Two of our young people this year have engaged with the One Opportunity Programme and are running projects in church for a year. The programme offers the opportunity for local churches and circuits to invest in young people and young adults; to help them grow as disciples and help them find their place in the church.
One girl is running sessions which explore difficult issues faced by young people; this usually happens at Sunday Youthie. The young people choose the issues that affect them and then discuss them and try and find what the Bible says about them. The other is running a worship team that meets together on a Sunday afternoon to learn and sing worship songs and use music as a stimulus for creating devotions. After the panto, they will both look to exploring ways of worship for young people by young people. The girls are also invited to be part of the church council meetings to report about their projects and have a voice in the wider church.
As well as the projects and support from their project enablers the girls attend weekends away where they explore their faith and discipleship; they each have a mentor (a spiritual guide) who they can meet and talk to about the projects and their faith.
We’re very pleased that at least one other young person from Youthie is seriously thinking about engaging with the programme in 2019/20 and we look forward to developing her project with her.