wfn.org | LWF Assembly told that youth witness through their lives

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Youth witness through their lives
Lazarus-Geseb speaks from the South

HONG KONG, July 25, 1997 (lwi) - Youth today express their faith through
their lives, said Nickey Lazarus-Gaseb, youth secretary of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia. He represented the voice from
the South responding to the Assembly keynote address July 10. 

"A new culture is developing whereby more and more youth are engaged in
religious activities, prayer meetings and worship fellowship than in the
past,"he said. "The witness is mainly given by means of seminars, youth
camps and their own dedication," he said. "They invite their peers to
accompany them to youth rallies and camps where the gospel is preached."

Praise and worship are the most popular ways youth relate to God. They
believe "God should be praised in the Biblical sense, with tambourine,
cymbals, string instruments" and dancing, he said. Youth experience current
traditions "as stiff and rigid" and are leaving the Lutheran church "for
one where the Lord can be magnified without reservation and the traditional
reverence." 

Youth feel excluded from the church where they "are looked upon as a
passive church for tomorrow in the congregations and not as equal partners
in proclaiming the word of God today," he added.

It is not easy for African youth to be witnesses for Christ. "There are
weights clinging heavily on our shoulders and pulling us back," he said.
"By weight, I do not necessarily mean sin in the life of the youth," but
the problems and "social evils" they encounter including civil war,
unemployment, lack of access to education and social services, crime,
poverty and genocide.

Youth have the potential toward constructive witness in church and
society," but it will take "hard work and dedication," he said.

In a press conference Lazarus said reconciliation is a factor of religious
life in Namibia, a country independent for only six years. Lutherans are
the majority in Namibia. "Christianity is encouraged," he said. "There is
more understanding and less violence. The churches preach reconciliation
right out loud."

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