Lutheran youths drifting to charismatic churches in India

The enthusiasm and modern worship styles of charismatic churches are swaying away young Lutherans from parent churches.

"Youth are drifting away from their parent churches to charismatic churches," as the latter offer worship styles that fit the young generation, said Ms Sofia M. Samuel from the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, at the Asia Pre-Assembly Consultation of the Lutheran World Federation.

Close to 100 delegates from many Asian countries have convened for the 6-9 Dec. Consultation in Bangkok, Thailand, to deliberate on the theme - "Give us today our daily bread".

In a plenary presentation apprising the urgent issues that must be addressed for the inclusion and participation of young people, Samuel urged for worship and church life to be made more relevant to young people's needs.

Says Samuel, young people are interested in being more actively involved, but they lacked initiative and encouragement from church leadership.

To tackle this, she called for orientation and training in church administration and management to prepare them for such responsibilities.

Meanwhile, presenting the LWF Asian region youth response, Rev. Sekino Kazuhiro from the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, stressed the need for giving spiritual guidance to youths for helping them get their daily material bread and meet their spiritual needs.

"Today, many young people are crying of physical hunger and of spiritual hunger," said Kazuhiro, underlining the importance of gainful employment.

"However, many young people cannot get a job; the unemployment rate is too high," he noted, citing the unemployment crises in countries such as Hong Kong (China), India, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan and Thailand.

"Sometimes they have to choose a job that is lower than what they are trained for and sometimes they don't get a job at all," noted Kazuhiro, who is a member of the LWF Council.

In his keynote address, LWF Vice President Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan, called churches to speak out boldly about the underlying causes of hunger.

The prayer for daily bread, he said, "speaks to a deep existential fear that still plagues humanity today, as millions of mothers and fathers do not know how they will feed their children tomorrow."

"It is a fear confirmed by the fact that 16,000 children die of hunger every day," he added.