Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Wendi Rogers/ANN]
Rising to the challenge of involving more young people in the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the church’s world headquarters and Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI) are partnering in a global youth witnessing initiative that, so far, has the attention of more than 600,000 young people between the ages of 15 and 30.
Over the next year and a half, nearly 19,900 “Voice of Youth” campaigns, or evangelism series, held by young people, are planned in the church’s 13 world regions as part of the Elijah Project.
The project idea came after results of a survey in North America over a 10-year period revealed that one of the reasons young people leave the church is their lack of involvement in church functions, says Alfredo Garcia-Marenko, associate youth director for the world church. Though this doesn’t apply everywhere across the globe, there are many church regions facing this problem.
“The survey was enough to reveal that youth want to be involved. …Our challenge is to involve them,” says Garcia-Marenko. “I have discovered the young people enjoy being part of a great plan. They also enjoy being part of a winning team with great results for God. I think we are right on target and I’m sure we will get great results.”
“When young people preach the Adventist message, they remain in the Seventh-day Adventist Church — when we entrust them with the message,”
Mark Finley, director of the church’s Center for Global Evangelism, told church leaders April 13 at Spring Meeting, one of the church’s two annual business meetings.
Garcia-Marenko adds, “The Elijah Project is specifically the action plan to call the youth of the church to participate in the mission of the church. [And,] they are responding. The best picture that I see is that all [world church regions] have responded with the organization of youth campaigns in their territories.”
There are several reasons to get young people involved, says Denzil McNeilus, former ASI president and supporter of the project. “The primary reason, of course, is to get the message out. The secondary reason is when young people present the message, they’re never the same. The message becomes real to them.”
McNeilus has witnessed young people working for the church: “We have been involved with the ‘Youth for Jesus’ program with ASI for the last six summers,” he explains, speaking of the effort held in conjunction with the annual ASI convention in the United States. Every summer, young people concentrate their evangelistic work in the metropolitan area where the convention will be held, going door-to-door and holding evening meetings for several weeks. “It’s been a remarkable experience– not only for the young people, but also for the people they have touched.”
Garcia-Marenko says originally the dream was to have 7,000 campaigns worldwide, however that number has now more than doubled. Resources, which include a DVD and book that young people will use to help them in their public speaking, have been translated into 33 languages.
Though a major goal of the project is to spread God’s word, the Elijah Project committee states they are “convinced that if young people are actively involved in service, their own minds will be saturated with the truth of God’s word.”
The Elijah Project is a collaborative effort of ASI with three world church offices and departments: the Center for Global Evangelism, Personal Ministries/Sabbath School, and the Youth department.
Local church regions that are interested in participating in the Elijah Project may contact their local youth director, Garcia-Marenko says.
Copyright © 2005 by Adventist News Network
