American youths make up 80 percent of the current fallout in churches, according to a statistic released by Barna. Church-going Asian American youths, on the other hand, make up 90 percent, says spokesman Nakules Veran of the Agape Renewal Center.
"We found that it was very necessary to address this issue in the youth and provide them with the right training and motivation," he added, "This is time worth spending."
Feb. 5, The Agape Renewal Center (Agape), Campus Church Network and the Church Multiplication Associates gathered more than 200 youth leaders nationwide to attend the Campus Reformation conference at the Agape International Leadership Institute.
Agape’s decision to host the conference came after parents continually voiced concerns to ministry president, Dr. Ernest Chan, that much of the second-generation and one-half generation Chinese Americans were not receiving sufficient attention, said Veran.
The majority of the attendants included late-adolescent and mid-twenties youth ministry leaders hailing from campus located Texas thru Colorado. Organizers of the conference recognized that starting training with youths from campuses as being the first step in maintaining the faith of the worldwide Christian community.
"You’ll find [that] future leaders emerge from schools," Veran stated. "The U.S. is unique place because there are students from all over the world. If you impact them, they will go back to their native countries with what they learned."
By training the future generation in ways to serve the body of Christ, the influence of the Holy Spirit will spread all over the world, he explains.
"So, this influence of the Holy Spirit will trickle down all over. We look at the youth in the same way. They are all future leaders in some sense," concluded Veran.
The Agape Renewal Center in cooperation with various campus ministries plans to start a Youth Leadership Formation Series to further develop ministry-training for Asian American Christians. The conference will follow up with a March 11 conference, titled Youth Move Unplugged, that will focus on power evangelism.
