ONEFamily Outreach Seeks to Bridge Gaps
Submitted by Jerry Goebel
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Jerry Goebel of ONEFamily Outreach is concerned by the growing gap between “those who have and those who don’t” and how that gap is hardening. The “haves” feel wealth is their privilege and pass laws to protect it, Jerry says, while the poor become fatalistic about their plight.
Jerry sees a similar gap growing between “those who are in” our churches or schools and “those who are out.” That gap also seems to be hardening as we differentiate between “those kids” and “our kids.” Jerry fears that we will continue to spend more resources on fewer young people.
Jerry believes that churches can easily become “eucharistic centers of preventative and restoration ministries.” The challenge he sees is to focus on connecting healthy adults and youth instead of just running more programs that further disengage youth from adults in their community. This is more of a challenge for adults than for youth, and youth leaders must be adept at building “crossable bridges” between those two divergent groups, he says.
ONEFamily hopes to expand its efforts to curb the disenfranchisement of youth by reaching out to Eastern Africa, India, and Central Mexico.
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