We are grateful to God for the evangelical youth ministries in North America. Wherever those ministries exist, they have effectively discipled many of the youth in their reach. While they are touching many nationwide, still yet millions go unnoticed or untouched by their efforts. Through either circumstances or personal choice, these millions pose a challenge to true believers and followers of Jesus Christ. The complexity of sins, belief systems and lifestyles of these youth are such that churches and youth ministries are often hesitant or unable to deal with them. As a result, we overlook these youths to the extent that existing secular entities end up being the ones in which some of them find meaningful contact, instead of in our programs and ministries.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is never daunted by the problems and sins of man. The power of our loving God is all sufficient to reach the most lost souls and restore them to wholeness. However, we must not be uninformed about what problems and sins we may encounter among youth. Through relevant information gained prayerfully and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we should desire to fully understand those to whom we have yet to extend the warm and unfailing hope that comes from our eternal God, the Author, Creator and Redeemer of this sin-filled world.

Since we have hardly prepared either ourselves or our kids to face the least touched youth of our society, we seek here to know not only who these are by description, but also to answer the pressing question, “How might we be able to gain their trust and forge an approach or strategy towards reaching them with the Gospel?” A treatment on outreach strategy can be found in a companion IMM publication entitled “Reaching the Least Touched in Our Society”.

The pages below reflect the youth who may be considered the least touched by both the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Church’s efforts to reach them. These might be considered the hardest ones to reach among the entire spectrum of youth in our nation. Many of these would face severe cultural or socio-economic barriers if they tried to adhere to existing church structures or organizations without making drastic lifestyle changes. That is to say, churches will not readily accept them, or they don’t perceive any cost-effective way of ministering to them. For some of these youth, viable opportunities for exposure to the Gospel may be missing or very inadequate, e.g. a social or language barrier is present. For others, resistance to the Truth is a deliberate, conscious (though often misinformed) act of their will. The descriptors presented here may be overlapping, that is, a youth may be more accurately described by more than one descriptor. Some of these descriptors may also be useful in describing the corresponding adult counterparts.

Note an important distinction in the categories presented here. The first few are categories of choice; one voluntarily chooses to follow this lifestyle or hold this worldview. Following those are intrinsic categories in which one belongs by birth or through immutable circumstances. The distinction of choice makes a big difference in terms of how open one will be to another trying to share the Gospel with them.

To read the full article, see the Word document.