The 2010/2011 Year Highlights
by Jason Humphreys (Young Adult Pastor)
2010/2011 has been the  year of laying a foundation in understanding the gospel. It has been an exciting journey of discovering the heart that Paul had for this ancient and unchanging message, a message that many today are ashamed of, if even in part, but a message that has the power to transform all societies at any time in history.
A New Recruit for the Young Adults
Cathy Fisher was brought onto the full time staff with a prim ary focus in the area of young adult ministry, especially with the young adult women from September 2010. Cathy was a great blessing to the church in her ‘year of your life’ capacity, but the additional time spent as a fulltime part of the leadership team has been invaluable. The young adult women’s prayer meetings have been a notable blessing within the body and the overall efficiency of the ministry has benefitted tremendously from her high capacity input.
I.serve & In.turn program
Brad Mann has continued on as an In.turn while beginning his  studies at the Cape Town Baptist Seminary. Brad has been involved with young adult leadership for many years now and brings great enthusiasm and insight to the team.
Ben Merckel also started this year in an I.serve capacity with a p articular focus on post matric ministry. Ben, who has completed his studies at Cornerstone, brings a great theological brain to the team and a considered approach to ministry that has been of great assistance in our gospel journey.
The Young Adult Leadership Team
It has been a tremendous privilege for me to have the opportunity to be discipling such a passionate and God-focused team of young leaders.
Much of the activity of the year’s ministry would never have been possible were it not for their dedication in prayer, the word and sacrificial service. 7:30 till 9pm on Thursdays are a sacred time!
Retreats And Camps
We continue to provide a range of spiritual
retreats over the course of the year. Though not replacing our primary
young adult camp, these retreats have given us a wonderful opportunity
to establish relationships and build into the spiritual temperature of
the ministry.
This year’s young adult camp was the high point in our
gospel series with a fantastic turnout of young adults ranging from
those still in matric to those married with young children. The new
venue proved to be a great success despite the torrential rain on
Sunday!
Sunday Evening Fellowship
I am sure that many people
in the church have been blessed by the hard work of the Sunday night
fellowship and connect teams. We have aimed to provide a space where
people can stay after church, eat a good meal and experience genuine
Christian community. Every week, teams of people prepare meals for
people at the evening services (these range from soup and lasagne to
Chinese and home-cooked burgers, with many others besides) all for under
R15!
Life Groups
Life groups are in possibly the healthiest
place they have been in for 10 years. We have seen many new groups form
over the last year, with most of our young adults now connected to a
life group. We are incredibly thankful to the leaders for the hours of
preparation, personal connection and leadership that they bring every
week to the ministry.
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Going forward
As we move into this 2011/2012 season, we will be building on our year of focus in the gospel
message. The gospel is not simply a gate to eternal life, it is a
message on a new way of life in communion with God and there are
implications to the message of the gospel that we must respond to.
Venturing back to UCT in a more formal capacity. This term has seen the start of a new effort at UCT, though with a very
different strategy to before. There are many Christian societies on
campus who are doing a fantastic work. We do not want to compete in any
way with these groups, but add to the water table of Christian prayer
and evangelism. In order to achieve this goal, Cathy, Ben and Jason will
be on campus every week over lunch on Mondays (once a month at the Med
campus). This has begun with teachings over lunch on the kingdom of God,
for all who are able to join us. Next month we will start in earnest
with personal evangelism and intercession on and around UCT.
Compassionate care.
Every 6 weeks the young adults participate in serve first events (where
we serve people in the community first, before ourselves). On our
latest event, helping people in Capricorn to prepare their homes for
winter, we were deeply challenged by the verses in 1 John 3:16 and 17:
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for
us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has
material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on
him, how can the love of God be in him?” Housing is a massive challenge
in our community and we believe that that it is both possible and
necessary for the church to address this issue. We have started a
ministry we are calling ‘ Hope through Homes,’
endeavouring to design a shell home that can be built for under R19 000
and is completely transportable (as many of the poorest people are not
guaranteed the security of remaining on the land they are on at present
and may be required to move again, thus losing whatever shelter they
have been able to erect.) We hope to build the first of many homes this
year.
We look forward to the 2011/2012 year. “It’s time to take
the words of Romans 12 seriously, with the admonition: ‘Do not conform
to the patterns of the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind’... We are folks who refuse to accept the world as it is and
insist on moving it closer to what it should be. It’s time for fresh
imagination. It’s time to reimagine the world.” (from Imagine a New World by Shane Claiborne: Reject Apathy)
Jason Humphreys (Taken from Young Adult AGM Report 10/11)
For more information please feel free to email Jason (jason@mbc.org.za) or Cathy (cath@mbc.org.za) or call the church office on (021) 7121218
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