Last year, National Youth Month challenged us to unlock the voices of our young people. This year, under the theme “From Voice to Vision,” the challenge goes further. A voice can identify what is wrong. Vision begins to imagine what can be different. A voice says, “Something needs to change.” Vision asks, “What can I do about it?”

That matters for a generation facing tremendous opportunity and tremendous pressure. Many young people carry mental and emotional burdens that are not always visible. Some feel unheard while trying to discover identity, direction and purpose.

Our responsibility is not simply to tell them to speak louder, but to help them discover who they are, whose they are, and what God has called them to become.

The story of Samson reminds us that potential alone is not enough. He was gifted with extraordinary strength and called to make a difference, yet his life shows what can happen when great ability is not consistently matched by spiritual discipline and God-directed vision.

Samson had strength, but strength needed direction.

Our young people are gifted, creative and full of possibility. But gifts need purpose. Influence needs character. And for the Christian young person, that foundation is Jesus Christ.

As Youth Director, I want our young people to know that we need more than their attendance at youth programmes. We need their participation in God’s mission. Our SBC Youth Ministries theme, “Lead Them Home: One Mission, One Family,” reminds us that young people are not merely the church of tomorrow. They are disciples today, capable of leading friends, families and communities toward Christ. National Youth Month therefore challenges both generations.

To our adults: listen, mentor and make room.

To our young people: rise. Turn your concerns into service, your ideas into action, your gifts into ministry and your faith into influence.

The Bahamas does not only need young people who can describe the future. We need young people prepared to help build it.

So speak—but do more than speak.

Dream—but submit those dreams to God.

Lead—but allow Christ to lead you.

Move from voice to vision, from vision to action, and from action to mission.


Pastor Manasseh Simms is the Youth Director of the South Bahamas Conference. He and   his wife, Kenisha, serve at the Bethany Seventh-day Adventist church; he previously served the churches of the Eleuthera District.