Unmasking the Chain of Fools and Loosening Yokes of Bondage

Teneisha Ward-Finney 

            Recently for four spirit-filled days in September, members of Koinonia Worship center was given a testament and worthy testimony in breaking strongholds of perpetual bondage. The occasion was the annual Joshua Empowerment Conference.  The 2013 fare (September 27-29) added a new flavor to the mix. I say this because Divine intervention cannot be denied when the enemy is not given time to deny if you’re rooted and ready for the right message to be sent to you by God’s messengers. God uses a sense of timeliness promptness to allow light to shine where it would illuminate best. The Outlet, Koinonia’s young adult advisory team and the Kingdom Building Youth Ministry jointly wanted to make sure that the favored light and flavor not only would be different but pack a punch that would be noticeable, accepted and understood. They wanted a viable teacher tenable and tenacious enough to be taken seriously...someone who wouldn’t be rejected, and certainly one who’d be approved without reproach. They wanted a female preacher, Yes, THAT type of preacher! 

     She came with her own brand of fire and brimstone, ready to expose the chain of fools, and breaking other bondage that young and old folk alike are struggling with. The female pastorate often are much-maligned for equal parity in the pulpit, but one particular night of that week was an exception. Her name? Teneisha Ward-Finney. Write that down! She is the Youth Pastor and Assistant Fine Arts Director at the Boynton Beach Church of God House of Kingdom Worship. The holder of a Bachelor’s of Business Administration & Management degree as well as a Masters of Science in Education Leadership which gives allowance to her being well-endowed academically...but it’s her acumen for divinity and Christian fortitude that stood out most.

       The theme for the conference bordered on Isaiah 58:6 where there’s a basic example of how and why fasting is important where preparation for discernment in living right should be foremost. The verse is telling: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Pastor Finney was most astute and adamant in interpreting this scripture simply and with clarity. She gave examples of reason why people align themselves making the wrong decisions which precipitates failure. Moreover, she was most emphatic explaining recourses detailing rebuke, while aptly describing the difference between false and true religion; how someone can look "good" on the outside concerning religious ritual, but not have a right relationship with God. 

      I can honestly say that the audience was spellbound where the drop of a pin could have been heard. A chorus of amens and hallelujahs could be heard intermittently throughout her sermon, but the one constant theme she embedded was the need for deductive reasoning, logic and good common sense to  strengthen a bond in Him, loosen all chains, and eliminate the fools who would keep you from being the person not oppressed and free of yokes. If it was up to me, I’d have no reservations in coercing the pastoral leadership inviting her back, for she has shown through her message that she has a heart to preach and proclaim all that’s needed to make an election and calling surest. She admonished to pre-teens, young adult, and quite a few gray heads alike, postulating that it is the younger generation that has the strength to carry the vision of the wise into the future!

Key Opportunities and Challenges for Positive Changes in Youth Ministries

Are you as concerned as I am in reference to how a greater number of the youth of this generation regard attendance in church, and all other things spiritual? Suffice it to say, youth in growing numbers across the nation in all of our churches are in a dilemma. If they’re not leaving the church they are definitely not in tune to keeping their attention span alert and invigorated to stick and stay. This essay dwells on essential opportunities that should be initiated for greater appeal with emphasis on keeping our children motivated and on point; it also delves in addressing the many challenges where change of habit concerning spirituality and other inspired choices for a positive spin on studying the Bible, participating in youth church and allowing them to become the leaders of tomorrow. A tough task in the making? You betcha! But all is not lost if certain things are dealt with to insure a modicum of introducing new ideas, embracing ideals that inspire, and of course, making sure salvation is not lost among the essentials to change mindsets. 

    After all, it’s still our job as responsible adults to train them up and show them the way to go. Of course, and issue to deal with is how we’re capitalizing on where students are in their mindsets on a whole and how they can become involved without boredom surfacing. Several children and young adults have always told me that they really want to have an impact on their world and live a life of significance, but doing it without rancor and reprimand. They’re concerned because they feel parents and grown folk always use parallel and ‘back in the day’ analogies...and that adults don’t respect their opinions. This gave me the wherewithal to think that they are looking for leaders that they can identify with in helping them find answers that they can’t always get from their peers. They are seeing that our world is not functioning in the way they would hope it would function, and because of that, I see youth not being discouraged but rather encouraged about how they can make a difference.

    For sure, we KNOW that the village is not the same, and it’s a new generation with real problems. What can be done to introduce and emphasize positives in anything changed for greater participatory initiatives? How many of them can we condition to evangelize and allow peer-to-peer synergy to bubble to the surface? Challenges abound when it comes to our youth, but I’m going to wrap both of those questions up into one concept—that of making disciples. God wants us adults to be accountable. We should be judged by how many disciples we made, how many people are still in the kingdom five or 10 years from now and beyond. Moreover, helping kids to develop spirituality is one element that makes all the difference in the world to me. 

   It continues to be a struggle for churches to involve students into the full life of the church without losing them to the streets, and/or to other more ‘so-called’ dynamic churches in their way of thinking. You have kids who have pretty extensive responsibilities with things they do at school, whether it be their involvement team sports, clubs or other leadership things they do. Then when it gets to the church, it’s kind of like, “You’re really not quite ready to do something significant here because you’re not involving me” idea. So the tendency for most churches who don’t have regular youth services, or a replica of the main church under their own participation is to keep all the youth of the church locked up in the teen room or have them unwillingly attending the big church uninterested, uninspired and undisciplined.

    

   In closing but certainly not least, we as adults have to do a better job of parenting and teaching Biblical principles so that they are galvanized an accepted by those same principles as the genesis for change. Of course we will be challenged on all fronts, but there’s no better challenge where we would be able to see the fruit of our labor. And speaking of ‘fruit’, we can start by feeding them great doses of Galatians 5: 22-23. On that note, there are a few things that I feel would make a difference in our youth that I’d like to see happen in their lives. Moreover, I think of that 12 year-old Jesus who grew exponentially when challenged to make decisions when he witnessed wrongdoing. Look no forward to the scripture that I based this essay on -- Luke 2:52. I honestly think  that all of us need to know God in personal ways. We can give our youth new leases on life where they can move to an ownership of their faith, where there are opportunities to make their faith known. These are essential pillars of my strategy for the spiritual development of students as they determine by destined value the positive changes that challenges them!