By Lucas Lujan

What is Jesus doing today in 2024? I would like to approach this idea with the understanding that He is constantly up to something and is always active in His connections with all His friends. However, I have one story out of the millions of His encounters that I would like to share. This was a special work with His young friends outside of Ward, Colorado, at a Christian resort called Glacier View Ranch (GVR), and I think it’s worth reading!

It was the 2024 summer camp put on by the Youth Ministries Department of the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC), that had a special theme, “Anointed.” To assist in expressing this theme, I was invited to assist the GVR/Youth Ministries team to direct the campers, ages 13-18, to the experiences that King David had while he was anointed by the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 16).

Now, I had never experienced any type of summer camp at all in my life, let alone a Christian camp. I am a Seventh-day Adventist convert who was raised Catholic with a heavy influence of secularism in my youth. At this summer camp, the action of love was made evident among the young adult camp leaders in their interactions with each other as well as with their coaches and leaders. I saw the intentional proactivity of a team who loves the young teenage friends of Jesus so much that they went out of their way to travel from all over the United States to coach and mentor the teens of our Conference in a way to cultivate a long-lasting relationship with Jesus, their best friend.

The time they spent was countless and meaningful. With such enthusiastic energy, this group welcomed my family and I to join them in guiding the teens to the anointing that God has for them. The goal was to show them that, even though God anoints us, we may still experience rough roads on the journey. Although we are not exempt from hardships in our anointing, God is still the same Promise Keeper today as He was for King David in biblical times. The young people learned that God will never leave us and that He will always fight for us (Matthew 28:18; Exodus 14:14).

While I mingled among the teens and young adult leaders, I began to see that every one of these young people are just starting life off. They are at a place in life where they are trying to figure out who they are. Many of the teenage campers that attended the GVR Summer Youth Camp are not Seventh-day Adventists and belong to other Christian denominations, while others simply do not profess to be followers of Jesus at all.

Like myself, there were a lot of teens that are being raised in secularism and look at God as aloof or distant. While there were many walks of life here, all were poured into with hope, acceptance, and love. This is showing them that God’s anointing is huge in revealing their identity in Christ and what they mean to God.

One thing about the next generation is they ask good questions because they want to know the “why” behind the idea. They crave “realness.” Young people can tell when something is not genuinely real. They desire real relationships because Jesus created them that way.

At GVR, this summer, I was able to witness Jesus presented in real ways. The young people saw Jesus not only in sermons and devotions but, more importantly, in everyday actions of love for each other. I even heard one teen say that she never understood much about who or what God is, but now she is closer to saying that Jesus is Him because of what she witnessed at the summer camp.

This camp was awesome in the sense that all the teens were introduced to the living God as being real and as existing to draw all humanity to Himself. This was executed by showing the young people that He has a plan and a purpose for them.

My wife and I even noticed our introverted sons come out of their shells and make connections with others. It brought a huge blessing to our hearts to see how the teens and young adults lived out the love of Jesus by bringing our boys into fellowship with them. Connections were made that can last a lifetime! It was in these interactions that we saw the anointing of God manifesting organically. Could it be that the teens may know more than we adults give them credit for?

I began asking two questions in my own mind that I would like to share with you: (1) Can Jesus’s work in the Heavenly Sanctuary today include not merely a pleading for His people, but also a pleading to His people? (2) Who exactly are His people? The Bible says that He is not willing that any perish (2 Peter 3:9). In my reading of this text, I can easily conclude that the word “any” in the text does in fact include the young people of today’s generation.

Every one of those young people are the aim of Jesus’s motive. They each matter to Him as if they were the only ones that existed. It is in their hearts that Jesus is appealing and pleading to them to trust Him for a meaningful relationship. He is reaching out from His Sanctuary in Heaven drawing the young hearts of teenage people in RMC like He is with teens around the whole world.

The young people we encountered at this year’s summer camp are the future of the Church and, to be real with you, they are the Church in action. Jesus called the RMCs Youth Ministries team to rally around them and pour into their lives the love and anointing that God has for them.

However, the call doesn’t stop there. Every one of our Churches should invest in the lives of our young people that God has entrusted us to disciple. It is now, while they are awaiting next year’s summer camp at GVR, that we should invest into them the anointing God. We can do this at our local churches by being supportive of youth ministries any way possible.

Many teens expressed desires for follow up Bible studies as well as a desire to be baptized. In fact, one teen and one young adult leader was baptized at GVR on the last day. Almost all the young people answered the appeal to allow Jesus to work in their hearts and in their families at home. It’s good for us to not assume that they don’t want anything to do with God. It is important to pour into those who are doing the work of getting the Gospel out to the world today, but it is just as important for us to pour into the ones who will be getting the Gospel out to the world tomorrow.

To summarize my paradigm shift of summer camp, I would say that you just have to be there to know what goes on and the hard work that is happening behind the scenes. Food was always provided for those who attended, meeting the physical needs, while love was magnified in action and word, meeting the spiritual needs.

RMC churches are very privileged to have Brandon Westgate, RMC Youth director, Jade Teal, RMC Youth assistant director, and the whole RMC Youth Ministries team to share the vision of Jesus’s love for young people. As we go to church next Sabbath to worship Jesus, let’s remember that He has young friends that may be in our congregations. We should be sure to encourage them that God has an anointing on their life.

And to answer the question of “what is Jesus doing today in 2024?”, He is showing the young people everywhere His anointing on their lives and appearing to them in their hearts that they may know the grace of God that brings salvation to all mankind (Titus 2:11). Will you join Jesus in this work that will strengthen the future of His church and pave the way for Him to return? After all, it may very well be their generation that finishes the work of spreading the Gospel so that the Alpha and Omega, Jesus, our best friend, will finally come to take us with Him!

—Lucas Lujan is head pastor at Colorado Springs South and Woodland Park Seventh-day Adventist Church. Photos supplied.