Corps Cadet Maturity: We need young leaders!

Corps Cadet Maturity: We need young leaders!       Kelly Durant. 11-4-18

1 Timothy 4: 12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 

2. Don’t you hate the phrase, ‘young and dumb’? I think it is true we can all look back and see the mistakes of our teenage years and like it or not we know our lack of experience in things caused us to get into trouble. But still this expression is a bit insulting, because applying it does not allow for a young person to be trusted with things as much as they should be. One can be ‘mature and smart’!

I recall my mistakes and the biggest one is that of thinking some things are alright to do because almost everyone else my age were doing them. Instead of comparing my standards to what I knew Jesus would expect of me, and I was comparing my standards to what my peers were doing. When you are a Christian, this is a terrible mistake because you are then failing God! Consequences follow.

The ideal situation in the Christian life would be that every young person have an elder person as a mentor to guide them. The only problem with that is who will take the time for it, have the desire (from both parts) to do it, and there be a sincere dedication to set goals with an accountability to achieve them. The Cadets in our college have mentors, usually they are Advisory Board or businessmen that share their experience on how to do relations in the community.

3. Young people have sharp minds and usually learn quickly. Young people usually have more flexibility and sports skills that the older ones. And young people due to this agility may often tend to be proud, ego centric, and intolerant of others who are not doing things as fast as they would like. 

There are pluses and minuses to being young, and while you are young you need to be aware of your situation and position in society or you may miss the mark with God’s will for your life or lose out to getting respected and promoted as you would like to be. Young people can go really positive or really negative. 

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

4. Because you have a church/Corps in the Salvation Army you have a head start in life to learn much more about ‘righteousness, faith, love, and peace’ that others your age lag behind in: I am referring to things that apply to the practical as well as the spiritual. Those that obey and follow get God’s protection and blessings.

The most important life lesson teaching material that the Salvation Army produces is Corps Cadets and it is very important that these lessons get your undivided attention. God’s word, applied on your level, must be a priority.

A sad phrase you often hear is, ‘I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger’. Life goes so much better when at an early age you take a mature attitude to advance and get plugged into being responsible, accountable, and wise. If you play it right, you get to be the head, not the tail!

5. A sad reality is some people stay childish even though they are older. I recall when I worked at DHQ there was a 30 year old computer tech guy that as often as he could, instead of attending to those with computer issues, would sit back in his office and play computer games. Usually people that are in their 20’s and 30’s have stopped being selfish, foolish, and are carrying their own weight, but lately in the modern world this is not the case. 

As a matter of fact there are many articles about how many young people are not as focused and responsible for their selves as in decades past, but they are becoming info junkies, on their iphones wanting to get entertained continuously with an attention span of 15 seconds. Here is a good  article to understand the younger generation. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/fashion/move-over-millennials-here-comes-generation-z.html  

But no matter how addictive and dark the world becomes, we still have a few wise youth that chose to rise above the crowd, and be wise in the things of God. What will make a young person want to stay on the path of God? Their continued connection to study God’s word! It is very helpful it is if he or she has been learning about God since their youth. The parents may have brought the kids here when young, but it is on the kids when as teens to decide to be faithful!

6. Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. This is a great verse, but in most households children are not taught to pray, read the Bible, or volunteer their time for God. Sadly, many of our young people only get exposed to the things of God when they come to the Corps, so that is 2 to 4 hours a week times 50 weeks (if they are very faithful) so there you have 150 hours out of the 8,760 hours in a year, or less than 

2% of their life! But God would use you 24/7, or 100% if you will let Him! 

1 Timothy 4: 12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. So why is this in God’s word? Because God wants the youth respected, not despised, but they have to meet the right conditions which are to be loving, faithful, and pure.

The typical carnal conduct of teens (and I remember all too well in High School)  is the opposite: to be a bad example, mouthing off to others, doing unloving things (a jerk, doing jokes), out of the spirit of God, with no faith or purity. The typical is to fall into trouble, even with the law because of sex, drugs, or being belligerent. 

7. In order to train the youth with more skills in life, the practical and the spiritual, we as older adults need to be an example and have them more involved, and that implies the parents helping them to learn  to connect and study God’s word more.

It is only by the study of God’s word that a person can understand how to live so they will be blessed and not be a victim to the evil in the world that wants to entrap them and destroy them spiritually, mentally, and physically. We all need to wake up and seriously be sober and vigilant as Satan wants to take over anyone weak in the faith. No one likes a proud arrogant know it all.

What does Satan want to do to your kids? He wants them addicted to the internet to the point they have such a short focus and entertainment expectation that they will find God’s word unclear and boring. He wants the youth addicted to Satanic, depressing music, which glorifies drug and sex addictions, Satan also wants kids to (by law in CA already) get a surgery and ‘sex change’ and be a trans, which is a defilement of keeping our temple, or body pure. And ultimately, he wants to introduce the ‘mark of the beast’, a chip implanted in the hand or forehead, because techo things are our gods and we need them for our security, entertainment, and convenience. But there is an eternal hell to pay for this. 

8. Rebellion and revolution is again contaminating the youth worldwide. It’s not just here in the narrow minded liberal colleges that kids are being taught to hate and want to kill the old conservatives who are in the way of allowing a false utopian secular socialism to be the answer to our world’s problems, it is everywhere. And look at Venezuela, the political parties, and we see as in Nazi Germany, they got the 14 year olds (brown shirts) and teens to do the street fighting so they could take over. Hungry and poor, and oppressed the world sees that the youth getting their way of revolution is not the best way to bring on the answer to our problems. Obedience to God, love, and cooperation are what work.   

Speaking of 14 year olds, either God or Satan is ready to use you! In the Salvation Army you become a Senior Solder at that age and historically, as in England in the 1800s, you were expected to be an adult, to preach in the streets, to teach Bible, to watch the little kids, and be fully responsible. Only in the past decades have the youth become so dependent and unprepared in life skills to be helpful, but they can learn them here if they will show up to study, to get mentored by adults, and to come to volunteer so they get on the job training.

And I will end with this, young people don’t expect to get things handed to you on a silver platter. Everyone of us had to earn our respect and place in the world and we got it by proving to others that we could be responsible to show up, learn, and do the work. We expect you, the youth, to be teachers and helpful volunteers.

9. Study God’s word, as Paul said to young Timothy. And be the opposite of the world’s conditioning, be a good example in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity!

Work on making yourself less rude, less judgmental, less demanding, less contaminated by the world, and be more loving to all, even those outside of your group! Did you know I left going to church at age 14 because I was turned off by how the youth had their clicks and I was not a part of it so why be there looking stupid? Clicks make me angry and may we never be guilty of allowing them! 

The Salvation Army has a much less problem with this than other churches I have seen. You have many good people and lessons at your disposal and it is up to you to pray and get serious with God to mature, grow, and be what God expects. Nothing can replace age, and experience except God’s word to help you to become ‘wise before your time’. Prayer…