“Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season”
[Jan.16.2022] In 2021, more than 190,000 young people surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ as part of a Christian ministry’s efforts.
Groundwire, a U.S. organization seeking to draw Millennials and Generation Z youth to Christ, uses popular media channels as a way to reach them.
“We’re not going after the atheists. The media would want us to believe that everybody’s an atheist, but, truthfully, 71 percent of Millennials and Gen Z believe that God’s a real being,” Seth Dunn, Groundwire’s president, told Faithwire.
“What we’re really good at doing is interrupting them on their entertainment and bringing to light their need, their purpose,” he explained. “We don’t need to convince them that God’s real. We need to remind them that he’s relevant, and he becomes relevant when he intersects at that point of need in their life.”
According to findings posted on Groundwire’s website, 68 percent of young people believe in heaven, 65 percent rarely or never attend church. Additionally, 65 percent of youth profess to be Christian and less than 1 in 5 can tell you how to become one. However, 2 in 5(39%) responded that they lack a religious affiliation
Dunn explained that Groundwire utilizes social media to reach youth since most of them spend their day online. “We can’t get them to go to church, but we can’t get them to put down their phones,” he said. “So, what we do is we use Hollywood-produced content.”
The ministry seeks to pique young people’s interest with short videos and then connect them with their team of mentors. Groundwire then points them to Christ with sites such as JesusCares.com.
Groundwire says its approach has been extremely successful. In 2020, more than 116,000 young people made professions of faith, and in 2021, 192,000 came to Christ.
Dunn found it “humbling” that God would use his ministry to draw so many young people to Christ.
“We’re humbled because you recognize this isn’t happening because of us. It’s happening in spite of us,” he said. “Our job is to stay focused on Him and to follow and say, ‘God, I need you to give us wisdom every step, every day, whether we’re creating new content, whether we’re figuring out how to market … we need Your wisdom.'”
Studies conducted in August last year by the Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University(ACU) of American adults aged 18 to 37 found that 65% of people responded they are “Christians”.
Also, 6 out of 10 respondents (59%) responded that they were “favourable to Jesus Christ”, and half said they were favourable to the Bible (51%) and the Christian faith (50%). But only 35% of millennials said they “hold a biblical worldview,” the lowest among all generations.
Meanwhile, an American Bible Society survey in 2021 found that only 9 percent of Gen Z youth were “Scripture engaged,” meaning they often read the Bible. Regarding Gen Z adults, 14 percent of them were revealed to be Scripture engaged and 23 percent of Millennials are Scripture engaged.(Source: Christian News)
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction. (2Timothy 4:2)
Dear God, we bless the youth ministry group that has led tens of thousands of young Americans to Jesus Christ by spreading the gospel online. Please pour out more of Your wisdom and heart to them so that they will be well equipped for teaching and making disciples with the next generations who are wondering because they do not know the truth. We pray that, in this age of widespread atheism, the churches of all nations will preach the Word in season and out of season so that many people will return to the right way.
Prayer 24·365
prayer@prayer24365.org
