Date - July/70

Contributor - Bernard Volwerk

Title - Understand Each Other To Understand God

Topic - Youth

The Pioneer of December, 1969 had a report on a service in Hamilton which was completely different. There was no minister in the pulpit. Instead of having organ music, the "Gospelites" from St. Catharines were there and sang hymns during the service. The sermon was entitled "Love and Peace" which was delivered in two parts, Henk Ruiter (the Sr. Youth Counselor) spoke about the first part and the second part was done by Gertie Schippers. Personally I think it was well done and if one was there that evening he could really feel the Spirit and could say to himself that God was there.

In the last paragraph of the report it says: "The question is now, is this the type of Youth Service the Younger Generation wants?" What do you say? Its up to you to change it. Why don't we have more of these services? What's wrong with having more of these? Personally I feel if we want to change something, we should do so. Don't wait for somebody else to do it. But it does seem that no one wants to say anything. We don't want to say anything because we are afraid of being hurt - can lose face with the Group. Sometimes we do evil that good may come??

I feel strongly that there has to be a change (if the Church wants to keep up) in order for the Younger Generation to seek and discover God's love. The individual has to realize by himself what God means. He should sit back and feel God's love. A person cannot be forced to do anything. The person has to take up a stand and say to himself that he will believe in God. Many teenagers are being forced by parents to go to Church. What is their attitude before they walk into Church? Is it the same old thing every Sunday, or do they come to hear the word of God and do want to come to Church willingly. If parents force their children to come to Church, I feel strongly that they will get nothing out of it. But if a person comes on his own free will, I am sure he can and will feel God's love.

If parents have troubles getting their children to Church it is most likely that there is no understanding between the parents and their children. The best way to solve this would be to talk about it in God's love, not our love,. The problem would be most likely lack of communication between the two sides. If the teenagers ask for the word of God, they will receive it, if they seek, they will find it, and if they knock, the door will be opened. A person has to be willing to believe in God. They have to ask God, not be forced, and have to seek under expert guidance - which should be the Church. We should work together as a group, Young People and the Older Generation. If the two sides always have arguments over simple matters how can we believe in God? God tells us all to love one another, not to find faults and start criticizing. If a person does find a fault, why doesn't he go and see if_ he can better it, instead of making matters worse. I strongly feel if the two sides can understand each other, that it will be one of the greatest things that will happen to you or to me. Personally, I could never understand my parents until I made myself understand them. This is the way I feel towards Young People. They should be able to understand their parents. Once a young person understands his parents, I am sure that the parents will understand their children just as we should understand them.

When the minister talks about his sermon there are some things we surely don't quite understand. What 'could we do in order for people to understand the sermon? When a problem arises during the sermon their statements should be answered after the service so that they would understand more fully. This can be done directly after the sermon where the minister and the congregation can have a better way of understanding their fellow man and what God has to say to them. This way Old and Young will understand each other and we should have no fear of asking questions because we face God as an individual, not as a group. We should work together as a group, to understand God and our fellow man.