Summer 2013

Letter from the President

Needed: Risk-Taking Faith

Bill Hamel

I’ll never forget the first time I sat in the bleachers at one of our Challenge student leadership conferences and absorbed the energy and spiritual passion of more than 5,000 young people. There was nothing feeble about their faith. They might not have been following Jesus perfectly; they surely had their share of troubling faith questions, just as we all do. But they were voicing their desire to live radical lives. And I was tremendously blessed to be in their presence.

Just as in the auditorium that day, there are amazing young people all around us. In every one of our churches, there are youth just waiting to be challenged to more—more faith, more risk, more intimacy with Jesus. Are we there to do the challenging? Are we demonstrating lives of risk-taking faith ourselves?

Youth pastors and college pastors and volunteers can’t do it alone; they need parents and other adults to be available role models for the next generation, a generation that is already doing amazing things in God’s name.

I hope that the articles in this issue strike a chord, reminding us that young people in our lives are watching us; we are being role models. May we be modeling a vibrant, contagious faith.

Letter From the President

I’LL NEVER FORGET THE FIRST TIME I sat in the bleachers at one of our Challenge student leadership conferences and absorbed the energy and spiritual passion of more than 5,000 young people. There was nothing feeble about their faith. They might not have been following Jesus perfectly; they surely had their share of troubling faith questions, just as we all do. But they were voicing their desire to live radical lives. And I was tremendously blessed to be in their presence.

Just as in the auditorium that day, there are amazing young people all around us. In every one of our churches, there are youth just waiting to be challenged to more—more faith, more risk, more intimacy with Jesus. Are we there to do the challenging? Are we demonstrating lives of risk-taking faith ourselves?

Youth pastors and college pastors and volunteers can’t do it alone; they need parents and other adults to be available role models for the next generation, a generation that is already doing amazing things in God’s name.

I hope that the articles in this issue strike a chord, reminding us that young people in our lives are watching us; we are being role models. May we be modeling a vibrant, contagious faith.