Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Spiritual State of the World's Children : Malaysia

A recent survey by OneHope-Asia Pacific and NECF Malaysia titled strangely Spiritual State of the World's Children : Malaysia when it is actually "A Qualitative Study - English Speaking Youth Report" which deals mainly with youths. The survey reveals some interesting facts about the youth and youth pastors in Malaysia and worth the reading. I am fascinated by the weaknesses identified by the study:

Weaknesses & Threats: Relative to Church and Youth Ministry
  • Youth today seem to make poor and hasty decisions due to lack of spiritual and parental guidance
  • Malaysian youth struggle with self-identity and look to their peers for affirmation and guidance when problems arise
  • Youth are so engrossed with the Internet and the virtual world, that they are having problems with interpersonal relationships
  • Youth are not interested with the current methods the church is using to reach out to them and they view the church as boring and irrelevant
  • Malaysian youth view the education system as weak and rigid which creates tension and frustration among students
  • Malaysian youth are often misunderstood by the older generation and this contributes to the growing gap between the two
  • The lack of fatherhood and mentors as role models are deterrents to finding new and emerging young leaders
  • The amount of time youth spend on tuition and extracurricular activities makes it difficult for the church to be involved in meaningful discipleship-making
  • Discipleship is seen as the responsibility of the church, when in fact parents should be more involved in the spiritual growth of their children
  • Church leaders recognize that the church is weak in responding to the challenges that exist among Malaysian youth
  • Church leaders acknowledge that the societal shift towards materialism will present potential future problems within the church
read more

Do you agree? Young people, what are your views?


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4 Comments:

Anonymous U-Liang said...

The lack of mentors/fathers and role models is a particularly acute problem, especially for boys.

It is my observation that girls are naturally more 'religious' and attracted to spiritual matters by themselves.

But guys need heroes and role models to emulate. The study is right, deficit in this department will hurt the church of Malaysia in the future.

8:53 PM  
Blogger Alex Tang said...

Hi U-Liang,

I agree with you that the lack of good mentors and role models is a serious problem in our churches.

However, I believe girls need mentors and role models as much as the guys :-)

10:59 AM  
Blogger blogpastor said...

Looks like youths in Singapore and Malaysia churches face similar problems to a large extent.

10:08 PM  
Blogger Alex Tang said...

Hi Blogpastor,

I am not surprised. The two countries are very similar in many ways.

10:47 PM  

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