Connecting young people with God

In an age where young people have television, the Internet and video games to pre-occupy their lives; practicing religion may seem like it's at the bottom of their list of things to do.

However, in a national survey conducted by MTV in August of 2003, a majority of young adults say they believed in God and think that religion is a very important part of their life.

In fact, 80 percent of young people believe in God or some higher being. Two-thirds identify with a particular organized religion or church.

Abundant Life Assembly of God in Kennett hired youth pastor Rick Turner in August 2004. Turner was previously a part-time youth pastor at the church.

A son of a preacher, Turner graduated from Kennett High School in 1984 then served in the Navy for six years. When he returned home, he helped his father with his non-denominational church, New Life.

"During that time I also organized 'Youth Quake', an event with various Christian rock bands and drama teams, and held it at the KHS auditorium with over 30 area churches in support," Turner said.

In May 1997, Turner volunteered at Word of Faith Christian Center in Bernie, Mo. and served as the youth pastor. He turned a youth group of 30 young people into a group of well over 100 youth.

"When you find that thing in life that you were created to do, your purpose, you can't help but be who you are," Turner said on how he became a youth pastor.

Currently, Turner serves as the leader for Abundant Life's C.A.G.E. Youth Group. The group has about 40 youth involved but Turner expects it to grow rapidly as the "core group gets more and more excited about what God is doing at C.A.G.E. youth ministries."

Monday, Jan. 10 Abundant Life and C.A.G.E. served as the meeting place for the Kennett Section Youth Ministry's monthly rally. About 100 or more young people show up from churches all across the Dunklin County area.

The rally featured a rap group, dance team and band, all worshiping God. Pastor Waylon Tom from First Assembly in Senath lead the group in prayer and worship.

Rap music is typically not the type of music one would expect to hear in church but Turner said that "worship is the simple expression of our adoration of God and true worship comes from the heart, not the style of music."

"We have a whole generation of young people that, if we do not find a way for them to express how they feel towards God in a format that connects with their hearts, then we have failed them," Turner said. "I have found that all we have to do is get them in an atmosphere of God's presence and He does all the hard work."

Turner works hard to get young people into "God's presence." Every Wednesday night the C.A.G.E. youth group meets for "Face Down" ministries. The first Saturday of each month is the "Saturday Nite X-treme Worship," which is a concert by a regional Christian rock or hip hop group, followed by a worship.

"These Saturday night services are very exciting not only with lights, fog machines and awesome music but with an intense worship experience that can hardly be described unless experienced," Turner said.

He believes that it's important to get as many youth involved as possible and just as many to "really know God, not just about him."

"We were created for God, without him in our lives would be incomplete," Turner said. "One day when we stand before him and if we have to admit we rejected his sacrifice, we're going to be in big trouble. Just being a good ol' boy won't do it."

Turner doesn't believe that young people will only worship in more contemporary formats such as the C.A.G.E. youth events.

"I believe there are many ways to connect with young people with God, this just happens to be the style that they enjoy," said Turner.

Travis Finley and Randy Howard are the members of the C.A.G.E. rap group. They write and sing their own original music.

The dance team is also from C.A.G.E., consisting of Turner's daughter, Rachel, Amber Davis, Ariel Sparks, Sandy Ward, Dustin Roland, Travis Finley, Randy Howard, Heather Jarrett, Brittany Riddle, Rachel Turner and Liliana Vilchis. The boys create their own dance movies and Chandra Hart from Malden does the choreography for the girls.

Turner is also the materials manager at Trinity Marine in Caruthersville. He is married to Melinda and they have three children, Christopher, Derick and Rachel.