‘You don’t need to teach Bible — all you need to do is to love them’.
That was said to me by a youth leader who was convinced that, if young people knew they were loved, they would come back to the church. My response was simple. What greater evidence of love is there than to tell someone the truth. And, what is more, it is the truth which comes from God’s word.
How we show we care
But the question prompted me to think how, indeed, we show that we ‘care for the flock’ (1Peter 5.2). How important is it that our young people know they are loved and how do we do that? Do we just have to say ‘we love you’ to convince them that they are. In the Bible it is clear that love is an action word — it is far more about what you do and those actions being consistent with what you say, whether that be in a talk or a conversation.
