Wetzgau, Germany. [CD-EUDNews]. 12.12.12. is a well known date among youth leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Inter-European Region (EUD). This date was the beginning of the EUD Youth Ministry Convention held in the beautiful structure of Christian Centre Schoenblick. About 600 participants coming from most of the European countries, are attending this special Convention until Sunday the 16th, mainly targeting church youth leaders and youth pastors.
Stephan Sigg, EUD youth leader and organizer of this Convention was surprised to see the massive interest of youth attending this meeting. “We were expecting about 400 participants,” said Sigg, “but we were surprised by the extra number of registration. For me this is a good indication of the interest the church has for the yout
h.”
‘Be Church’ is the main theme of the Convention, focusing on the fact that a lasting youth ministry needs to be rooted and fully integrated in the life and mission of the intergenerational community.
“With this EUD Youth Leader training event, named PULSEmeet,” affirmed Sigg, “we want to be the pulse of the church, the pulse of the young people, the pulse of the world as God’s love.”
PULSEmeet is designed to offer quality training, professional inspiration, and spiritual motivation. It is an international platform to reach young people with the Gospel of the coming Christ, to empower and disciple youth in various ways, and to help these emerging adults to be fully integrated into the life and the mission of the local Adventist faith communities.
“I’m positively surprised to see this large number of youth attending the seminars, plenary sessions and enjoying fellowship during the breaks,” says one of the participants. “The first speakers gave us a lot of information and instructions,” says another participant, “everything is designed to suit our need to be trained for mission.”
Among the many speakers, there were some special guests including Bailey Gillespie, Johann Gerhardt, Japhet de Oliveira, President Ted Wilson, Jan Paulsen, the former Seventh-Day Adventist World President. In his first speech he made an appeal to the church: “please, talk to the youth.” Let’s take him seriously.