February 28~March 6, 2011
Church Ministry News
Changhua Presbytery creatively addresses premarital sex, abortion, biblical illiteracy among youths
Reported by Joe Ko
Written by Lydia Ma
Changhua Presbytery held a Bible contest called “Grand Evaluation on Proverbs” on February 26, 2011, at Hsihu Presbyterian Church in Hsihu Township. Concerned about declining biblical literacy among youths today and hoping to instill the habit of reading Scripture daily instead of only Sundays, the presbytery hoped the event would encourage youths to read their Bibles more often.
The grand evaluation was a team game and each team received questions varying in level of difficulty depending on age group. Each team consisted of 4 people. Teams were further divided into youths in junior and senior high school and college-age youths. The test format included fill-in-the-blanks, short answers, and paragraph answers. Since it was an open-book evaluation, participants were allowed to flip through the Bible and search for answers.
According to Changhua Presbytery Youth Committee Secretary Liu Hsi-hsiang, the church had noticed that fewer youths liked to read the Bible in recent years and many were unfamiliar with the Bible. That is the reason he thought of organizing this event and he hoped to make it a fun, easy, and relaxing contest to inspire youths to pick up their Bibles.
In related news within Changhua Presbytery, the recent decline in age among youths experimenting with premarital sex prompted Yungfu Presbyterian Church to hold a retreat for youths on the weekend of February 26-28, 2011, to address issues such as dating and premarital sex.
Church leaders informed youths on these issues from a Biblical perspective and taught them about why “true love is worth waiting for.” They also encouraged youths to make a pact with God that they wouldn’t engage in any sexual activity before marriage.
Headlining this 3-day retreat was Huang Che-min, a representative from Rainbow Family Life Education Association. Huang underscored that youths should be level-headed when it comes to relationships with the opposite sex because they can become complex – especially when sexual urges are factored into the equation.
To illustrate his point with some humor, he arranged participants to play with one another using long threads. Before long, the room became a mess of tangled webs Having made his point, he then went on to teach youths the proper way to approach dating, the importance of praying for guidance constantly while dating, and the importance of sexual purity.
There were 52 participants at this retreat ranging from as young as sixth graders to as old as college students. According to event organizers, many participants interviewed before the retreat thought that as long as both people were willing, there was nothing wrong with premarital sex. But at the end of the retreat, almost everyone signed a card stating their promise to God that they would wait until marriage before engaging in sex. Many youths also said they’d like to keep in touch with counselors and church volunteers after the retreat to follow-up on what they’d learned and the promise they’d made.
