At the beginning of 2024, we at the Winnipeg Church of God found ourselves in a situation that many churches were also facing. Coming out of the COVID years, we quickly realized that a lot of the events and programs that had been routine over the last decades were not working anymore. The years of disrupted church life had impacted nearly every aspect of our ministries. So, when we began discussing our annual May fest, the leadership team approached it with a sense of apprehension. I believe we all knew God was putting on our hearts that something needed to change, but what that change would look like needed to be worked out. In the middle of the discussion one of the youth leaders brought the idea up that maybe the May fest could be repurposed into a youth focused event. Pastor Kehler quickly noted that in the past, the Winnipeg fest had always been a ‘Jugendtreffen’ – a meeting of youth. And suddenly the ideas started pouring out. What if we brought the idea of ‘Jugendtreffen’ at the May fest into the present and made it work for the young people today? I could visibly see the spark of excitement go from person to person, catching even the ones that initially had a more dejected perspective of the year ahead. We could see that God was pointing us in an obvious direction. Focus on the youth. And so, the May fest became the May Conference, and Saturday was dedicated to Youth Connect.
The idea behind Youth Connect was to simply connect young believers with one another. Our Winnipeg youth is a bit unique in that a large part of our youth have other home churches, yet they attend our Friday evening youth meetings. This is in large part due to connections made in ministries and relationships formed outside of church. One of the comments we occasionally heard from young people coming to our youth meetings was that they were looking for in-person connections with other believers. Not just virtual interactions, but something personal. And this idea was the driving force behind Youth Connect. We wanted to invite young believers from all over the city and province, to come and fellowship. To see what the body of Christ looks like outside of their own four walls. To realize that we have a wider community of believers that are all unified in Christ. We hoped the event would inspire young believers to apply what they experienced in their own lives. To get involved in their own churches and deepen their relationship with Christ and his church. This quickly expanded to extending an invitation to the Churches of God in Canada. The thought was presented that this new generation of young people no longer had that connection within the Church of God that a lot of older people had. So if we don’t actively foster connection between churches, what will keep it together in a generation or two?
And so the preparations started. Pastor John Reimer from Mexico was the guest speaker in 2024. For the Youth Connect he was asked to preach on the theme “Walking the Jesus Way”, with the underlying question being, “how do we contend for our faith in today’s society?” It was amazing to see a little over 80 young people from all over the province worshiping and praising God, listening to the sermons, asking questions at the Pastor’s Roundtable, and participating in the activities that day and the rest of the weekend. It was such a blessing to see what God had done, and we couldn’t wait to see how the next year would turn out.
This year God expanded the Youth Connect to something we did not expect. About 90 young people from all over Canada attended. They came from Vernon, Edmonton, Hamilton, Toronto, Steinbach, Winnipeg, and a couple even from Mexico and Paraguay. Pastor David Knelsen from Hamilton was the guest speaker this year, speaking on the topic “Back to the Basics”. The day was supposed to encourage everyone to go back to the foundation of your faith when life gets too busy, too stressful and too overwhelming. This year breakout rooms were added to the day’s events, where the presenters talked about their own experiences with God. The topics that were available to the youth were: witnessing for Christ, the balance between tradition and your relationship with God, the call to be a missionary, and dealing with temptation and trauma. Outside of Saturday, outings were planned on Sunday evening and Monday to again allow everyone to connect, fellowship, and see a little bit more of our city.
The feedback from the young people has been such a great confirmation that God is blessing the Youth Connect event. Some mentioned they are for sure coming back next year. One person commented that they did not really have much of a community where they lived, and it was an encouraging weekend to be reminded that there is a wider community of believers for them to connect to.
Our hope and prayer is that God will continue to use Youth Connect to ignite a passion for Christ among young believers. Revival often begins in the hearts of the youth, who carry a contagious zeal that inspires communities. Recent statistics show that today’s youth is so much more open to Christ than the generations before them. So, we pray that God uses this weekend in the future to connect young people to Him and to each other. We pray that it allows them to form strong bonds and networks of encouragement, support and prayer for the battles they will be facing.
Jessica Buller
Winnipeg, Manitoba
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