Dover Youth

Joshua 1:16 And they answered Joshua, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go." This is the theme for Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes for the 2008-2009 year, and we are working on it. And far better, what the followers of the Lord in Joshua's time pledged is what we pledge to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since we will be referring to Lads to Leaders from time to time, let's introduce and define it. We have been doing Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes for two years now and have come to like its methodology pretty well. At Easter 2007, our first time to go to Convention in Nashville, we sent 30 people and won in 9 events. At Convention 2008 we sent 33 people (some young people and some sponsors) and won in 30 events. Convention is an annual Easter event at which over 14, 000 young people and their adult sponsors meet to positively reinforce the good things that their youth are doing. We whoop and holler and cheer on people at athletic events, don't we? Who's against doing the same for people who are learning to live the lives Christ intended for them to?

Lads to Leaders helps us structure and make a bit of a game of doing things we really always wanted to do for the Lord--teach others about Jesus, show them how we worship and how we live, and do kind things for people. We do Good Samaritan acts like raking leaves in little old ladies' yards. We visit people in nursing homes and hospitals. We read the Bible and memorize scripture. We obtain and practice skills in song leading, speaking, and reading the Bible to large audiences. Lads to Leaders is a way to organize, structure, and motivate us to do good things.

As we have become much more active in doing the Lord's work of evangelizing, edifying, and benevolence, we have also become a lot better acquainted with older people at our congregation in Dover. Lads to Leaders has been a really good way of breaking down generational barriers (or keeping them from ever happening). It has been a good way to put numbers on hwo much we are doing and to encourage each other to do more. There's a real feeling of satisfaction that comes from doing what the Lord asks us to (Luke 6: 46--"And why call ye me 'Lord, Lord' and do not the things which I say?").

We enjoy being busy in the Lord's work. As of 2008, the big push that's on is with Lads to Leaders. For more about that, please see the Lads to Leaders page at http://www.dovercoc.org/youth/ltl.html . Our work is very much a part of our congregation's work. See how often we are mentioned in the on-line monthly calendar at http://dovercoc.org/Dover%20church%20of%20Christ_events.htm