Hello everyone,
I am a youth pastor in a small down of north eastern Georgia. I have been serving the Lord in full time Christian ministry for the past 4 years. I myself grew up in church and was very involved in youth groups. As I am sure you have seen there is an increase of "Christian" Teens who are involved in otherwise impure activities. Many times we think of purity as just sexual purity but the Bible tells us that "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, [and] to keep himself unspotted from the world."
James 1:27
It is my belief that much of the sexual impurity that we are seeing rise an increase in is due to the result of not keeping ourselves unspotted from worldliness. I know that growing up you had an occasional person who fell out of youth group and into an immoral relationship, but having been a youth pastor the dangers (while not necessarily any different than in times past) have increased. With the ease of getting pornography on the internet to arouse the sexual desires, the scantily clothed people on the cover of magazines, and the sexy apparel worn in music videos, public schools, and public places, it is hard for both young men and women to find the courage to stand up and say "NO I WILL NOT GIVE IN TO IMPURITY!"
It has been an acceptable thing for teen couples to hold and handle each other as if it were second nature. Most people when they see a couple holding hands or hugging on one another thing there is nothing wrong with it, but I know from experience, that these seemingly small things have the potential to escalade into something much less “cute” and much more sexual. This is why Paul warns us “[It is] good for a man not to touch a woman.”
1 Corinthians 7:1.
The verse that I assigned to our youth group as our key verse was “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
I Timothy 4:12. Today Christian youth in many respects are looked down upon not because they are Christians but because they are not a good example of a Christian. It is important for youth and adults alike to have a testimony of good words, of a godly lifestyle, of brotherly and godly love, a good attitude, a strong faith, and purity of mind and physically pure.
I believe that today we need to encourage our youth in every way we can to keep themselves pure. Serve up reminders to them. I also want to give you an opportunity to give them one of those reminders. This week I entered a Christian t-shirt contest at ArmourUp.com. The text of the shirt can be seen below. I think that this would be a great reminder to your youth group to save themselves sexually for marriage. If you would simply vote for the shirt this week and help it stay at the number 1 position till Wednesday, March 23, then it will be available to purchase on Monday March, 28. Contact the owner of the company, if you order a large quantity he should be able to get a discount for your group. You can vote for the shirt at
http://www.armourup.com/designs/100-pure/.