My Experience with Christian Youth Groups

I became a Christian when I was encouraged to attend a youth group in Sydney, Australia. The day i became a Christian, i had one friend who was happy for me. That first youth group couldn’t have cared less. They were an unfriendly and clicky group. You had to be at Uni, a professional or in a top position to be said ‘hello’ to.

Then, i moved churches to another youth group and they were the foundation for my christian life. Every week started with Sunday at 5.30pm – youth group, 7.30- church, then at 8.30- supper, then came Friday night Bible study, and then came a Recreational activity organised every Saturday. Something absolutely wonderfully different each week was organised, such as golf, abseiling, skating, you name it , we did it….except for anything that went against God’s word of course. It was all the best time ever.

Christmas and Easter were the closest in fellowship of times for us. At Easter, 50 of us would hug into a huge shed on a farm, sharing one loo and cooking our own meals, having our own bible studies and concerts in the same shed.

Christian youth groups are a must everywhere that give an alternative to pub crawling (ozzie for drinking binges in different clubs and pubs), and for drugs and street crime. I also believe that there needs to be adult groups in the same way where families can get together and chat and enjoy a time of real fellowship.

Without the second youth group I went to, I don’t think I would be here today. My family and work life were depressing and hard, yet the youth group brought me out of myself, and encouraged me further in my writing career.

We did a magazine and had made videos of our times together. Now many of those people in that youth group have good marriages, relatively good kids, good jobs and their maturity in the Lord is strong. One of those youth group leaders is now the top C.E.O boss of Avon, Australia and is an elder of the church.

Where the youth have strong Christian influences, fun and exciting and fulfilling times alongside prayerfully organised activities that are positive and uplifting and God spirited, then you have youth who don’t go astray when they get older. Only those who were selfish and maybe thought more of themselves than others have failed in their marriages, I have so heard from the updates at the reunions I’ve been to.

God gave me my foundation for my Christian life, to then provide me with a happy marriage and a thoughtful child, and groups where i can belong to where i can come to be used by God in a big way.

I am now a senior soldier with the Salvation Army, and I love every bit of it.

Roo