By Lionel Chan

As we celebrate our 60th National Day, we, in Singapore Youth For Christ have grown alongside our budding nation.

SYFC started off not knowing what was ahead, often times stumbling along with much fear and trembling. But we constantly asked ourselves two questions: Where do we find the young people? Are we relevant to their felt needs, to ultimately point them to their greatest need for Christ?

Staff, volunteers and students over the years can tell you countless stories of trial and error, pain and disappointment with people, programmes and outcomes. But by the grace of God, we stumbled onto ideas and ways that allowed us to reach souls for Christ, and overtime we have looked back with surprise, knowing we ourselves could not have even imagined or dreamt about them!

Like our nation constantly bracing itself for challenges ahead, as a youth ministry, we need to look ahead to trends and turmoil affecting the young people of our nation. Jonathan Haidt, in his book, The Anxious Generation, wrote, “…Children born in the late 1990s were the first generation in history who went through puberty in the virtual world. It’s as though we sent Gen Z to grow up on Mars when we gave them smartphones in the early 2010s…” He warns of the “rewiring of the young mind”!

We cannot ignore or deny the impact smartphones and social media have on our generation. So we look for good ideas to reach tech-savvy youth, quick to adapt to new technologies.

However, in their quest for true purpose, values and security, their needs stay the same – genuine connections, meaningful experiences in the Lord and the timeless truths of God’s Word.

While the future seems uncertain and unpredictable, we are anchoring ourselves to the Lord of the Harvest who has sustained us, upholds us now and will strengthen us for what is ahead. As we celebrate SG60, enjoy our version of SG60 – Sharing Gospel in 60 ways!

From 60’s to 2000’s

1. Saturday Night Rallies
2. Keen Teen Crusades
3. Clubs and clubbers
4. Use of Bridge to Life
5. Evangelistic Film Ministry
6. Agape Day
7. Evangelistic concerts
8. Music Ministry
9. Evangelistic youth magazines
10. Street contact work
11. Project Serve
12. Foreign sports and music teams
13. Outreach to marginalised youth
14. My School, My Harvest!
15. Use of evangelistic Discovery Journey
16. Sports and adventure outreach
17. Internet Cafe
18. Design of Creative Evangelistic Tools
19. PlayMax
20. TeenGames

Today

21. Mind Brewing Café
22. Use of 2 Ways to Live
23. This Connected Carnival
24. Student-led evangelism campaigns
25. GUGO (Get Up & Get Out) weekend night climbs and sports
26. Gaming to gospel approach
27. A personal evangelism learning curriculum and tutors
28. Using conversation cards to encourage interaction
29. Weaving in gospel points relevantly in conversations
30. Interactive immersive gospel-sharing experience
31. Small group meetings (PEP, LIFE, LITE groups)
32. Online to onsite approach
33. Mental health and wellness talks
34. Community service events
35. Outreach to preteens and teens whose parents are incarcerated
36. Outreach to foreign youth
37. Assimilating marginalised youth into church communities
38. Converts who were beneficiaries returning to serve at-risk teens
39. Year End Missions (YEM) for Christian students
40. Environmental sustainability events like Kayak and Klean

Future

41. Be ahead of young people
42. Youth ‘hot potato’ dialogues and podcasts
43. A non-Christian friendly Christian community
44. Unfiltered conversation play sessions
45. Evangelistic material based on Ecclesiastes
46. Funny memes as conversation starters
47. Tapping wisely on AI (Artificial Intelligence)
48. Cool, catchy gospel songs
49. Return of kampung games
50. Gym Bros (workouts together in the gym)
51. Live jams (music teams coming together)
52. Online evangelistic tools
53. Connection with like-minded Christian educators
54. Intentional, strategic interaction with parents
55. Ministry to preteens and youth with special needs
56. Online preteens programmes
57. Parent-child bonding activities
58. Preteens life skills and character values sessions
59. Outreach on Children’s Day and Youth Day
60. Always opening up God’s Word to youth and preteens