Last February, we saw some 36 young people from EJ and singles group make a youth commitment in front of the Lamb of God Community in Auckland. By making their Youth commitment, they are expressing a desire to enter more fully towards becoming part of the community. They no longer come to Sunday meetings just because their parents and/or friends do so. They decided to make EJ or Singles their way of life.
The Youth commitment has two parts, the ideals and the actual commitments. The ideals are soul or the spirit of the commitment, and the actual commitments are the bones and the flesh of it.
We hope to invite young people to commit and re-commit every year. We asked them to hold each other to their ideals and commitments. We invite all EJers and singles all over NZ to make the same commitments in their hearts.
A. We want to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths. (Mark 12:30; Mathew 22:37). We want God to become the centre of our entire lives. We want to live a life consecrated to His will and repent when we fall. We want to come in prayer everyday and abide by the Word of God in our daily living. We want to please God in our studies, career choices, work, family relationships and state of life. We want to be open to the Holy Spirit leading us in expressive and charismatic worship and transforming our character to become more and more like Jesus.
B. We want to be different from the world. We want to live as radical disciples of Jesus in our schools, universities, homes, and in the workplace. Rather than conform with the world, we want to become agents of transformation (Romans 12:2) so that Christ can be glorified in all situations we will face and lead other young men and women to Himself.
C. We want to love each other in a holy and righteous way and see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We agree not to seek romantic relationships until we are ready to move on in our state of life and with counsel of our pastoral leaders. Instead, we will focus on developing strong, Christ centered relationships with one another as friends, as genuine brothers and sisters in the Lord. Even as we are young, we desire to be examples for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity (1 Timothy 4:12). We desire to forgive one another and seek forgiveness if we offend anyone.
D. We want to serve our Lord. We offer our time, talents and resources to God so that He can use us to advance His Kingdom. We will serve willingly and joyfully, whenever the opportunity arises. We will be supportive in our relationships, participate faithfully, and be good examples to others.
E. We want Jesus to be revealed in the way we live so that others might see His light and come to know Him. We will be open with the Gospel and share it with others, for we want to turn this world upside down for Jesus!
F. This is the Lord’s call to us and we want to follow these ideals. We want to see His Kingdom come and His will be done in everything we do and say. We want to follow Jesus Christ with all of our lives and for the rest of our lives.
I, ___________________________, with the help of my brothers and sisters in Encounter Jesus and Singles’ group of the Lamb of God community, commit myself to these ideals.
Signature: ______________________ Date:_____________
Signature: _________________ Date: ____________