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The gATHERING

The room pulsates with energy as 230-plus teens sing and dance along with the worship band’s set—a blend of Canadian-edged pop, rock, and Celtic dance: I’m gonna dance the mud off my boots/’cause Jesus set me free!/I’m gonna wave my arms in the air/’cause Jesus took my cares!/I’m gonna shout it at the top of my lungs/that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me!

Youth Workers from the Brandon and Area Youth for Christ—and at least eight local churches—worship alongside teens at the Solid Grounds Coffeehouse in an old Baptist church (minus the pews...and adding in restaurant seating on the perimeter and a dance floor in the middle).

Some youth workers position themselves in the centre of the moving mass of worshipers; others are content to worship in the corners and edges of the room. Part way through the evening, the entire group is asked to find a chunk of floor so they can hear from the Bible.

The crowd sits—with the exception of a group of two dozen smokers who head for the outside steps to light up. (Yes, kids are smoking at a worship night.) No one bats an eye—except for the two adults who follow to hang out with the smokers.

The speaker reads from Romans 8:15 about our adoption as children of God—and then frankly discusses that many kids don’t have healthy father figures and how God is a perfect Father. The group is listening intently. Then, by the time the message is over, the band begins a second set of worship. The smokers file back in.

The gATHERING—a twice-monthly time of worship and fellowship—is a unique blending of resources from five area churches and our local Youth for Christ, of which I’m a staffer. For 18 months now, the once experimental venture to offer unchurched kids a spiritual halfway house between YFC and the local church has become an integral part of the local youth ministry fabric. Even churches once wary of partnering with parachurch organizations have embraced the gATHERING and placed it on their monthly youth-ministry schedules.

The beginnings of this cooperative effort go back more than seven years with attempts at area-wide rallies built around the theme of Acts 2:42: They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. The events met with moderate success, but they were hampered by an unclear purpose, an inconsistent mixture of worship styles, and lack of student ownership. After two seasons of Acts 2:42 events, a minor disagreement over worship styles led to its demise.

But our concerns remained. We at YFC wrestled with the ramifications of new Christian kids who were without the nurture of a church home. They weren’t worshiping corporately—nor were they receiving a multigenerational perspective on their newfound faith. Plus, the training they were receiving was from YFC staff and volunteers, most of whom adhere to under-30 perspectives—which doesn’t lend itself to students trusting older generations (i.e., parents, politicians, and police) who’ve let them down. Their deepest wounds weren’t being addressed effectively. They needed to see and be discipled by Christians of all ages.

Youth for Christ has a very clear mandate to evangelize and disciple, and it’s our belief that the two are an integrated function. One of our challenges lies in the fact that we’re doing evangelism on an ongoing basis and—not unlike Lucille Ball trying to work on the chocolate factory conveyor belt—the incoming flow of kids never stops. YFC folks—and other parachurch organizations, for that matter—represent a limited number of people. But the church represents an unlimited number of people—a far greater force to take students in and help them go beyond an elementary knowledge of God’s word.

However, the majority of students coming to Christ in our care aren’t ready for the culture shock they would face at even a Friday night youth group event. They don’t grasp concepts of corporate worship. And the idea of these teens—raised on Nintendo and MTV—sitting for 35 minutes (or more) to hear someone dressed in a suit and tie speak at them is far-fetched at best. What’s more, YFC has no effective structure to mainstream teens into the church.

The crux of the matter is that these kids needed an intermediate step, a spiritual and cultural airlock that would allow them to become acclimated to the church. It became more clear than ever that something needed to be done to provide spiritual growth for teens who were light years from the organized church.

Throughout the time that "Acts 2:42" existed—and after it ended—we YFCers talked around the table at our staff meetings about the number of babies being abandoned in our city. Baby Christians, that is.

One such young person, Dale, was determined to serve God. Frank—a YFC volunteer—took Dale under his wing and into the church. Sunday after Sunday, Dale was in church by Frank’s side. Frank introduced Dale to people, helped him wake up on Sunday mornings, and worked in every way possible to see him assimilated into the local church body. But while the church was accepting on the surface, it didn’t truly warm to Dale—and by the time Frank left for college, Dale was being pushed out. Having already grown up in a situation filled with rejection, Dale was not long for the church.

It was time to act. Though the "Acts 2:42" events were over, there were still strong relational ties among most area churches and Youth for Christ. It was upon this foundation that the gATHERING was born.

The first series of gATHERING meetings saw more than 30 teens entering in the doors to worship, hear the Scriptures, fellowship (read: eat food), and pray for each other’s needs. The staff and volunteers were encouraged to invite to their home churches the students just becoming versed in worship. After a year, more than a dozen of these students were attending local congregations with some regularity.

One of these students was Cathy. At one gATHERING, she said she wanted to talk to me about her new church home. Moe, a local youth pastor, had invited her to a small group, and Cathy accepted. After several weeks of regular attendance, Cathy began to open up. She also began building relationships with people older than Moe—and subsequently gained a longer-term perspective on the healing she was beginning to experience. It was thrilling to watch Cathy’s spiritual journey unfold.

The gATHERING soon was gaining momentum. It was determined that one individual should lead the worship team, rather than a rotating leader. This offered consistency and brought the meetings to new levels as kids enjoyed continuity and security in knowing what to expect—both for themselves and in inviting peers.

What was first a dream was becoming a reality—one that made it possible for youth workers to sell the gATHERING to their church leaders. Before long, area youth pastors began asking how they could get involved by bringing kids from the gATHERING to their churches. Three youth pastors began attending regularly, and by the spring of 1998, the gATHERING was taking on a new look. Four area churches entered into formal partnerships with Brandon and Area YFC to take coownership of the gATHERING. Eventually the attendance at what had become a twice-monthly event climbed to more than 100—and this in a community where no church youth group consists of more than 25 regular attenders! Soon more teens than ever were integrating into local youth groups and their congregations.

In the process of seeing the gATHERING grow, we’ve seen churches and YFC work together with new heights of cooperation: YFC in Brandon found new, young believers by moving into fringe areas of culture where the church as an organization couldn’t easily go. Then, using the gATHERING as a way station, local churches responded to the need by discipling them.

Local churches came together and—in their unity—fulfilled John 17 by putting aside their differences. They are modeling Christ for all of Brandon’s teens to see while being the church—as opposed to having teens just "come to a church." And now youth pastors work alongside YFC staff on local high school campuses, hosting small group meetings and large-scale events— and even partner heavily with trips to conferences and retreats.

As Psalm 133:1 proclaims: How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity!

Mike Waddell is the high school ministries codirector for Brandon and Area Youth for Christ in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. (For you geography buffs, Brandon is located about 150 miles west of Winnipeg.)