Grace & Peace! My name is Stanley Williams. I serve as the Next Gen Collegiate Ministries director for the Baptist Resource Network.

Shane Pruitt, the director for the North American Mission Board’s Next Gen Evangelism, recently noted that as much as 87% of all persons who come to saving faith in North America do so before they graduate high school. He went further to note that as many as 95% of all persons who have made a decision for Christ as Savior and Lord, did so before they turned 30 years of age. Clearly the most significant window in a human’s life, in North America at least, for impacting LOSTNESS is when they are youth and young adults.

The Next Gen team of the BRN is passionately convinced of this. We believe that one of the most important pathways in accelerating Kingdom movement before the church is what we call the FUTURE CHURCH pathway. It is the path of the church who makes it their priority of existence to missionally engage the next generations, and intentionally disciple them into passionate followers of Christ by investing in their leadership development and ultimately their apostolic deployment in to the mission fields of harvest in North America.

As your church senses that this is indeed the path which the Holy Ghost of God is setting you aside to engage, myself and Eric Reiber, the Next Gen Collegiate Ministries Associate Director for the BRN, welcome the opportunity to come alongside you in taking the first steps towards going to the next level of impacting lostness with young people.

For just a few minutes, I want to outline with you what we believe is the most important first step along that pathway. In the BRN, the master template for accelerating Kingdom movement always begins with the necessary, unavoidable look in the mirror, which we call ASSESSMENT.

The Future Church Pathway begins the same way. There are two quintessential assessments, which we invite churches to explore. The first is an internal assessment, which explores the relative state of the health of your church’s ministries to youth and young adults. And the second is similar. It is an external assessment of what we call the missional engagement quotient, which is before your church.

If you would like more information about either of these assessments, please reach out to me directly through my email: stanw@brnunited.org. Either Eric Reiber or myself will be in touch with you on when and how to best begin this journey.

I thank you in advance for your willingness to consider the Future Church Pathway towards accelerating Kingdom movement. I look forward to hearing from you real soon.