reaching young people with the gospel is truly transformational ministry.  Not only is a person changed, but a whole generation is changed.  Scripture is clear that when we become believers that we are changed, transformed.

Colossians 1:13, "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold the  new has come."

God's word calls us to share the good news of his love with the next generation.

Psalm 145:4, "One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts."

Look for ways to share the love of God with the next generation and watch transformation happen!

-Lindsey