Why should the Global Church matter to young people?

In this blog, Global Church Youth Rep, Megan Haslam argues that relationships across the global Church are more important than ever and voice of young people can help shape the church for the future.

She writes:

Put simply, the Global Church matters to me because it matters that every person on the planet has a chance to hear and respond to the message of Jesus, and as a Christian with a very specific background, it is impossible for me to achieve this goal without global relations. If you have a relationship with God, it is because in some way or another, Jesus reached you. Maybe it was through something someone said to you, maybe it was through the Bible, or perhaps it was something completely different. However you came to know Jesus, somehow, you were reached with the Good News. As humans, we are all completely different; God will not speak to you in the same way He speaks to me, and so our Evangelism has to recognise that. The first time I thought about why the Global Church matters was when I was reading about Pentecost. In Acts 2:5 we are told that during Pentecost there were Jews from ‘every nation under heaven’ in Jerusalem, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, 3000 people came to faith after hearing the Gospel spoken in their native language. This showed me that since its birth, the Church has been built with an international perspective. One of the subjects about which the apostle Paul is most passionate is that the Gospel is for all people: Jews and Gentiles. In a world where a heavy focus is placed on individuality and personal circumstances, I believe that as a Church it is becoming increasingly important to remember the roots of Christianity and the outward focus Jesus has given us. But the question still remains, why should this matter to young people?

As young people in the Methodist Church we are given a voice - we have an opportunity to shape our Church into something we want to pass on to the next generation of Christians. We are living through a pivotal time in history - the pandemic has shown us that international cooperation is both necessary and beneficial and as we go into the future we are facing the biggest crisis of our time in Climate Change. The next decade will be crucial for humanity and it is largely down to us as young people of this time to decide which way we go. Now more than ever the world needs the hope that the Church can bring, as much as the world needs positive and strong relationships between countries. If we can set an example of Christ-like international relations, we could seriously impact what the world looks like in ten years time. I want to be part of that. Do you?