Don Osman, vice-president of Youth For Christ International.- Contributed

Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter

After years of being focused mainly on evangelism and discipleship, Youth For Christ International is turning its attention to raising missionaries to carry the gospel to persons who live in those parts of the world without a strong Christian witness.

So said Don Osman, vice-president of Youth For Christ International, during an interview earlier this week with The Gleaner.

Mr. Osman, who hails originally from Sierra Leone, is in Jamaica as the guest of Swallowfield Chapel, in Kingston. He is participating in that church's annual missions conference, which began last Sunday and which concludes tomorrow. He is the main speaker.

Mr. Osman, who serves as a vice-president at the Denver, Colorado world headquarters of Youth For Christ, said the organisation is still thinking through how it is going to effectively play its part in raising missionaries.

Eyes wide open

"Youth For Christ was for a long time involved in missions but it was not an intentional endeavour. Right now we are going into it with our eyes wide open. Because of this huge need that we see around the world in terms of unreached people-groups - most of which are young people - YFC has decided to give missions a much more focused approach. Part of my job is to come up with global initiatives that will address specifically the need of church in terms of leadership development, create discipleship process that is very focused, and try to develop a new generation of Christian young people which we call 'Generation Next Now'," said the visiting preacher.

He continued, "We try to throw away the adage that 'the children and the youth are the future church'. If they know Jesus, they are the church right now, whether they like it or not! They are the church and we need to deal with them. And so we have this emphasis of not only training them but allowing them to lead. Unless you allow them to lead, you have not done anything. We are intentional in terms of not only engaging them in the development of their gifts, but in allowing them to lead us. So all of us have our letter of resignation in our desk because we have to work ourselves out of a job and allow these young people to lead us to the next phase and the next wave of Christian ministry."

Mr. Osman, 54, who was first the director of Youth For Christ in Sierra Leone, became head of that Africa chapter of that international parachurch organisation in 1994. Since 2003, he has been serving the world body at its headquarters in Denver.

As vice-president with responsibility for international ministries, he is charged with the implementation of the YFC International strategic plan. This involves the development and implementation of discipleship and mentoring programmes, staff development and the new approach to missions.

His vision is for every YFC charter nation to have a missions department. This is a particularly urgent objective for him in the YFC chapters located in the Two-Thirds World. He wants to see a change of mindset where Africa and the Caribbean are regarded no longer as places needing missionaries but regions that send out missionaries.

More career missionaries needed

Mr. Osman is concerned that there should be more career missionaries serving in the mission field. He makes the observation that the trend has been that the West sends out mainly short-term missionaries - that is, persons who will serve for a few months up to five years. But what is needed, he hinted, are career missionaries, and for that supply one has to look to the 'two-thirds world', in keeping with shift of epicentre of Christianity. In this shift, Christian witness, formerly dominant in Europe, has now been concentrated in Africa and other nations ofthe 'two-thirds world'.

As it is only now getting serious about raising missionaries, the YFC vice-president said the parachurch ministry is consulting with established mission agencies and organisations to guide the new focus.

He said: "In the 'two-thirds world' there is a groundswell of young people who feel called for the rest of their lives to missions. Yet, there isn't the infrastructure and resources to support them in that calling. Youth For Christ International believes we need to come around those young people and provide the infrastructure and the resources they need and help them to fulfill God's will for their lives. There is no reason why Jamaica should not be sending missionaries to the jungles of the Congo or Papua New Guinea - because these are people that look like us and could identify easily with us. Yet these are people who desperately need to hear the gospel from one of their own kind."

In some sections of the global Christianity community, there is debate about the continued relevance of parachurch organisations such as Youth For Christ. This debate is framed in the context that many local churches are now excelling in that which was pioneered by the parachurch organisation.

Mr. Osman, in response, expressed the view that parachurches forms part of the 'Church Universal' which received the Great Commission from Christ to make disciples of all nations. He said 'Parachurch' is a nomenclature given for convenience. "Like it or not, the church universal includes every one of us. And, therefore, we are the church, whether we like it or not. We use the word parachurch.

Assist the church

"I don't get upset like some of my colleagues do, when we are named a parachurch because the third person of the Trinity was called the paraclete. If we are called the parachurch, it can't be bad. Para means someone who comes alongside to give aid. I have never had any problem with that ... As the church universal we have every right to be doing what we are doing ... when,as an organisation, we find ourselves competing with the ministries of the local church, that of itself goes against the grain of the Youth For Christ ethos because we say they are there to assist the church. By that token we need to find a way to get within the local body of believers and help them."

He cited an example of YFC collaborating with churches, hinting that such could be a model for the Christian community. When he was based in Kenya as head of YFC, Africa, there was a high school there, called St. Mary's which was populated by about 1,000 students, about 40 of whom attended the YFC-pioneered Christian fellowship there.

Then the local chapter of YFC changed its strategy and approached various denominations and invited them to partner with them in reaching the children of that school. YFC went into those denominations and trained various personnel in evangelism and discipleship. These churches then became involved in the work in the school. And when he last visited the school, the Christian fellowship there numbered more than 400.

There is an abiding relevance for YFC, he said, as one of this parachurch's strengths is its ability to do Christian ministry using unorthodox methodologies which often pose a problem for churches steeped in conservatism.

Nevertheless, he cautioned, "I think sometimes Youth For Christ has to be careful that we are not promoting an organisational agenda but promoting a Kingdom agenda ... It is our job to reach those unreached young people and invite the church to come and join us in developing them."

Don Osman may be reached at don.osman@yfci.org Send feedback on Mind&Spirit to mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com