If we learned anything during the Covid-19 Pandemic, it is that the challenges that this current generation of young people are facing are far greater than any one organization, church, or program can meet. There are mountains that need to be moved in the lives of our young people, and it is our conviction that this can only be done by a great work of the Holy Spirit.
One of the “5 Essentials” – in other words, pillars of effective ministry – of Youth for Christ is widespread prayer. We’ve always believed this, but we’ve realized through the pandemic that if we’re truly to see a noticeable, spiritual impact among young people in Pierce County, a greater movement of prayer is imperative. Not prayer by just YFC staff, nor prayer just for YFC ministries. We need a greater movement of prayer by the greater Church body for all youth in Pierce County. This is what started us on the journey.
We created a position called the Church Engagement Coordinator, whose primary role is to help engage church bodies to coordinate a monthly prayer time for youth in Pierce County within their church body. We appreciate quick “drive-by prayers” for youth, but what is really needed is a more intentional, concerted mobilization of prayer for this next generation. We realized that to do this well would require a full-time staff devoted to this.
Fortunately, we didn’t need to look any further than our own staff to find the right person: Tim Smyth. Tim Smyth has been with Tacoma Youth for Christ for 11 years – as a volunteer at Frontier Middle School and a ministry Area Director. But he’s also served as a Pastor for years and has been super passionate about the local church and prayer. He’s been very involved in multiple pastor prayer networks, and engaging local churches in intercession was a natural fit!
The vision is a movement of young people falling in love with Jesus and becoming lifelong followers of Him. We hope to do this by engaging over 30 churches to coordinate a monthly prayer time for youth in Pierce County within their church bodies. The cool thing is that there is not just one way to do this. Sometimes the senior pastor will coordinate this, but sometimes it’s another staff member or even a lay leader. Sometimes a church will hold one night a week to intercede and will invite their entire congregation to attend. And sometimes, a home group will dedicate the first 30 minutes of their home group to praying once a month. There are many different expressions of this, but most importantly, people are praying for youth in Pierce County. When God’s people pray for youth, everyone wins!
Tim just started enlisting churches to pray a couple of months ago, but we already have over twenty churches and ministries who have committed to mobilizing their churches to pray. These churches are a very diverse group – just like God’s Church – geographically located all over Pierce County, racially diverse, and all denominations.
More prayer is always needed. If you are interested in receiving our monthly prayer guide and requests, please click here and we’ll add you to our list. If you think your church would be interested in joining the movement, please contact Tim Smyth at tim@tacomayfc.org.
Thank you for your partnership in the mission of engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following Jesus!
