Yet hundreds of youth were found at church training and being trained!
Youths leading youths
11-year-old ushers being trained in skills by a 13-year-old I/C.
The 13-year-old I/C being built up as a leader by a 17-year-old chief usher.
And around the church, 44 other ministries – from IT to media operations to photography to dance – were running their own respective trainings to upskill their volunteers.
Why: A Weekend for Prayer And Trainings
This weekend was dedicated to Prayer and Training where our usual service was replaced with ministry training, prayer meetings, and more training. This allowed newer and younger teams to be trained on a mass scale. Youth were equipped with practical skills to serve and also had the space to make mistakes without the pressure of running a full service.
Trainings even included a little bit of planned chaos
In a world where answers are easy to google, one of the skills that’s necessary to train is critical thinking skills. Trainers engineered unexpected problems for youths to solve on the spot as they served.
Young people led the charge in prayer
Beyond just skills, youth were also built up in their spiritual habits and confidence in a prayer meeting where they learned how to boldly pray for themselves and others. Youths as young as 14 and 15 years old rose up to lead hundreds in prayer!
One parent of an 11-year-old shared her thoughts about the weekend’s training:
“It was great seeing my daughter get a chance to serve on usher ministry during such a big prayer meeting. It was her first time! I feel happy and very blessed to see her fervently praying and participating.”
At HOGC, we don’t use people to build the church. We use the church to build people.
And for building youth, it’s worth disrupting a normal weekend service.
