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THE Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) 20th District, Bishop Reginald Thomas Jackson, has challenged orthodox churches to work hard to lure back youths into their churches.
Bishop Jackson, who is based in New Jersey, United States, is in the country to preside over AME Church annual conferences and on Thursday ordained three pastors at Ball Tabernacle in Mpopoma, Bulawayo, at the ongoing South West Zimbabwe Conference.
The ordained pastors were Reverend Alfred Khumalo who is stationed at Kennilworth, Inyathi in Matabeleland North, Revered S’dumisile Gumbo from Mapewume in Filabusi, Matabeleland South and Reverend Promise Ngulube from Nyamandlovu.
Bishop Jackson said he was concerned with the low attendance of youths in church activities.
“The AME church is doing well in Zimbabwe. I’ve been here for some time and I’ve been to two conferences in other parts of the country but my concern is that we’ve few young people coming to church. What we’ve are old people who are filling up the churches and I believe we’ve to pray as a church so that youths come back home. We need them because they’re the future of the church and the country, they’re the future leaders so they must stay close to God,” he said.
He noted that youths in the country were found in numbers in pentecostal churches, compared to orthodox churches.
“We can’t blame them for going to pentecostal churches because God is everywhere, but we also need them here so we’ve to ask ourselves why they’re not coming to us. People go to where their needs are satisfied and it means they find satisfaction where ever they go to worship and we must find ways of making them happy here at the AME Church too,” he said.
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