By Captain Michael Hanton
Territorial Youth Secretary
The territorial youth department is partnering with divisional youth teams, corps and local leaders to focus on the Territorial Youth Priority through investing in leadership development, empowering corps to effectively disciple youth, and promoting community outreach.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus recognized that the people He encountered were at different stages of growth and development. He met them where they were but was always at work to develop them. Every person mattered, and Jesus took time to make intentional relationships. If we are to be successful in reaching youth, as a territory we must emulate Christ and emphasize the need for intentional and relational discipleship with our youth.
Developing strong leaders is paramount to creating an atmosphere which encourages and enables discipleship. This can be accomplished through identifying the needs of the leaders, corps and community and by providing training opportunities; empowering youth to take leadership roles in their corps; and shifting divisional and territorial roles from programming to resourcing corps.
As disciples of Jesus, we have been given the mandate to “Go and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matt. 28:19) and we have been given the privilege of making Jesus known to our youth, our families, our communities, our world.
By clearly identifying and committing to the lifelong work of discipleship in corps ministry, we will experience long-term growth, consistent leadership, and transformational spiritual depth in our Army.
The last emphasis is on community outreach. Community outreach is about more than just trying to get more people through the doors of our corps. It is also more than just having programs or putting on events. At its heart, community outreach is about creating opportunities to connect with youth and making spaces where they can experience the love of Christ.
We believe that The Salvation Army is uniquely positioned to share the gospel with them. We want to promote community outreach that is a starting point for relationships that offer a place of belonging for each of our neighbors.
Jesus was clear that no barrier should prevent a child from knowing Him (Matt. 19:14). The territorial youth department is committed to building a foundation that leads or redirects youth back to the Creator and creates spaces for belonging.
