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Over 250 youth leaders gathered in Stranmillis College today, Wednesday 8 September at 11.30am, for the start of a three day conference entitled 'Equipping Leaders into the next Millennium.' The conference is aimed at helping ministers and church leaders understand better and respond more effectively to youth culture.
The event is organised by the Presbyterian Church's Youth Board which three months ago revealed shocking statistics that two thirds of children baptised within the Presbyterian Church have left the denomination by the age of thirty.
'Many were amazed by that statistic,' says the Presbyterian Church's Youth Officer, Roz Stirling. 'Our conference is partially a response to that but also to the cry of many in the church that they want it to be accessible to younger people, they want to be positive to youth culture and be more youth friendly - but they simply don't know how to go about it.'
To address these issues a team of 8 speakers from the USA, England, Scotland and Ireland have been assembled to give a series of key note addresses and run seminars.
Giving the opening address will be Gordon MacDonald from the Washington based Trinity Forum. He has had considerable experience of how people grow to spiritual maturity and can be developed to accept leadership responsibility in the church of tomorrow. He will be addressing exactly the problem revealed by the worrying Youth Board statistics considering how best a church can nurture people in their faith as they move through childhood, adolescence and adulthood. He will also be discussing what the church may look like and how it will function over the next years with changing lifestyles, work patterns and the impact of technology.
Walt Muller from Pennsylvania is the founder and president of the Centre for Parent/Youth Understanding and assists churches, schools and community organisations in their efforts to understand the rapidly changing world of today's teenagers. Having spent thousands of hours studying, listening and living with adolescents he describes his role as 'providing parents with important insights and practical steps to help them deal with one of the most difficult periods in their adventure in parenting.'
Perhaps the most thorny issue to be addressed during the whole three days will be worship and how different generations can worship together in ways that keep old and young happy. Dealing with this issue will be Coleraine Youth pastor, Ian Hannah. 'In recent times the issue of worship has caused much debate and at times even discord in local congregations. What we have to develop is a strategy that will keep the whole Body of Christ together and have a meaningful experience of worship.'
The conference has sessions during the day in Stranmillis College from 9.30am - 5.30pm with evening events in the Assembly Hall, Church House beginning at 7.45pm starting tomorrow, Wednesday and finishing on Friday 10 September.
Issued by Stephen Lynas, Presbyterian Information Services. Info@PresbyterianIreland.org
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