Students Ministry

Author：Minister Coleman Schnaak
Date: 04/16/2025
Category：牧者的話

I have been student minister at ACCCN for about a year now, and it has been a great experience. I have grown in ways I never would have thought of; at the same time, I have even seen some of my weaknesses — some that I didn’t know I had and others that I had tried to hide by avoiding situations that would expose them.

Since becoming a Christian and then joining the mission field immediately after graduating high school and never looking back, I have learned one important thing: It’s not necessarily always just me ministering to people; 99 percent of the time, it’s God ministering me and working in my heart. Whether it’s traveling to California to help with the North American Mission Board or leading a team of Ivy League Scholars through China to spread the name of Christ, I can look back and see that it’s those faith-stretching circumstances God placed me in that caused me to grow as an individual and allowed me to experience and live out my faith in Christ.

One such circumstance occurred when a close friend of mine who is now head English Pastor at Beijing International Christian Fellowship encouraged me to use a gift he saw in me, which was preaching/teaching. I can still remember the dry mouth and the sinking feeling in my stomach the first time I preached. My notorious stage fright made me forget what I was going to say, leading to blank stares from the 200-plus people waiting to hear my message. Although I was uncomfortable at the time, now I see that it was a growing moment for me. I’m still in the process of becoming a better preacher and teacher, but that experience of stepping out of my comfort zone and being willing to be stretched got me to preach many more times after that.

God is continuing this stretching process in me still; in the past ten years of bi-vocational ministry in various church contexts, I always had the choice not to do certain things because the thought of doing them made me sick to my stomach, as with my first time preaching. Now, doing ministry full time, I have to do the things I don’t like doing. Administrative work, for example, is one of my most significant weaknesses; knowing that, God put me here at ACCCN, where I am surrounded by professionals who are great at doing things like this. Mercifully, these professionals are willing to teach me and help me grow in this area of my life.

My wife, who has been a big part of this “stretching” process, has continued to be an encouragement either by joining alongside me at Friday night youth group to be a counselor or by mentoring college girls. Without her, I couldn’t do it. During this year of serving at ACCCN, she and my two children and I have enjoyed engaging with the students. Some students never fail to scream my first son’s name whenever they see him; some of the older students do a little chant whenever I am wearing a suit because they know I’m going to preach that Sunday. Although there are a lot more kids to build relationships with (and that job will never end), I believe my family has settled in nicely. We all look forward to the years to come here at ACCCN as we continue to work alongside the gifted godly men and women that we have been placed among. My family looks forward to the many opportunities God will give us to help all of us grow closer to Christ, which is precisely what I want for our students at ACCCN: more opportunities for them to grow closer to their creator.

For those who don’t know, ACCCN Student Ministry exists to glorify God by making young disciples of Jesus Christ and equipping them to build the next generation of the church. How do we do that? Well, we are guided by Ephesians 4:11-13:

“11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13, NIV).

Through these verses in Ephesians and other passages, it’s clear that it’s not just “church leaders” who do the works of service, but it’s also the people who are equipped by those leaders who ultimately do many of those works. We all play a part; every believer, including those among our youth, has been gifted by God to serve His Kingdom. It is not only the “ministers” who are called to ministry, but all who are baptized and born again in Christ.

10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:10, NIV).

So it is through this lens that we look at our youth. While many youth ministries focus primarily on entertainment, our priority is to teach the Bible faithfully and address students’ fundamental questions—whether about God’s sovereignty, the problem of suffering, or the foundations of the Christian faith. We do this because our ultimate goal is to see young believers grow into mature followers of Christ. We aren’t just training youth; we are equipping future disciples and leaders for church service, whether working 9-5 in an office or doing full-time ministry. For us to reach this goal, they must experience God through circumstances that stretch their faith and get them out of their comfort zones. That is why, in addition to biblical teaching, we encourage students to take active roles in prayer meetings, Friday night gatherings, Sunday services, and other church events. It’s these things that will challenge us a little, and it’s the challenges we face that grow us and bring us closer to God.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-3, NIV).

Although I’m not saying our kids should be put in impossible situations, we should put them in situations that stretch them and even allow them to make a few mistakes. The church that God established is the perfect place for this. In Western culture, parents often say that they are not merely raising children but raising adults, meaning they are preparing them to become responsible grownups. In the same way, we at ACCCN are not simply raising kids but equipping the next-generation church. The work starts now.

About the author:
Minister Coleman Schnaak
After high school, Coleman Schnaak decided not to pursue the same path as his peers. Instead, he took a gap year to see what God would do with him. He joined NAMB in the summer of 2013 for a mission trip, which turned into a year-long mission. Then, one gap year turned into four gap years, during which he served the North Coast Baptist Association in California and did youth ministry and evangelism training. While serving, Coleman had a chance to go on a mission trip to Southeast Asia. He would eventually stay long term, serving churches in East Asia, starting outreach opportunities and serving as a deacon in an expat church. While in Asia, Coleman met his beautiful wife, Shanshan, and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Chinese Education from Beijing Normal University. Back in the States, Coleman is finishing his Master of Divinity online at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

相关文章