The Home Grown discipleship initiative is a powerful strategic initiative that unites our families, local churches and Adventist schools in the important focus on growing strong young followers of Jesus.  Children and teenagers spend most of their time at school and home.  They are also influenced significantly by their parents and teachers as well as their youth pastors.  This is why the Home Grown initiative is so important and powerful – it unites the three key spiritual influences in a young person’s life.

There is a major potential blind spot, though, with the Home Grown initiative.  What about the young people in our churches who do not attend Adventist schools?  Is there a way that we still provide a similar level of discipleship to children and teenagers who are not enrolled in our own school system?  I believe that there is and that it could involve three key initiatives.

1.  Building Adventist Connections with Non-Adventist Schools: 

Strategically, it would be very valuable for our local churches to identify the non-Adventist schools where Adventists young people are enrolled.  Our church leaders and the parents of the students can approach the principal and chaplain of the school and introduce them to the Adventist church together with its belief system and values.  We can then discuss with them the best ways to provide spiritual support for Adventist students while they are studying at the school.

2.  Building a Mission Team: 

One of the best ways to grow a young person’s faith is to empower them to get actively involved in service and mission as a team.  We can inspire and empower our young people who are not enrolled at Adventist schools to view their schooling as a local mission opportunity.  They could form a small mission team with other Adventist students at their school, even if it is only two or three students, to pray for their classmates and teachers, to plan ways that they could intentionally share their faith and to disciple other non-Adventist students who they are reaching.  This was the strategy that Jesus used with His disciples (Mark 6:7 and Luke 10:1).

3.  Providing a Discipleship and Mission Coach: 

Our church leaders and the parents of students could work together to intentionally provide Adventist young people who are enrolled in non-Adventist schools with a discipleship coach.  It could either be an Adventist employee at the school, one of the parents or another person in our church who has a particular heart for young people.  Coaching provides the relational support that enables young people to become strong and resilient disciples and to become effective in sharing their faith.

In this way, what may initially be seen as a potential blind spot of the Home Grown initiative can actually be an incredible mission opportunity for our young people.

Sven Östring is the new Director of Personal Ministries and Discipleship, with a specific calling to grow the discipleship movement in Greater Sydney.

(This article appears in the May-June 2014 issue of the IntraSyd, a bi-monthly publication of the Greater Sydney Conference).