What does a country parish with an aging membership do with only one teenager? It starts a youth group, of course!

Our lone teenager was looking to be confirmed, and a confirmation class of one might be less than inspiring. So we advertised a Young Disciples Program in our local communities and high school—open to any young person willing to explore the place that Christian faith can have in their life.

A few weeks later we started the program with seven young disciples from Lutheran, Uniting and Brethren backgrounds and varying degrees of connection to the church. It was based on Luther’s Small Catechism, something all the families were aware of before signing up. From that original group of seven young people one has since been baptised (in another church), five received their first holy communion and three were confirmed into the LCA.

After completing the Young Disciples Program, the young people became the foundation for an ecumenical youth ministry supported and led by members of the local Lutheran, Uniting, Catholic and Australian Christian Churches (formerly Assemblies of God) churches … and Mallee Youth was born.

We launched Mallee Youth with a group of ten to twelve young people and spent the first year or so encouraging them in who they were in Christ: loved, valuable and capable. We encouraged them to see themselves not only as young disciples but also as disciple-makers.

There are only about 60 kids in their high school. It is hard to hide in a group that size, but it’s also easier to become a significant influence. Over time we started to notice changes in their willingness to identify with and support one another at school as Christian young people. Instead of hiding their faith, they increasingly put it out there for their peers to see. They started talking about youth events, sharing the things they were learning about themselves and God, and they started to invite their friends to come along.

You can read the rest of this story in the February 2012 edition.