Teenagers who have experienced strong foundations of discipleship will have a greater chance of maintaining their close relationship with the Lord as they transition to college, says a Tuscaloosa youth minister.
“I’m not anti-programs, but that’s not what’s going to keep them in a close relationship with the Lord,” said Doug Fulton, youth minister at Calvary Baptist Church, Tuscaloosa.
“However, if you can find a program that will help make a good transition for those students who don’t read their Bibles to be involved in ministry, accept discipleship and get them to just — Bam! — get involved in a campus ministry and stay involved in church, I would be the spokesperson for that program,” he said. “I also have some students I’d like to try it on.”
Fulton, a 15-year youth ministry veteran, has experienced firsthand what consistent discipleship and accountability has done to the students who have come through his ministry. Key students from his past youth ministry at Taylor Road Baptist Church, Montgomery, have accepted the call to full-time ministry.
Success stories
Tiffany Knight is now married and in seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, while Jon Jeffries and Chris Mount are now serving overseas in missions service.
At Calvary Baptist, Fulton is still seeing significant numbers of youth leaders leave high school and follow God’s calling in their lives.
Fulton attributes spiritual success to accountability and discipleship in those critical high school years. “It’s really important if, when they’re in high school, you can train them in their faith. For the most part, we [youth ministers, parents, churches] don’t prepare them for the pressures of college life.
“Their faith has never been challenging enough for them to stick with it. In many youth groups, there is a lot of fun and fellowship, but no emphasis on spiritual life. They have never been taught how to defend their faith or how to develop that all-important relationship” with Christ.
What is needed while those teenagers are still in high school, Fulton said, is for someone “to disciple them, to train them to think on their own and to take stands because of what God’s Word says and commands.”
Some of my students went away to college because they said they felt God sending them there.”
Carson Young, one of Fulton’s former youth, left for Mississippi State University (MSU) after high school, even though he didn’t know anyone there. He just felt the Lord’s leadership to go to MSU, that that would be his new missions field.
“He took a risk,” Fulton said, “got involved at BCM (Baptist Campus Ministries) and began building relationships with lost students on campus.”
And this is just what Fulton and his staff of youth workers encourage all of the youth entrusted to them to be committed to.
Fulton’s entire youth ministry is mentor-based with a small group discipleship focus. Calvary’s youth ministry has roughly 150 students. He has 30 adult youth workers. For every eight to 10 students, Fulton has an adult mentor/Sunday School teacher as the key spiritual leader in their lives.
These adults not only teach the teenagers in a Sunday School-type setting on Sunday mornings, but are also required to meet with as many of their eight to 10 students during the week for prayer and biblical accountability in a mentoring setting.
And Fulton’s accountability over these youth leaders being faithful to their trusting students is simple: “They do so, or they’re fired.”
He added that if you’ve ever had someone read the Bible through with you and had them walk you through it, teaching you what consistency in obeying God’s Word is all about and holding you accountable, you will know the absolute worth of that kind of discipleship and the lasting effect it has on your life.
‘A no-brainer’
“A combination of discipling” from Fulton’s youth leaders in high school and a knowledge “that I already had a confirmed calling to preach” were what he described as “a no-brainer” as he transitioned to college.
Fulton also mentioned that he personally meets weekly with key students in his youth ministry who have expressed a desire for ministry. “These are also discipleship groups.”
For those students who feel a calling to minister to their friends, Fulton helps them in ministering on their school campuses.
“If they have never done ministry on their high school campus, odds are they won’t be geared toward any of that when they get to college.
So Fulton’s challenge is, “Will they accept accountability and discipling?” And if they will, what will those who are entrusted with those youth commit to do?
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