The Good Work of Reaching and Building Young People
by Evangelist Morris Gleiser • Revival ministries

Author Biographical Information: 

• Ministry: Revival ministries
• Ministry Role: Evangelist
• Years in Full-Time Service: 32

Morris Gleiser was born and raised in a Christian home. He received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior at the age of six through the influence of his godly father and mother. He surrendered his life to the Lord at the age of eight. He actually heard the call of God to the ministry at the age of eighteen, and became burdened for teenagers a year later. He carries that burden to this day. He entered Bob Jones University (where he met his wife, Lynn) in the fall of 1972 and graduated with a four-year degree in three years. Lynn also is a BJU graduate in the field of Home Economics. God has given them two sons who have dedicated their lives to serve the Lord also in the ministry. He has served in many facets of ministry as a Camp Director, Associate pastor, Youth Leader, and Evangelist. Bro. Gleiser is continuing in full time Evangelism/Revival work and became the Staff Evangelist of the Burge Terrace Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. His desire is to continue to minister to young and old alike through evangelism and a strong pulpit ministry.

While taking an afternoon jog in a mid-western city a few years back, I passed the local High School at the end of the school day. The buildings emptied teenagers in every direction. Out they came! Some started lighting up cigarettes; many began to crank up their cars with the sounds of rock music and their corresponding vibrations shaking the very ground. Some couples were hanging onto each other, while others were dressed in obvious “gang” clothing of one sort or another. There was no question: Satan and a definite worldly philosophy had done its “work” on these teenagers. As I continued my jog down the road, I found myself beginning to weep and asking this question: What am I doing to reach such kids for Christ? In fact, what are our churches doing today to reach teenagers for the Lord?

I think it is quite obvious that in some church settings we have chosen to use the same methods as the world in order to communicate and reach young people. We know that many churches are using the same style of music that can be heard on any rock or pop music radio station. These churches also decline to have any kind of dress standard for fear of “losing” teenagers. My question is simply this: what have we accomplished when we lower ourselves to the world’s lifestyles and carry on with the world’s music, dress and activities? Because of a fear of “losing” teenagers, I say we have never “won” any of these teenagers.

Sadly however, there are other ministries that have secluded themselves from the world around them. They may not have chosen to lower their standards, but at the same time they never seek to reach out into their respective communities and win any of the local teens to Christ. In fact, I’m convinced we have gotten to the place that we work hard at the edification and building up of the saints, but are failing to go forth into the highways and hedges to bring new converts to the Lord

THE STORY OF NEHEMIAH
Can I remind you of the great and dramatic story of Nehemiah located in the heart of your Old Testament? Remember when he “heard” the report from the men about the Jews and Jerusalem in Chapter 1? The report that the people were under “great affliction and reproach” broke his heart. In fact, Nehemiah 1:4 tells us that he sat down and wept, fasted and prayed for days. It shook him up – and he hadn't even seen the real conditions yet! He was simply going on the report of how things were in Jerusalem.

When you hear of the rising suicide rates in our country; when you hear of the rise in teenage crime; the epidemic use of alcohol and drugs; when you hear of teenagers continuing to participate in some sort of gang or other types of groups made available to them, does it ever break your heart? I suppose that is the real reason you got into the ministry to begin with: A broken Heart, like that of Christ (Matthew 9:36). However, can you remember the last time you wept over a lost teenage soul? I can give you all kinds of statistics about suicide, murders, single-parent homes, date-rapes, etc., but wouldn’t it be just a bunch of numbers to you?

Can you catch a fresh vision like Nehemiah did? He had to get involved in re-building the city walls and so a plan was put together. His vision to help re-build the city ought to be a Biblical standard for us as well. Take a look at his Vision—It included several things:

SUPPLICATION
Before we jump out of our offices and start down the road into planning, let us all fall on our knees and plead for our God’s guiding hand. You can’t help but notice that Nehemiah was constantly praying for the Lord to give wisdom and power. So should we! In fact, we must have God’s guidance and power or we will be guilty of manipulating people through man-made effort.

Souls will only be brought to Christ through our Lord’s divine Hand. Nehemiah referred to the “good hand of the Lord” being upon his life (2:8,18). Can we speak of the same?

I remember the first time I actually prayed for God to give His wondrous power upon me as I sought to know and do His will. I was still in my Christian College days and I was driving around my home town. While praying and asking the Lord to use me, I noticed an index card in my car. The card had another boy’s name on it along with his address. I remembered that it was a card supplied by my home church and was supposed to be visited on some night of church visitation. Well, I attempted to convince myself that it wasn’t “visitation night”; therefore I couldn’t make the contact. The Lord wouldn’t leave me alone until I finally drove to the house in order to see if anyone was there. The house was well-lit so I sat in my car, asked for the Lord to help me to visit the teenage boy without any problems. I was by myself; I figured it was a waste of time to make this visit. After knocking on the door, the boy came out on the front porch and we carried on a friendly conversation. I told him why I had come by, asked him if he had a church he attended as well as whether or not he knew if he was on his way to Heaven. He looked shocked when I asked about his eternal condition and declared that he was just thinking about that matter while in his room. To make a long story short, I had the grand privilege of leading the young man to Christ. When I asked him to come to church with me the following Sunday, he simply stated that he was in the process of packing up his clothes because he was leaving in the morning to go off to college. He said, “you were lucky you caught me at home; I’m leaving in the morning.” That wasn’t luck—God had chosen to answer the prayer of my heart to be used by Him. We need to pray if we are going to reach teenagers for the Lord.

ANTICIPATION
Watch Nehemiah ride around the destroyed city of Jerusalem (2:11-16) and see him begin to envision the rebuilt walls. He wasn’t a negative minded man; he believed that God was going to help them make a difference.

Can I remind you that no one enjoys being around a negative person? Don’t read this article and convince yourself that your city is worse than others. Don’t be some kind of gloomy minded defeated individual who never sets forth to reach lost teenagers in your city. Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plenteous”. He also said, “the fields are white already to harvest…” By faith, set out to methodically reach out into your community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and expect Him to bring the lost unto Himself. Our Lord will use you.

PARTICIPATION
Nehemiah also got others involved with the task at hand. He realized that others need to join him and take “ownership” of the city’s desperate conditions.

You will be amazed how others will catch the vision if you will share your heart beat to reach out into your local city and find teenagers to bring to the Lord. Other adults and other teenagers will join you on the “wall” and set forth to make a difference. In fact, I have always found that this kind of outreach is atmospheric. Once you have a passion for other teenagers, others will catch the same burden and help you carry the load.

CONSECRATION
When Nehemiah expressed the vision of rebuilding the walls, the people of God rose up to work and said, “let us rise up and build”. Nehemiah 2:18 says, “So they strengthened their hands for this good work”. This is a way of saying they consecrated themselves to do what God had given them to do. This became their new focus. Every day they set out to work on the wall.

My friend, I wish I could challenge you to drive around your city and see the conditions of the teenagers in your city. Someone needs to catch a fresh vision of winning these young people to the Lord. Would you let the Lord do this in your heart? Consecrate yourself, set yourself apart unto the Lord anew and ask Him to give you His vision for your city’s young people. How desperately we need leaders like Nehemiah to make a difference in our cities across the USA.

A teenage boy sat with tears in his eyes telling me of his four lost cousins. He was so broken for them that all he could say was, “they’re going to hell”. I told him that he was the voice that his cousins needed to hear from. He needed to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his lost teenage cousins. Through tears he asked me to pray with him and show him how to lead them to the Savior. I did so and fervently asked the Lord to give this young man an open opportunity to open his mouth and to give his cousins an open heart.

Two years passed before I saw that teenage boy again.  With a huge smile on his face, yet with tears still in his eyes, he told me that three of the cousins had accepted the Lord but one still needed the Lord. 

May the Lord give us this same kind of broken heart and passion to win our young people that live near us.
 

Ministry Contact Information:
Revival Ministries • 9345 Brookville Road
Indianapolis, IN 46239 • www.morrisgleiser.com