Bern, Switzerland [C. Cozzi, CD EUDNews]. February 8, 2015.
The second Youth Ministry Congress of the Seventh-day Adventist Inter-European Region (EUD) was held February 4-7, 2015 at the Schönblick Christian Centre in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.
The theme was to “Proclaim”: inviting everyone to take part in the wonderful mission Jesus gave us in communicating the everlasting Gospel in an ever-changing world.
In his welcoming message, Stephan Sigg, EUD Youth leader, challenged those present to follow one of Francis of Assisi's most famous declarations: Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary use words.” “I invite you to be an authentic and effective testimony of the Gospel” he reinforced.
It is really difficult to adequately portray the importance of this encounter in terms of inspiration and motivation for the participants: to live a ministry not only directed to the youth, but to the entire church, a church that is becoming increasingly inter-generational.
“We want to change”, was the motto urgently given by the youngest. It wasn't a complaint, nor a reaction or a simple purpose, but a sincere desire to see every generation in the church working together hand in hand, in this primary commitment to proclaim the second coming of Jesus. All the sessions, meetings and workshops presented followed this objective and target.
"We heard strong messages from sincere speakers. We also had very useful workshops, and I hope this experience can be repeated on a regular basis," said Ruben Grieco, South German Union Youth leader.
Among the speakers were Gilbert Cangy, Worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Youth Leader and Jiwan Moon, his associate, Allan Martin, teaching Pastor of Young Generation Church, Texas, USA; Japhet de Oliveira, Senior Pastor at Boulder Adventist Church, Colorado; Samuel Leonor, Chaplain to the students of La Sierra University, California; Ty Gibson, Co-director of Light Bearers, International Media Ministry; Karsten Stank, Pastor and Family Therapist in Hannover, Germany; Dejan Stojkovic, Director for Teen’s Ministries in the South England Conference; and many others who organized and conducted the workshops with dedication, devotion and expertise.
According to Bernd Seefeldt, North German youth leader: “PULSEMeet was inspiring and again helped me believe in an international and diverse church.” Same response was felt by other participants such as Hannah Bendner, one of the worship leaders who lives in Herne, Germany, and said “I totally enjoyed the inter-nationality at PULSEMeet, we were united through music, despite national, ideologicalandlanguage differences butmade one through faith. It was totally awesome and I enjoyed it very much.” She added: “We really want to change our church to have one focus, and that is Jesus Christ.”
Mylene Peronet, Adventist Youth leader in the Neuilly church, France, gathered opinions and views of the organizers of this second edition of PULSEMeet and declared: “I was inspired by new ideas of how to work with youth and how to approach people who do not yet know God.”
There were more than 460 participants, mainly youth leaders at many levels of the organization, coming from Europe and the US. The program was developed with a combination of plenary sessions and workshops providing opportunity to learn, share and implement knowledge about youth, their needs, their challenges and their potentials. All material presented will be posted on http://2015.aypulse.org/
Participants were very happy to receive such great, useful tools and inspiring ideas to better serve the church.
"I appreciated the variety of the workshops, the hosting and the good food", so Marc Engelmann, Youth Director in the Baden-Wuerttemberg Federation. "This time at Pulsemeet I felt that many seminars and plenary sessions had a main theme: Discover through the Bible the light of God’s irresistible beauty and His unchangeable love. Everything we believe as Adventists should lead to behold God’s character. And that we need to PROCLAIM – the truth as it is in Jesus. And that is very relevant to our youth ministry today."
One of the managers of the Christian Center 'Schönblick' asked about the results of the meeting. After receiving a positive answer, he said: "I'm really happy about that. Some of us were praying especially for the success of your meeting." The power of the prayer has not borders...
"In the end I was tired, exhausted, but happy" declared Stephan Sigg. With all these young people looking and feeling satisfied with what has been experienced, it not only made me happy, but it gave me energy. The Lord was with us. New pages are written every time there is a conference like this. My desire is that these pages can respond to the real needs of our church, to contribute to the fulfillment of our mission - and that Jesus will return soon.”
Picture: 1. Esther Hanselmann, Youth Ministries Assistant, Stephan Sigg, Youth Ministries Director. 2. The Meeting Hall. 3. The Venue of the Congress. (Credits: C. Cozzi)
